Lights Flickering..!

[berniecuddles]

in the last week or so its like our lights keep flickering all the time, to put it like this, its as though a wall dimmer switch is being turned up and down fully bright one minute then goes dim the next minute then back to normal, this is happening throughout the whole house. any ideas before i start looking for an electrician!
its really annoying

[Old_Geezer]

It is a resident ghost.
You need to exorcise it.

A minute cycle seems a little long for "flickering". Your local supplier not having issues are they ? Do your neighbours experience the same ?

[murraymints]

Are your neighbours having same problem ? Reduced power supply in area for some reason..if not you've got a problem..perhaps builder will be along soon with an answer.

[jomifl]

Phone your electricity supplier, they might just say 'oh yeah, we know about that' :-)

[berniecuddles]

neighbours of no use!!
we had a light rewired a month ago wondering if that may have something to do with it or just coincidence , perhaps the fuse cant handle it, i don't know, no good at all with electrical things

[Old_Geezer]

A fuse will either blow or not. That's not what you are experiencing.
My first thought is a supply issue at the supplier. Second thought is, is anything with a heavy load being switched on (manually or timed automatically) at the time of dimming. A sudden large current demand from one thing can result in a lowering of voltage affecting everything.

[Booldawg]

I think the house next door to use is being used by Chechan insurgants to torture political hostages.

The dimming of lights is happening when the jump leads are attached various body parts.

Have you also heard the sound of running water?

[berniecuddles]

lol Booldawg very helpful thx

[murraymints]

Or maybe a cannabis farm next door ?

[jomifl]

Switch off any item that have a heavy electrical demand, such as heaters (including immersion). If the phenomenom still persists then the problem is external. If it stops then swich things on one at a time until it recurrs.

[sunny-dave]

It must be a voltage variation so :

1. It's in your house - something is periodically drawing a huge load - you'd be able to see this by observing the meter - it would speed up dramatically when the lights go dim.

2. It's nearby - a very large load switching on/off

3. It's a supply problem - for instance branches brushing against overhead lines can do this (been there got the flickery lights).


So - 1 is your problem, 2 or 3 is down to the supply company to investigate.

Might be worth taking a video of the flickering to prove there is a problem.

[berniecuddles]

hi jomifl last night put lights on one at a time throughout the house for 5 mins and turned everything else off, every light in every room flickered, like i said as though a wall dimmer switch is being turned up and down!
mrs c is getting onto electricity supplier in next half hour so we will see what happens from there cheers

[berniecuddles]

thx sunny- dave

[berniecuddles]

just a quick update electricity supplier sending engineer out ASAP so will see what happens thx for all your replies

[heathfield]

I had this in my house many years ago. Turned out to be a partial short-circuit fault in the street supply cable, at a cable joint under a close-by road junction.

[berniecuddles]

just had engineer out seems we need a new power cable and bits on the outside of house so now another team coming out to get it sorted