Post by thread:[EE]: Whole house electricity cleaner?

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'[EE]: Whole house electricity cleaner?'
2002\01\17@182313 by Brandon Fosdick

I have a house with very dirty electricity. At night I can watch the lights slowly dim and brighten. I'm not talking about the normal surges you see when turning on a vaccuum cleaner, shop tool, or other high current appliance. This is a fairly continuous, but random, fluctuation. The period of the fluctuations seems to range from a few tens of seconds to a few minutes. So far I can't find anything in the house that would be causing power surges like that. The power company has come out (during the day when its less obvious) and they think I'm nuts. The funny thing is that the house is only about 10 miles from a nuclear power plant (North Anna, Virginia, USA for the curious), so you'd think I'd be getting the good stuff. Does anybody have any idea what might cause this? Or anyway to fix it? I've seen whole house surge protectors on the internet, will that help any? -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\17@184255 by Greg Hayward

Brandon, I have a friend that had a problem like this and it was traced back to the screws clamping the incoming power lines. The screw and cable connections in the fuse box had loosened over the years. This resulted in a varying voltage drops across the connection that was effected by temperature changes. This is something that you would what an electrical contractor to look at. Brandon Fosdick wrote: {Quote hidden}> I have a house with very dirty electricity. At night I can watch the lights > slowly dim and brighten. I'm not talking about the normal surges you see when > turning on a vaccuum cleaner, shop tool, or other high current appliance. This > is a fairly continuous, but random, fluctuation. The period of the fluctuations > seems to range from a few tens of seconds to a few minutes. So far I can't find > anything in the house that would be causing power surges like that. The power > company has come out (during the day when its less obvious) and they think I'm > nuts. The funny thing is that the house is only about 10 miles from a nuclear > power plant (North Anna, Virginia, USA for the curious), so you'd think I'd be > getting the good stuff. > > Does anybody have any idea what might cause this? Or anyway to fix it? I've seen > whole house surge protectors on the internet, will that help any? > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\17@185245 by mooseman

X-RebelTech Is Here: http://www.rebeltech.ca MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <spam_OUT02011715513901.15129TakeThisOuTmothership.rebeltech.ca>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit sounds like you have more of a line sag rather than a surge. surge protectors are to clip the spikes of high voltage. i don't know about the power company in your area, but here we can request the company put a line monitor on the pole. this is basically a data logger that tracks the freq, voltage peaks, valleys and average load etc. i think if they find nothing then they try to charge for it, but usually, if you can see your lights going dim etc then there is something going on the line. the other thing is what is the circuiting like in your house? too many things on one circuit? some older houses had fewer circuits and consequently lights and plugs and whatever else would get strung along daisy-chain like. of course to make this somewhat PIC related, perhaps you could put together your own line monitor. get it to log from say, your dryer plug or other two pole circuit so you can get both legs that way. if you get it set up to be able to spit out the data in such a way that you can print it as a graph and then go talk to the power company..... graphs can be _very_persuasive. they may try to say your instruments are off.... tell them to prove it. my two cents worth. moose. On Thursday 17 January 2002 18:22, you wrote: {Quote hidden}> I have a house with very dirty electricity. At night I can watch the lights > slowly dim and brighten. I'm not talking about the normal surges you see > when turning on a vaccuum cleaner, shop tool, or other high current > appliance. This is a fairly continuous, but random, fluctuation. The period > of the fluctuations seems to range from a few tens of seconds to a few > minutes. So far I can't find anything in the house that would be causing > power surges like that. The power company has come out (during the day when > its less obvious) and they think I'm nuts. The funny thing is that the > house is only about 10 miles from a nuclear power plant (North Anna, > Virginia, USA for the curious), so you'd think I'd be getting the good > stuff. > > Does anybody have any idea what might cause this? Or anyway to fix it? I've > seen whole house surge protectors on the internet, will that help any? > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\17@185321 by Robert A. LaBudde

