# Electrical Dimming?? Help?!!?



## righter101 (Feb 24, 2012)

Hey guys,

Late last night, my lamp next to my bed (halogen bulb) went to about 1/2 power (dimmed).  I thought it was the bulb and shut it off and was going to deal with it this weekend.

This morning, I woke up and the digital clock on the oven was blinking, so I thought there had been an outage.  As I was turning on lights, a number of circuts are coming on at about 1/2 dim or 1/2 brightness.

I looked at my computer and the surge strip had the red light on, so I unplugged it.

The oven clock, blinking, would go off, but the breaker is not tripped.

The boiler for my heat (electric) had a faint green light, instead of a strong green light.

I have unplugged most stuff and shut a few breakers off to the expensive stuff.

Anyone have any idea what would cause some circuits to have a draw down in power, but not others?  Is this a house problem or a power co. problem??

The house is only about 1 year old and was wired by a compentent electrician.

thanks for any insight.


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## mark handler (Feb 24, 2012)

Righter

I had a similar problem.

In my case, the connection in the service wires, where the Electric Provider, spliced to the distribution lines, loosened.

It burned out my refrigerator compressor.

Call your electric provider


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## Gregg Harris (Feb 24, 2012)

Lost phase, could be POCO or in house.


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## mtlogcabin (Feb 24, 2012)

Did you pay your bill?  

I have no idea but I am interested in the suggestions


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## fatboy (Feb 24, 2012)

I agree with Gregg.....

Did you try resetting your main breaker?


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## Darren Emery (Feb 24, 2012)

Very similiar problems at our home last month.  One lug on the meter base had burned up but was just good enough to pass on partial power.  When we moved a space heater to another room that was on that lug, it finally bit the dust, and we had power in half our home.  Call the PC or electrician immediately!


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## ICE (Feb 24, 2012)

Look for a kink in the wire.


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## mark handler (Feb 24, 2012)

ICE said:
			
		

> Look for a kink in the wire.


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## righter101 (Feb 24, 2012)

I did not try resetting the main breaker.

I did call the power company from work and they are "pinging" the meter and will call me back.

I unplugged most expensive stuff and shut off breakers to all the appliances.

thanks for the quick feedback.


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## north star (Feb 24, 2012)

*= =*

righter101,

IMO, I too would think that it is going to be a POCO problem, ...dropped phase,

loosened or burned lug connection, ...transformer defective......We have had a

few of those around here.....It WAS the POCO in all cases!

*= =*


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## steveray (Feb 24, 2012)

Like everyone else....dropped a phase...street, or meter, or service panel...you will burn up motors running them like that,,,might want to shut off heat/ AC also, till you get it diagnosed....


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## righter101 (Feb 24, 2012)

steveray said:
			
		

> Like everyone else....dropped a phase...street, or meter, or service panel...you will burn up motors running them like that,,,might want to shut off heat/ AC also, till you get it diagnosed....


Thanks for the quick advice.

Power company "pinged" the meter and said there is no voltage loss and therefore it is between the meter and the panel.

We built this place last year, but there was an existing house on the property, so we re used the service .  POCO said if it even got nicked, it could have a problem like this after a year.

I did shut the breakers off for most stuff, water heater, boiler, stove, fridge, etc, until I can get it squared away.

Thanks again.


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## Dennis (Feb 24, 2012)

It could be a loose connection on a phase but it could also be a bad neutral.  If that is the case eventually you will get 240v on one phase to ground and 0 on the other.  As it goes bad it is common to see one phase get 80V while the other phase gets 160V.

Poco's in my area are terrible about diagnosing this problem.  It must be done with a load on the line.


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## SBerg (Feb 24, 2012)

Turn off all 2 pole breakers ans see if the problem persists or if it is completed dead on 1 phase. You are feed in through the 240 appliances to liven the lost phase .

Sure way to determine if it is a voltage problem or a neutral issue.


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