Advice ref blinking lights all circuits

[Lukeowl]

Hi there,


I should start by saying I am not an electrician, but am after some advice as we have a problem that we aren’t getting any answers on.

In January, we had a new fuse board installed to replace an old edition one. This is a recent Wylex model with circuit breakers. The electricians who installed it also added some outdoor lights, a couple of sockets in the kitchen and updated a few sockets around the house for us.

Approx 10 days after the work completed we began to notice intermittent blinking on lights across both upstairs and downstairs lights and on lamps plugged into sockets. There is no rhyme nor reason to the blink – it doesn’t matter if any appliances are running or none, so we’ve ruled out a surge due to boiler, fridge, etc.

We spoke with the electrician who did the work, they inspected the connections at the board and said everything looked fine and they suggested it was likely to be a supply issue. Powergrid came out, inspected and setup voltage recording device and left that running for about 8 days. They say that there is no fluctuations from their side that would cause “flicker” so have said it’s not an issue from their end.

I’ve spoken with the electricians who did the install again, but they seem void of any idea on what to look for or what could be causing this problem.

Does anyone on this forum have experience of similar issues being related to anything non-supply related – so from the board onward internally? Is it possible a fault could be present on the board itself?

From searching google, there’s lots of suggestions that flicker on all circuits including sockets is likely to be a supply issue, but this isn’t really what I’d call a flicker. It’s a very short blink. More noticeable on filament bulbs than the LED types. Not ever so frequent enough to cause headaches or anything, but frustrating, annoying and worrying as I have 2 young kids and I am really paranoid about electrical safety (which is kind of the reason we had the old fuseboard replaced in the first place!).

Thanks in advance for any advice or ideas offered.

 

[gnuuser]

using an old cable is a bit risky especially if it went to a pool /hot tub?
unless they did an I.R. test on it to prove it was serviceable,
it may have had a little moisture in it. but as others have suggested this sounds like a loose connection somewhere.
also loose neutrals or intermittent neutral faults can cause electronics to mysteriously fail.

 

[Lukeowl]

Thanks for all the responses so far.

One question I have is around the safety of using the electrics while this is going on. The electricians have said they cannot come back to do a proper inspection until after Easter, and I've booked them in for the Thursday of that week - so, 3 weeks tomorrow.

Are we safe to continue using the lights and sockets as we have been doing? If the fault is caused by a loose connection in the panel somewhere - should the breakers work to cut the supply if the fault developed into something more significant?

Thanks!

 

[Pete999]

Thanks for all the responses so far.

One question I have is around the safety of using the electrics while this is going on. The electricians have said they cannot come back to do a proper inspection until after Easter, and I've booked them in for the Thursday of that week - so, 3 weeks tomorrow.

Are we safe to continue using the lights and sockets as we have been doing? If the fault is caused by a loose connection in the panel somewhere - should the breakers work to cut the supply if the fault developed into something more significant?

Thanks!

Can't come back for 3 weeks, to what could be a dangerous installation? am I smelling a rat or just being a misery, speak to them again and insist that the response is sooner rather than later and if they still play hardball get someone else in and charge the original Electrician, could be rather tricky, but safer in my book, 3 weeks my derriere.

 

[Lukeowl]

Can't come back for 3 weeks, to what could be a dangerous installation? am I smelling a rat or just being a misery, speak to them again and insist that the response is sooner rather than later and if they still play hardball get someone else in and charge the original Electrician, could be rather tricky, but safer in my book, 3 weeks my derriere.

I've spoken with them again and managed to get them to agree to return next Thursday. I don't want to speak ill of them - they have done work for us previously at a property we lived at before and that went well - in fact a similar job to this one with a fuse board swap out. We were also pleased with the work they did for us on this job as well - it's only since this blinking started that I'm left scratching my head looking for answers.

I don't understand how the shared neutral swap out for the hallway and landing lights could cause a knock on effect to the rest of the circuits and lamps on the sockets though.

I am a completely ignorant with how electrics work, but from what I've seen online and from speaking with people, the suggestion appears to be the issue is either in the box or via supply - this based on the fact that the lamps are also producing the same blink.

One other thing - it's not really noticeable on LED candle bulbs, but is on spot lights (LED and halogen) and oldschool fillament / energy bulbs. Any idea why this would be?

Does anyone actually have previous experience of similar symptoms that were resolved via a particular course of action? It seems very much shooting in the dark to locate the source of the problem.