At 06:22 PM 1/17/02 -0500, you wrote: >I have a house with very dirty electricity. At night I can watch the lights >slowly dim and brighten. I'm not talking about the normal surges you see when >turning on a vaccuum cleaner, shop tool, or other high current appliance. This >is a fairly continuous, but random, fluctuation. The period of the >fluctuations >seems to range from a few tens of seconds to a few minutes. So far I can't >find >anything in the house that would be causing power surges like that. The power >company has come out (during the day when its less obvious) and they think I'm >nuts. The funny thing is that the house is only about 10 miles from a nuclear >power plant (North Anna, Virginia, USA for the curious), so you'd think I'd be >getting the good stuff. > >Does anybody have any idea what might cause this? Or anyway to fix it? >I've seen >whole house surge protectors on the internet, will that help any? Check the neutral and ground. You may have different voltages on different circuits. This can happen if the exterior cable is damaged. E.g., buried cable which is corroded. ================================================================ Robert A. LaBudde, PhD, PAS, Dpl. ACAFS e-mail: .....ralKILLspam@spam@lcfltd.com Least Cost Formulations, Ltd. URL: http://lcfltd.com/ 824 Timberlake Drive Tel: 757-467-0954 Virginia Beach, VA 23464-3239 Fax: 757-467-2947 "Vere scire est per causas scire" ================================================================ -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\17@185327 by brandon

At my old house, the incomming power lines started breaking from swinging in the wind. We had large power fluctuations and also some very large sparks at the telephone pole. :^) Brandon Irwin - end --- Greg Hayward <ghaywardKILLspamCASPIANNETWORKS.COM> wrote: {Quote hidden}>Brandon, >I have a friend that had a problem like this and it was traced back to the screws >clamping the incoming power lines. The screw and cable connections in the fuse box >had loosened over the years. This resulted in a varying voltage drops across the >connection that was effected by temperature changes. >This is something that you would what an electrical contractor to look at. > >Brandon Fosdick wrote: > >> I have a house with very dirty electricity. At night I can watch the lights >> slowly dim and brighten. I'm not talking about the normal surges you see when >> turning on a vaccuum cleaner, shop tool, or other high current appliance. This >> is a fairly continuous, but random, fluctuation. The period of the fluctuations >> seems to range from a few tens of seconds to a few minutes. So far I can't find >> anything in the house that would be causing power surges like that. The power >> company has come out (during the day when its less obvious) and they think I'm >> nuts. The funny thing is that the house is only about 10 miles from a nuclear >> power plant (North Anna, Virginia, USA for the curious), so you'd think I'd be >> getting the good stuff. >> >> Does anybody have any idea what might cause this? Or anyway to fix it? I've seen >> whole house surge protectors on the internet, will that help any? _____________________________________________________________ Get your free email here at http://www.e-ha.com -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\17@191317 by Kelly Kohls

Brandon, Make certain that the neutral between your utility pole and the house hasn't come loose. This happened to me several years ago. Kelly Kohls, N5TLE Dallas, TX http://www.qsl.net/n5tle/ There's never enough time to do it right, but plenty of time to do it over. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\17@233942 by Hugh Prescott

Had something like that when I built my first Altair, it kept dumping programs during the night. We were almost the last house on a rural Missouri REA operation. Called them, you got a what in your house?? They believed me, as I had worked with them getting power to a new hospital x-ray system i was installing at a local hospital. Turned out to be an autotransformer up stream that had blown the power resistor that carries the load during the switching from one tap to another. These things were regulating 13KV AC With the blown bypass resistor the downstream voltage just dropped out when the mechanical switch stepped. Power company did not like to work on these regulators because of the voltage and need for a stepped load to test them. The reason it occurred at night was the daytime load was dropping after supper till midnight and the voltage started to rise so the autotransformer started stepping. Same thing happens in the morning in reverse. Hugh {Original Message removed}

2002\01\18@110357 by Brandon Fosdick

"Robert A. LaBudde" wrote: > Check the neutral and ground. You may have different voltages on different > circuits. This can happen if the exterior cable is damaged. E.g., buried > cable which is corroded. Exterior cable damage could be a possibility. The power co installation guys weren't too swift, and there's a lot of construction in the neighborhood. How would I check for that? -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

