I had a friend who's lights were flickering. He had several people look into it. Electrician, Utility etc. No luck. We spent some time turning off breakers and we came to the realization that the circuit breaker's contact was bad. Replaced the breaker and voila no flicker. <><><>
Troubleshooting is the height of the skilled electrician's art.
If it is not the light bulb or fluorescent tube which is failing - and needs to be replaced - the only reason there is "flickering" in a light fitting is because there is a partially open connection providing varying resistance and therefore an intermittent voltage drop. This could be for one or more different reasons. [Bad terminal connection, burned or broken wire, bad or burned wire splice, bad or burned light switch, bad breaker, ...]
It is the knowledge of how electricity works, and of the methods and materials used to create a functional wiring system, that enables a skilled troubleshooter to locate the problem and repair it. If you had to ask this question don't risk your life, call in a licensed electrician to fix this problem for you. <><><> As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.
Before you do any work yourself,
on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,
always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized
IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB
SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY
REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.
There are a few things that could be the problem. If you notice that other electrical appliances are not working properly, I would check to make sure that the incoming neutral wire in the main electrical panel is tight. A loose neutral connection can cause this phenomenon.
If everything looks OK, I would check the wiring to the lights. Sometimes older buildings have a wire size that is a little too small. This is usually just a symptom of an older swelling wired to accomodate only a few items (one or two lights, a few kitchen appliances, and the occasional vacuum cleaner) now having to pull a LOT more load (computer, tv, HVAC, etc). This can be remedied with a rewiring job (not too cost effective unless a total remodel is planned and this can be thrown in with it).
Finally, if none of these are the cause, I would take a look around at the electric utility serving your building. If there are any large foundries in the area, their melting processes can be causing a phenomenon known as voltage flicker at your facility. Call your local utility representative and discuss the situation with them if this is the case. They might be able to attach some load monitoring equipment to verify whether or noth this is causing the problem. .
for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.
Call the utility company to check the supply to the house. If it is ok to the meter base and breaker panel, your house wiring is to blame
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Ask the utility company to feel the transformer wiring connections. They can be extremely hot because of corrosion and this will cause flickering power sometimes.
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Check the circuit breaker.
I had a friend who's lights were flickering. He had several people look into it. Electrician, Utility etc. No luck. We spent some time turning off breakers and we came to the realization that the circuit breaker's contact was bad. Replaced the breaker and voila no flicker.
<><><>
Troubleshooting is the height of the art
The only reason there is "not enough voltage" somewhere is because there is a partially open connection providing resistance and a location to allow a voltage drop [bad splice, bad switch, bad breaker, broken wire, burned splice, ...].
It is the knowledge of how electricity works, and of the methods and materials used to create a functional wiring system, that enables a skilled troubleshooter to locate the problem and repair it.
Where should the "voltage" be, and how does it get there?
When you understand that, you will understand what is keeping it from getting where it should be...
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As previously mentioned, a loose connection is often times the root of the problem. Are the lights in question all on the same circuit? If so, start at the panel and verify you have a solid connection to the breaker with the wire, and also from the breaker to the bus of the panel.
If all is good there, I would suggest looking in switch boxes for loose connections, starting at the one closest to the panel. Be sure to check both the hot splice and the neutral splice.
If all is good there, I would move on to the lighting boxes, again, starting at the light closest to the panel.
You may find as you do this, that the power is taken to the fixtures themselves, rather than to the switch boxes first. If this is the case, you may skip over the switch boxes.
Fixtures with non-dimmable compact flourescent lights will also flicker when put on a dimmer.
SAFETY FIRST: Turn off the breaker to minimize the risk of electrical shock!!
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If you have any doubts about an answer that you get, check the answerer's bio by clicking on their name to check their qualifications.
As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.
Before you do any work yourself,
on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,
always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.
IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB
SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY
REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.
* Have your wiring checked as soon as possible by a qualified electrician.
Flickering power may indicate that you have an overload or short within the wiring. The fuse or circuit breakers should also be checked for damage or bad connections. Any drop in current or voltage indicates that the electricity is not flowing properly.
If this happens occasionally with a high-wattage device such as an electric iron or heater, it may not be a serious problem - they drop the power going to the lights when turned on. You may need to change wiring or appliance locations so that the total draw on a single breaker line does not exceed its rated capacity.
Most probably, a loose wiring connection.
There are several options for outdoor lighting. One can choose lights that are wired into the house with a switch. They can be wall sconces or overhead lights. One can choose a wide variety solar lights available. They use the sunlight to charge special batteries. They have light sensors that turn the lights on at dusk.
In a well designed house the lights are not connected to the same circuit as an appliance. If by going out you are saying that a breaker trips, then your appliances and lights combined are exceeding the rating of the breaker. You either need to rewire and balance the loads better or plug high current appliances into different outlets on another breaker. If you are not tripping breakers, but lights are just dimming you have a bigger problem with inadequate current supplying your house.
turn off the lights when leaving the room Use the fan instead of air conditioning heat the house less in the winter
Actually I have experienced this problem, as I bet have a lot of other people. An AC uses a large amount of electrical current. Whenever it switches on it causes a temporary power drain and lights will often dim or flicker. My neighbor is a retired electrician from Boeing Aircraft. He said it wasn't dangerous ,and the easiest and cheapest way to eliminate the problem was to limit the use of other electrical appliances. Like running the dishwasher late at night, when the tv(s) were off. Or the washer and dryer separately. Turn off all lights that weren't needed, etc. To prevent your lights from dimming you should have your AC unit on a separate circuit run directly from the main panel. The lights are flickering or dimming because the AC unit draws a lot of current when it starts up causing the voltage to drop on that circuit. Lights are sensitive to voltage fluctuations. Contact a HVAC professional and ask about installing a "hard start kit" on your AC compressor unit to prevent it from drawing the extra power from the house on startup. Some models already have built in supression circuitry and some don't. Yours probably doesn't.
Turn on lights
turn the key, and if the interior lights don't come on or flicker, then its dead.
Because power from the battery, which was going to the lights, is being utilised to turn the starter motor. You should really start the car before you turn on your lights to avoid putting unnecessary strain on the battery
You should turn off all lights that you are not using.
check the dash board ground connection...it may be loose
When you leave a house, yes.
Turn things, such as the lights, off.
Check all fuses. Wait until dark. Park where you could see the glow of the brake lights from inside the truck, were they to illuminate. Press and hold the brake pedal. Wiggle the turn signal switch about for a few seconds. If this causes the brake lights to work or to flicker, replace turn signal switch. Move tilt steering up and down. If this causes the brake lights to work or to flicker, replace turn signal switch. Switch 4-way flash hazard lights on and off a few times. See if that does anything interesting. Check for Body codes.
if they flicker then most likely another turn sigal on the same side is bad or the bulb is blown
or somebody is trying to break in your house
Because the TV is using power to turn on so the lights may flicker because the TV is taking power from the other energy sources around it.
Make sure you have a good earth ground between the body of the car, the engine block and the battery.
We might need a little more information. Do the lights flicker every time you switch between low and high? Have you noticed that your turn signal stalk feels gritty or mushy? When you switch to high beams, do they ever flicker later, or just when you switch them? Do they ever go out entirely? I'm thinking that maybe the turn signal switch might be bad, but it's hard to say with no more info. FriPilot