Anyone good with electircal work

Fletch Helical

Fletch Helical

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Sep 29, 2009
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I've run into a slight snafu in my work room the last few days. For some reason when I turn the lights on or run any electric tool the power "pulses, surges" not sure how to explain it. But easiest way it to use the light as an example. When the light is on it will dim, brighten, dim, brighten, etc. Same thing happened when I ran my angle grinder it would "surge" the same way when running.

At first I though it might have been the outlet, swapped it out with a brand new one, same result. Then I figured maybe it was the wiring to the outlet itself so I disconnected the one outlet completely and light is still doing the same thing.

Not to be slowed down from other work like sanding and what not I went out and got 2 halogen lights on extension cords in another part of the basement and are using them at the moment. But I'm wondering if this can be an somewhat easy fix or do I have to get someone in to fix it?
 
Are the lights and outlets on different breakers? If so it should be either the main breaker or the wires going to the main breaker. Try turning all your breakers off then on a few times. Breakers corrode and can stick when they would normally overload and turn off; thus causing fires. At a minimum you will at least make your house safer. :)

I've only taken one electrical class but I would guess that its a bad connection causing a lack of power. The bad connection could be a wire or inside a breaker. The connection could be loose or corroded so look for green copper oxide on connections. Also make sure the power is off before trying to fix the problem; electricity hurts... a lot. :o
 
if your shop is seperate from the house(electrically) you might look into the fuse on the power supply to the shop. sounds like your not getting full flow of the juice.:confused:
 
Basically all the electricity to that room and from what I can gather one outlet on a wall outside the room are working off of one breaker, which has been off since I noticed the problem. It's late now but I'll take the cover off the breaker box tomorrow and see if I can see any corrosion to the wire from the box. If that looks good I'm guessing I should get someone in here who knows electric.
 
Sounds like you're going into a "brown out" IE not getting enough juice. At first I thought it was because the lights were cold and fluorescent, but when you said your tools were doing it too... means you have a problem.

Does your house do the same problem if you run the same current through it? See if you can find lights and an outlet in the same series and run something that takes as much juice as your grinder. It could be this time of the year lots of people are just pulling off of the grid for heat.

Mentioning that.. are you running an electrical heater? Those suckers draw alot of current. You might just need to let it run and come back later when the place is heated up if thats the case. In my house I can blow breakers by having one and a computer on.
 
Definitely too much current draw on the source breaker(s). Basically the demands of whatever is being run, is more than the source breaker(s) or the wiring can provide/carry. Its very likely that somewhere along the path, the wiring is getting hot too. Be very careful with this situation...whatever circuit is drawing the most amps is likely the one that will overheat, and if you let it go unchecked, its not if, but WHEN a dangerous accident will occur.
 
It just started doing it, I've been there for years and never had this problem. It's an all of a sudden thing, and it was doing it with just having the light on with no power tools running. Not a fluorescent bulb either just a standard incandescent light, and not running any kind of heater.
 
Call an electrician, have him come out and go through your system.

I've been an electrician for 36 yrs. not counting 4yr. apprenticeship and 2 yrs. stock boy before that. I'm a lic. contractor in 2 states also.

I have my ideas as to what might cause this but it's a job that needs a skilled trades man on site to solve the problem.


99% of electrical tech. advise given on forums is a guess and just wrong.

Good Luck
Mark IBEW LU 595
 
since it is all on that one breaker and only and that one room , the 1st. thing I would look for would be the wire loose in the breaker itself . Make sure breaker is off if you decide to check this . If that is the case , I myself would shut off the main breaker and check them all . Loose wires are the main cause of fires .
 
The lights in my rear building do that when the HT oven is on because the PID is cycling the elements on and off. This is normal considering the voltage drop for the long power run to the building and the high amp draw of the oven. In that situation, nothing is wrong. I haven't measured the voltage swing, but I'd guess it is 10 volts or less.

But, if there is a loose connection in the circuit that is bad enough to create a noticeable voltage drop (enough to notice surging) you can bet it is getting very hot. As in, the insulation on the wires will be burnt off and the joint is glowing kind of hot. This is a serious fire hazard and should be addressed immediately. You should not use the circuit until this is addressed.
 
Well I got a guy coming over tomorrow morning to look at it. Other than changing light switches or outlets I'm fairly clueless with electrical things and I really don't feel like getting zapped trying to learn. The breaker has been off since it started so guess I'll find out what the problem is tomorrow. Thanks for the input guys.
 
Well the guy looked at it and what he found out was that apparently we're getting water/moisture in through the line coming into the panel box. What was happening is water is trickling through the box and actually corroded the buss bar. He pulled the breaker off and the breaker was corroded and you can see the corrosion on the buss bar as well. So basically we need to have the panel box moved.
 
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