Hi All,
Looking for suggestions. The lights in my house are flickering (incandescent, CFL, and fluorescent), affecting both ceiling lights and lamps. It seems to be more of a surge (bright flash) rather than a loss of power. The house is only 2 years old; as far as I can remember, it only started this past year after my next door neighbor's house was built (but not necessarily the cause).

Any thoughts on how to approach this? Visually, the ground looks intact on the exterior of my house. I haven't opened the electrical box to take a peek, yet.

Thanks.

Since it's only 2, wouldn't the builder have some kind of warranty out on the place?

I think my warranty was only a year, but I'll see what they say.

I would call an electrician to come monitor the voltage on your house.

But as far as a quick diagnosis:

Your neighbor moving in may have actually caused a problem. Depending on far down the line from the utility you are, their house could be drawing power causing the voltage to go down. It could also go the other way and all of a sudden the utility is forcing more voltage down the line and you are only noticing the dim periods.

I would strongly consider getting a surge protective device on your house if you don't already have one. I would call an electrician to meter out your home service and see what is happening.

Thanks, I was leaning towards getting one. Any suggestions on whole house surge protection brands?

Any suggestions for an electrician in NE Houston? Humble/Kingwood area

edit: Looks like the Eaton CHSPT2 Series should work in my situation (the Ultra model).

[This message has been edited by pnut02 (edited 4/22/2013 4:19p).]

No recs on electricians. There a couple on this board and I assure one will show up here and probably have a much diagnosis than mine.

Do you know who manufactured the panel on your house? SquareD, Cutler Hammer, Siemens?

Cutler Hammer


[This message has been edited by pnut02 (edited 4/22/2013 11:09a).]

My recommendation would be to first have Oncor out there to check the feed into your house as it appears that the problems occurred when they added the second house next door, they may have botched the job at the splitter feed junction box between your two houses for what ever reason. Remember **** happens!

It costs you nothing to have Oncor perform this check first versus having an electrician come out to check your voltage readings within your house. They will bill you for their time.

I had a similar problem a couple of times and it invariable was Oncor's issue that they took care of both times at NO COST to me our my neighbor.

Good to know; I was hoping that others have had success going that route. The small plastic electrical box in our backyard is also cracked and has a hole at the top - could possibly contribute to the issue. I think this area is serviced by Centerpoint rather that Oncor, but will give them a call.

Call an electrician. Soon. If you are having surges or drops it could be a loose connection on your feeder or service entrance wiring coming into your residence, or even worse a utility company problem. Voltage issues can ruin appliances and computers or at worst start fires. Get it checked out ASAP!

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Centerpoint has been called to check the feeder and the cracked box in the back yard. Will be out later today. Depending what they find, I'll call an electrician and have them install a WHSP at the same time.

Centerpoint was fast; checked the voltage at the meter and said everything was fine (not sure or how long they checked). Looks like I'm still under warranty with the builder so we'll see what happens later this week when an electrician comes by. Thanks for the advice.

[This message has been edited by pnut02 (edited 4/22/2013 2:08p).]

You also might want to go talk to your neighbor and see if they have a compressor or something that is kicking on.

Are the lights flickering when something else is turning on in your house? AC? Heater? Oven?

I haven't had a chance to talk to my neighbor, but will pay attention to his HVAC units. I haven't found any correlation in my house (HVAC, fridge, oven, etc.). Good thinking, thanks.

[This message has been edited by pnut02 (edited 4/22/2013 4:14p).]

Elite,
Can you recommend a UL1449 3rd edition Surge Protection Device? I was looking at the Eaton that I linked above, but it doesn't seem widely available. It may have just been replaced with a newer model, but am unsure. My panel is split phase, 220v, 200amp.
Thanks!

edit: Looks like a local electric supply has several in stock, so my concerns may be unfounded.

[This message has been edited by pnut02 (edited 4/23/2013 10:25a).]