Lights dimming, going out at random
- Thread starter Yod12
- Start date
Help Support House Repair Talk:
afjes_2016
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2016
- Messages
- 766
- Reaction score
- 362
How long has this been happening? Any electrical work done on the home recently?
You say your lights go off. Do you mean you lose power to the entire home? Do you rent or own. If you rent call your landlord.
If you own and you have not done any electrical work in your home recently the first thing you want to do is call your power utility company and report it to them. They will send a person out to check your power. If they find nothing wrong then you will have to call an electrician.
A bit more detail and information from you may help us help you. You really have not given us much to work on.
You say your lights go off. Do you mean you lose power to the entire home? Do you rent or own. If you rent call your landlord.
If you own and you have not done any electrical work in your home recently the first thing you want to do is call your power utility company and report it to them. They will send a person out to check your power. If they find nothing wrong then you will have to call an electrician.
A bit more detail and information from you may help us help you. You really have not given us much to work on.
Jeff Handy
Well-Known Member
Where do you live?
Which lights?
The whole house, or one room, one floor?
Please finish telling your whole story, it is badly lacking in information needed to help you.
Which lights?
The whole house, or one room, one floor?
Please finish telling your whole story, it is badly lacking in information needed to help you.
I should have included more info here. That's what happens when I do this late at night. It seemed to start happening after an electrician came and charged $240 to install a floodlight on the front deck. I thought I could do it, but it proved not as straightforward as I hoped. This place was jerry rigged almost 100 years ago. One chandelier in one room and a light in another goes very dim every once in awhile - and sometimes goes completely out. I called the electrician who did the floodlight; he did come out after work and since the lights weren't acting up then, said, "maybe it'll be ok". The local utility company came out, tore the panel off and said everything looks fine there. Said maybe it's a "neutral problem".
afjes_2016
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2016
- Messages
- 766
- Reaction score
- 362
Was the flood light placed on its own circuit? Or was the flood light placed on the circuit with the lights that are dimming. Be reminded that even though lights are in a different room does not mean they are on different circuits.
It is possible if the electrician did work in the breaker panel itself that maybe there may now be a loose neutral wire in the neutral bar. Even if it is not the circuit he was working with. It might not have been loose enough to cause you to see any issues until wires were moved around a bit in the panel which caused it to dislodge a bit more now causing an interruption.
It is possible if the electrician did work in the breaker panel itself that maybe there may now be a loose neutral wire in the neutral bar. Even if it is not the circuit he was working with. It might not have been loose enough to cause you to see any issues until wires were moved around a bit in the panel which caused it to dislodge a bit more now causing an interruption.
The electrician replaced an existing floodlight that was working well with a Wyze - I'm not happy with the Wyze one. Will check neutral bar - need to read up on that, don't know much about it. The utility guy that came out said it looked good though.
Eddie_T
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2015
- Messages
- 3,386
- Reaction score
- 3,296
Chances are slim that we had the same problem but my master breaker had a failing connector where it contacted the buss stab. My lights wouldn't stay dimmed or off long enough to troubleshoot and I was just flipping breakers on/off and the main breaker made a buzzing noise. I found that I could stop the buzz with a bit of pressure. It had damaged the buss so I had to get a new panel.
Jeff Handy
Well-Known Member
Redo all the wire nut connections and any screwed connections in the junction box at the new light fixture.
If no improvement, redo all the wire connections in the other junction boxes, outlet boxes, switch boxes, ceiling boxes that are on that same circuit.
Also, if it is a loose neutral wire connection, that neutral might be serving two different nearby circuits.
So you may have to widen your search beyond just the obviously affected circuit.
Also, replace any switches or outlets that are wired with crappy back stab connections, replace them with new devices with screwed down or clamp connections.
If no improvement, redo all the wire connections in the other junction boxes, outlet boxes, switch boxes, ceiling boxes that are on that same circuit.
Also, if it is a loose neutral wire connection, that neutral might be serving two different nearby circuits.
So you may have to widen your search beyond just the obviously affected circuit.
Also, replace any switches or outlets that are wired with crappy back stab connections, replace them with new devices with screwed down or clamp connections.
Maybe it’s a signal that your lights will stop working soon, or you have a problem with the power supply. I think you should try plugging another electronic device into the socket that the lamp was previously plugged into. For example, I had a socket problem when I plugged in my 360 photo booth, it started to work incorrectly. I reconnected it and the device went back to normal.
