# Lights flickering/ power going off and on



## Spartan98 (Nov 25, 2012)

Went to a house yesterday. The lights have been flickering and power sometimes is going off. I pulled the meter, and tightened up everything. The bonding screw was never tightened. The 2 phase conductors needed some tightening also.The load side of the service cable is frayed, I didn't replace it. Got a call today that the same things were happening. Could it be cable?


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

Spartan98 said:


> Went to a house yesterday. The lights have been flickering and power sometimes is going off. I pulled the meter, and tightened up everything. The bonding screw was never tightened. The 2 phase conductors needed some tightening also.The load side of the service cable is frayed, I didn't replace it. Got a call today that the same things were happening. Could it be cable?


Is it all the lights ?or just some of them?


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## Spartan98 (Nov 25, 2012)

HARRY304E said:


> Is it all the lights ?or just some of them?


From what they told me it was just some...kitchen lights...living room power...
I do remember them saying it happened when they turned on the disposal...the reason why I went to the panel was because a cable guy said he got hit off the noodle...


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

Why is a cable guy fooling around with neutral conductors for? He certainly can get hit by a "noodle" if he handles one. 

Is the panel an older one with the main lugs in a block that plugs onto the busbars? Those are a frequent culprit in hidden "loose" spots in the connections, not the wire lugs, but the contacts to the busbar. Sylvania and another one I forget which made em like that. Junk.


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## Spartan98 (Nov 25, 2012)

I don't know what the hell he was doing nor what exactly happened. Most of your Comcast "technicians" are dopes...

The panel was fairly new...it was a Siemens main breaker panel, 100amp...thinking about it now, there was a 2 pole 50 amp and 2 pole 30, with about 12- 20's, I didn't check for ampacity but I wonder if the phases were drawing too much...I doubt bc the main never tripped...


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

this thread makes no sense/is cletis


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

Check the voltage and amperage of each of the feeder conductors coming in to feed the panel. Apply a large load , like the dryer and recheck the voltage and amperage readings. Look for variances from before loading it. You may have a neutral problem, or maybe just a connection one, first thing is to figure out which. Also check or replace the breaker serving lights if it is only one circuit.


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## Spartan98 (Nov 25, 2012)

wildleg said:


> this thread makes no sense/is cletis


What makes no sense?


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## dthurmond (Feb 7, 2011)

Maybe a bad connection on one of the phases on the PC transformer . I had this one time and the panel box was loosening one leg . It did it a few times but all ways came back .if its a overhead transformer look at it at night or early morning and you might see it arching at the pole .


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## Spartan98 (Nov 25, 2012)

I think I discovered the problem with the house. There is only one ground electrode coming from the ground rod and to be honest I can almost bet it's barely a foot in the ground. There is no cold water ground only the meter was jumped out. On one phase I had a voltage of 132 v and the other was at 115 v...


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## N PHILLY KID (Mar 26, 2008)

*lights flickering*

From what you describe the neutral is most likely open on line side of meter . Attaching the grounding electrode conductor to the water pipe will is required will improve the symptoms somewhat but will not fix the problem. Try this take neutral off load side of meter read voltage line to neutral on line side if it is 0 the problem is is on the line side of service.


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## Spartan98 (Nov 25, 2012)

I'm replacing the entire service, the jacket is frayed and is on borrowed life...


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## Elephante (Nov 16, 2011)

Spartan98 said:


> From what they told me it was just some...kitchen lights...living room power...
> I do remember them saying it happened when they turned on the disposal...the reason why I went to the panel was because a cable guy said he got hit off the noodle...


Did you check all the breaker and neutral connections in the panel? The disposal/living room/kitchen lights might be on the same circuit.


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