electrical issue- help please
Rental home built in 1954. Have had no electrical issues since purchased in 2020.
Current tenant has notified us twice in the last month that the power is flickering on and off, sometimes staying off for several minutes before coming back on.
After a little research, we thought the problem might be that some power lines were coming in contact with tree limbs. Power company trimmed them back but we have noticed that there are some places they still are in contact. We thought issue resolved because didn’t hear any more about a problem – until yesterday.
Tenant called power company, they came and said there were corroded wires in the outside meter box. We had electrician over who fixed one corroded wire. Said the rest looked corroded but actually were not-just covered with a little grease but ok. He also checked the breakers while he was there. Everything looked good
Problem solved? – No.
Tenants had several flickers and brief outage last night. Called power company over at midnight to check things out – said they could not find anything that he could fix.
Calling Monday to get them back to trim ALL the limbs that are touching power lines.
Tenant says it’s always a partial outage- some lights and outlets in some rooms. Not related to turning on or plugging anything in.
Any suggestions for something else to check would be appreciated.
We have owned this house for 4 years and neither of the 2 previous tenants have had this problem.
Thanks for any suggestions on next step.
Replies
Sounds like they keep losing a leg. Perhaps the breaker isn't making good contact. Pull the main breaker and look for scorches or pitting on the busbar. If that's ok, then work back to the meter & doublecheck all the connections again.
It sounds like you need to either have your electrician go back, or find another one.
I agree, but just a thought, it sounds like one leg of the triplex coming in to the panel is iffy. That would explain only part of the power cutting off or flickering.
I had a similar experience with the family homestead. The drop to the house went thru branches of a tree that had grown up and around the wires. Things got funky when it was windy. It was discovered that one of the hot (insulated) legs in the drop line were broken BUT remained in contact - until it got windy. In windy conditions the conductor pulled apart just enough so that the power flickered and occasionally was totally interrupted. After numerous calls to the utility company they finally came out, troubleshooted the problem, and replaced the drop from the pole to the house.
Yes, agree with other responses that it sounds like one of the service conductors is rubbed through to intermittently touch the neutral. The neutral is the third service conductor, uninsulated, usually steel wrapped with aluminum strands. Usually the utility guys can identify it with a "load test." Ask them if they can do that. (And the hint is when the power flickered, evening, night, with probably higher load.) Let us know! : - )
More information would be helpful. For example, can your tenant tell you which rooms/outlets/lights have an intermittent problem? Then you can determine which circuit(s) have a problem, and the common denominator(s), such as, the problem is always on one phase, or related to particular circuits or breakers.
If you have multiple circuits that are all on one phase that are the culprits, the likely suspect is the power line to the house, or the connections at the pole, meter, or main panel, as you suspect.
If the problematic circuits are not on the same phase, I might turn the investigation inward, and suspect push fittings in switches, outlets, etc. Push fittings are notorious for having poor or resistive contacts with age, and if the problem is more prevalent at night when the load is higher, this is a possibility for your problem, especially if receptacles, etc. are daisy-chained. Also, was 14 gauge wire, instead of 12 gauge, used for high current (i.e. 20A) circuits, where branch circuits were added over the years, resulting in significant Joule heating?
A skilled electrician should be able to track down the problem, and determine if it's the power delivery to the house, or an internal circuit problem.
As mentioned by others, make sure all the connections in the main panel are tight...
Good luck!
The electrician should have tested the voltage at the meter for each leg connection, not just visibly look for corrosion, it can look okay and still be compromised. It is very likely the corrosion has compromised the main breaker at the meter socket. If the main breaker can be replaced do that, or if not, replace the whole meter socket. I had a customer recently with the same issues and after testing the panel connections and breakers and finding no issues, tested at the meter socket main. When it was installed the electrician had neglected to seal the SEU connector with duct puddy, so I was suspicious of corrosion immediately. Just pulling the cover off made it spark and it only registered 120V across the legs and she told me half the house power was out again. There was some visible corrosion but not extensive, however it was definitely the issue. Replaced the meter socket and the issue resolved completely.