2002\01\18@110412 by Brandon Fosdick

Greg Hayward wrote: > > Brandon, > I have a friend that had a problem like this and it was traced back to the screws > clamping the incoming power lines. The screw and cable connections in the fuse box > had loosened over the years. This resulted in a varying voltage drops across the > connection that was effected by temperature changes. > This is something that you would what an electrical contractor to look at. I hadn't thought about checking for loose screws. I'll take a look this weekend. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

2002\01\18@131632 by gacrowell

Yup, happened to me on a house only a couple of years old. Flickering lights occasionally, then finally one phase went out completely. Called the power company and they pulled the meter. The connections to the meter base had been loose, and had eventually burned out the meter base connections completely. Had to replace the service entry box. GC > {Original Message removed}

2002\01\18@153028 by Gary Crum

My friend had a similar thing happen to him and it took forever to figure out what was causing it The power came from the pole and to the outside of the house, that's where his screws came loose, not at the actual fuse box you could see the arching on the contacts, which produced the intermitent power on/off ah,,,,, but be carefull not to fry yourself when fixing it {Original Message removed}

2002\01\18@201530 by Reginald Neale

>I have a house with very dirty electricity. At night I can watch the lights >slowly dim and brighten. I'm not talking about the normal surges you see when >turning on a vaccuum cleaner, shop tool, or other high current appliance. This >is a fairly continuous, but random, fluctuation. The period of the >fluctuations >seems to range from a few tens of seconds to a few minutes. So far I >can't find >anything in the house that would be causing power surges like that. The power >company has come out (during the day when its less obvious) and they think I'm >nuts. The funny thing is that the house is only about 10 miles from a nuclear >power plant (North Anna, Virginia, USA for the curious), so you'd think I'd be >getting the good stuff. > Does anybody have any idea what might cause this? Or anyway to fix it? For twenty-five years I lived in a decaying Victorian mansion that had been wired with knob-and-tube in the 1920s. The service entrance had an enormous cartridge fuse inside the house. The silver plating on the end caps of this fuse had tarnished and resulted in a non-linear resistance in series with the power sourced into the house. It caused fluctuations like the ones you described. Clue: AC voltage measurement between the fuse clips and the metal caps. Pulled out the fuse, polished the end caps, reinstalled, kept a sharp eye on it ever after, as this could generate heat and be a fire hazard. Reg Neale -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

2002\01\18@212918 by Barry Gershenfeld

> At night I can watch the lights > slowly dim and brighten. If they measured the voltage at the end of the line and compensated by raising and lowering it coming from the generators then folks close by would see a variation like that. But I get the impression the power companies don't ever do it this way. Enough people have responded with suggestions about a bad neutral connection that I guess I'd check into that. A dead giveaway for this problem is if the "other half" of your circuits show the opposite voltage variation corresponding to what you're seeing now. Barry -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

2002\01\21@045821 by Alan B. Pearce

>Depending on what other load is on the same transformer (your neighbotrs >houses, for example) and how unbalanced the load with the floating neutral >is, and a few other factors, you can see some pretty dramatic swings. This may be as big a factor in your lighting brightness swings as any of the other things suggested. If you have a neighbour with any of the faults suggested so far, especially in the neutral line of a multiple earth neutral installation, then their neutral current could be coming back up your ground connection to the supply neutral. Your voltage at the fuseboard will then vary somewhat according to what the neighbour is doing - imagine what happens when the washing machine motor switches on and off. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList .....piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspam.....mitvma.mit.edu

2002\01\22@170716 by brandon

So did he ever figure out what it was? - end _____________________________________________________________ Get your free email here at http://www.e-ha.com -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

2002\01\22@195532 by Brandon Fosdick

Brandon Irwin wrote: > > So did he ever figure out what it was? Not yet. I defended my Masters thesis today so the last week or so has been hectic and I haven't gotten around to it. Hopefully I'll have a chance this weekend. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

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