Porch lights flicker

John *.?-!.* cub owner":3p8qynys said:
If the feed to your house is aerial go shake the guy wire. If buried, shake the guy for the last pole. Had a bad connection on the tap at the transformer once. Took a while to run it down, then let the power company worry about it.
Click to expand...
Mine flickered like yours and shaking the wires didn’t recreate the problem but the problem was where it connected at the pole.
If the power company comes out insist that they do more than shake the wires, get them up in the bucket and check the connections.
 
Lt.Mike":1niec06o said:
John *.?-!.* cub owner":1niec06o said:
If the feed to your house is aerial go shake the guy wire. If buried, shake the guy for the last pole. Had a bad connection on the tap at the transformer once. Took a while to run it down, then let the power company worry about it.
Click to expand...
Mine flickered like yours and shaking the wires didn’t recreate the problem but the problem was where it connected at the pole.
If the power company comes out insist that they do more than shake the wires, get them up in the bucket and check the connections.
Click to expand...
So what you guys are saying is that out of the more than 20 circuits I have in my panel, one wire from the street will affect only one of those circuits, Why would those wires not affect at least half the circuits into my house?
 
[/quote]I understand that about cfls, but why would they affect my wall outlets that are on the same circuit.[/quote]

Normally they would not. But if that circuit is at or near Its amperage max it would affect every thing on that circuit. So it is possible to affect your your phone especially if its a cordless phone as they are very voltage sensitive. If the lights on your porch are incandescent that would point to a lose connection on that circuit some where. A lose connection will cause an amperage increase and a voltage decrease. Causing both the cfls and the phone to act up. Also a lose connection on that circuit will cause the breaker to be warmer. An infrared thermometer could help you find a hot switch or receptacle. Walter
 
Just a note, and maybe a side note. Not sure about your codes, but here, if there's an outside receptacle on that circuit, they'd require a GFCI breaker in the box. Normally we see all our outside lights and receptacles on one circuit, with GFCI protection. Since you have an outside receptacle on that circuit, you may want to look it over for any signs of moisture intrusion. That receptacle may be responsible for the issues you are having.
 
Barnyard":3vkjiatk said:
Lt.Mike":3vkjiatk said:
John *.?-!.* cub owner":3vkjiatk said:
If the feed to your house is aerial go shake the guy wire. If buried, shake the guy for the last pole. Had a bad connection on the tap at the transformer once. Took a while to run it down, then let the power company worry about it.
Click to expand...
Mine flickered like yours and shaking the wires didn’t recreate the problem but the problem was where it connected at the pole.
If the power company comes out insist that they do more than shake the wires, get them up in the bucket and check the connections.
Click to expand...
So what you guys are saying is that out of the more than 20 circuits I have in my panel, one wire from the street will affect only one of those circuits, Why would those wires not affect at least half the circuits into my house?
Click to expand...
You are in one room when it flickers, for us it was the kitchen but it was affecting other circuits I wasn’t aware of in other rooms where the lamps weren’t turned on. So it might be affecting other circuits your not aware of.
Yours may be like this, mine has clamp style breakers, and the box has two vertical aluminum rails with one line in powering the left the other the right. Some breakers have clamps to draw power from the left some from the right.
From both gives 220 volts.
It wasn’t until the power went out and stayed out on those circuits that I found that one vertical power bar in my box, powered by one of the two lines coming in (the right) was dead. So whatever breakers (Circuits) plugged into that side would be dead or flicker when in my case that one wire was shorting out at the pole.

That was the cause for my lights flickering but I also found as my home was built in the 70’s the cycling of power causes warming and cooling in the breaker panel which is normal. That’s a lot of time and I found that connections to the breakers and numerous grounds had loosened.
In fact the heavy ground to a sub panel feeding my barn had loosened so much I could pull the wire from its clamp with no resistance.
It was not the cause of the flickering but definitely needed attention. The power company guy loaned me a specially shielded Allen wrench to tighten the connections where the lines from the street met the main breakers.
Always kill your mains when working around the panels. Note my sub panel was still live when my main panels main breakers were flipped.
It was powered from the street side of the lines to the main panel breakers, a “pony” connection and the sub panel had its own “main” breaker.

One other thing for a similar issue, years back I changed a lamp fixture in a pantry closet. Shorty afterward it would come on bright then Go dim sometime flickering. I checked the breaker the switch and double checked my connections with no solution.
All that effort turned out to be unnecessary as my work was spot on, the new LED bulb was faulty :roll:, a new bulb was all it took.
 
I have to correct myself. The front bulbs are also cfl. Since I also had a burnt wire on the outside receptacle a few years ago, I am going to delete that receptacle and bypass it. as for other circuits being bad, we have not noticed problems with other things that were on.
 
Nelson 634":hewe5jj6 said:
Also a lose connection on that circuit will cause the breaker to be warmer. An infrared thermometer could help you find a hot switch or receptacle.
Click to expand...
Cheap insurance.

Pick up one rated for industrial applications. You can use it for things other than checking for a hot switch or receptacle.
 
I was going to say turn the range hood on and see if the issue starts since you think it might be on the same circuit. My washing machine would cause the shop light in the basement to flicker.
 
Things from the pole affect 1/2 the circuits at a time. The left side of your breaker box is one leg, the right side of your box is the other leg.
If something impacts the entire box (whole house) then look at the common (third wire) going back to the pole.
In your case, it appears localized to one circuit. Start with that one circuit and investigate each connection point for loose wires. (every breaker, switch, and outlet) Check the ground side as well. Once verified all those are tight and clean (shiny wires) then start replacing switches, breaker, and if needed, light fixtures.
 
Electrician opened every receptacle and swith on the circuit and checked for tightness. He found one loose wire. I could have found it myself, but I'm glad I let a pro handle it in case there were other problems. It only set me back $50.00

light.JPG
 
glad you found it, good thing I was in my shop a year back, smelled plastic burning looked around and the panel was smoking, bad breaker burned up, good thing I was there to yank it out when it happened or the shop would have been toast, had to put in a new panel from the burned breaker
 
That’s a smoking gun!
Rick’s 100% right, that was inches away from being a house fire !
Awhile back I bought a contractors box of receptacles and replaced them as I repainted rooms in my house (built in the 70’s).
I found ones that were broken but none burnt.
That’s scary stuff.
 
You have to be especially vigilant for loose wires if you have aluminum wiring. It was used during the mid 70’s in many parts of the country.
 
I found one problem were someone over tightened the wire on the box and it split. Not a good solid connection. It was on the transformer to the furnace, sometimes the furnace never came on. The PO had cracked pipes and never figured out why. I’m heating with wood so the problem didn’t show up right away. The house has all those bel ray castiron radiators.
Most are brand new.
 
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