 

[Pete999]

I've spoken with them again and managed to get them to agree to return next Thursday. I don't want to speak ill of them - they have done work for us previously at a property we lived at before and that went well - in fact a similar job to this one with a fuse board swap out. We were also pleased with the work they did for us on this job as well - it's only since this blinking started that I'm left scratching my head looking for answers.

I don't understand how the shared neutral swap out for the hallway and landing lights could cause a knock on effect to the rest of the circuits and lamps on the sockets though.

I am a completely ignorant with how electrics work, but from what I've seen online and from speaking with people, the suggestion appears to be the issue is either in the box or via supply - this based on the fact that the lamps are also producing the same blink.

One other thing - it's not really noticeable on LED candle bulbs, but is on spot lights (LED and halogen) and oldschool fillament / energy bulbs. Any idea why this would be?

Does anyone actually have previous experience of similar symptoms that were resolved via a particular course of action? It seems very much shooting in the dark to locate the source of the problem.

Personalyi think the shared N maybe a red herring, it may not be the reason for the blinkung light issue, my problem withe the issue is, they should have checked this issue prior to the CU fitout, it's not an ideal method to use a cable that has been redundant to solve a problem that should have been sorted earlier, I would go as far as saying it's a rough solution, but without seeing the install it's maybe jumping the gun.

 

[ipf]

, it's not an ideal method to use a cable that has been redundant to solve a problem that should have been sorted earlier, I would go as far as saying it's a rough solution, but without seeing the install it's maybe jumping the gun.

I don't necessarily agree there, Pete. If they've tested the cable and it's in decent nick, it could well have saved a lot of trouble both for them and Luke. It's not a full rewire, after all. Maybe they should have taken into account the shared neutral, but they obviously got to the bottom of that problem, quite easily. As you say, it's easy to assume without seeing. They seem a decent crew.

 

[FatAlan]

I’m far from being an expert but logically if you’ve had the CU replaced on a system that was ok before and have a flicker on two seperate circuits it suggests the fault is upstream from the MCB’s. As others have suggested ... loose connections to mainswitch, tails etc. Presumably there’s some RCDs in there as well?

 

[Octopus]

^^ good input .............. seem loose connections on the DNO head do this ..............

 

[Rpa07]

I would normally say that it may be a supply fault on one of the phases. Same thing happened in my house with blinking lights.
I didn’t ask around the neighbours to see if the same was happening next door or 2 down or 3 down to correspond with the phase (although the OP could do this if not done already)
The supplier corrected a fault on the supply and has been good since.
The OP had the DNO out to data log so that would and should have picked up something supply side.
I’m with everyone else otherwise and root for something loose that needs a wiggle to check.
Hope you get sorted.

 

[DPG]

I'm going to stick my neck out and say an intermittent neutral joint in the cable under the pavement, where the house is tapped off the main feed.
I want a prize if I'm right though.

 

[shaun1]

One other thing - it's not really noticeable on LED candle bulbs, but is on spot lights (LED and halogen) and oldschool fillament / energy bulbs. Any idea why this would be?

Tungsten filament bulbs are very basic - the filament is connected between live and neutral and the light output is (kind-of) proportional to the voltage across it. So when there is a dip you will see a drop in brightness.

LED bulbs and most electronics are powered via electronic outputs, which can adjust themselves so they always give the same output for a wide range of input voltages right down to 100v (we are at 230v (which is usually 240) here in the uk). They also have capacitors which act like a battery to store current and smooth the output during voltage fluctuations.

With regards to safety, loose connections and high resistance connections create localised heating, which can then make the problem worse, and can eventually become a fire risk. Circuit breakers and RCDs may not operate in this situation as there is no overcurrent or imbalance.

There has just been an amendment to the regulations stipulating that consumer units in houses now have to be made from a non combustible material to contain faults such as this and to prevent fires.

Whilst I don't think you need to immediately panic if there's no obvious cause, I don't think waiting weeks is acceptable. If the flickering gets worse or more often, or you notice a burning or fishy smell (melting insulation) around the CU then it may be time to turn of and demand they come back immediately.

 

[PEG]

Back in the good old days,before LED's and low energy gubbins,a chandelier of 500w halogens,would have already pushed this fault,to an obvious head

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Had something similar once.
Turned out to be an ill fitting main fuse holder.
The sprung legs were corroded and had lost tension over the years. Also the screw terminals for all conductors at the head were loose.

 

[Pete E]

If the flicker affects table lamps plugged into socket outlets, maybe next time the fault occurs, switch off the lighting ccts via their MCB's and see if the flicker on the table lamp stops?

 

[telectrix]

when all else fails, call in: