I recently changed out a 60amp electric panel for a 200amp panel upgrade job. I was only able to swap out the 60amp panel with a 200amp. I’ve yet to replace the outside part of the service yet, I’m doing this next week because the power company was on a skeleton crew over the holidays and wouldn’t give me a crew to do a disconnect.
Since I replaced the panel, the HO is complaining of sporadic flickering lights that flicker for a brief second or two and then shows no further signs of a problem. In each case the alarm clock in the BR begins to blink 12:00 as if there was a power outage, however brief. The HO says it is not the whole house that flickers and cited the fact that there are other alarm clocks in the house who keep the time and show no evidence of a power interuption.
I went over and located the circuits in the panel the HO said had problems. I found nothing wrong, no loose neutrals, no improper connection at all.
I’ve seen this problem before where a lug in the meter socket was beginning to go bad, to the point it was arcing under heavy loads on the leg it served, and it caused intermittent flickering. I was leaning towards this being possible, as I removed the meter to change over the panel, and maybe when reinstalling it the lug weakened due to age and use. But I quickly gave up on that possibility because the two circuits experiencing the problem were one on each leg. I’ve never seen lugs on both legs go bad at the same time, seems improbable. So I’m left wondering what else there may be that I’m not knowledgable of. Any other ideas?
Replies
your connections are loose.
.flip the main breaker off / on a few times,
is the main CB seated properly
you have a loose neutral somewhere
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.Wer ist jetzt der Idiot
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try checking the lamps too.......
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.Wer ist jetzt der Idiot
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Well, it's obviously a bad connection, but impossible to tell where.
My first suspicion would be that a couple of the breakers aren't making good contact with the rails, or the breakers internally aren't making clean contact. Another possibility is a bad contact where you have two wires under one screw and the wires have shifted slightly. So I'd just cycle everything -- remove/reinstall the breakers on the rails, cycle all the breakers, loosen and retighten all the set screws.
(And while the breakers are out, use a flashlight to inspect for any signs of arcing.)
Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them. --T.S. Eliot
Look up at the service feed where the weather head connects and count the crimp lugs. My house needed some upgrading when I bought it and when the electricians left, I had three on each cable. I said BS and could only get as far as the receptionist when I called but when I told her to tell the owner that I doubt he would accept that on his house, I came home to see my alarm clock flashing. The only reason I could think of was that the service had been disco'd and looked outside- sure enough, the count was down to one on each and I assume the electrician called the power company and had them do it. Losers!
My parents had the same flickering and when they had the crimp lugs replaced, the problem was gone.
I would be surprised if your customers didn't have the problem before but they wanted you to "fix" it when you did the upgrade.
Just went thru it a few weeks ago on another property. but it was only affecting a 200 amp sub panel.
The power company "told" me that they checked the lugs on the overhead. Problem still there. I called my sparkies, went thru all of the panels and the main. Still had a problem. Called back the power company and met the guy on site. At the same time my sparkie comes back out with a voltage/time recorder and installed it.
Funny, the recorder showed nothing but the problem is gone. Someone was attempting to blow smoke and it wasn't my guys.