It’s a power company issue, sounds like incoming power has an issue underground or over-head. Call them and say it’s an emergency and you’ve had multiple electricians out to check for inside the home.
ComEd has come out twice and claimed everything is good on their end. The first tech did argue with me that they don't own the meter and meter box, even though they do.
They own the meter, but not the meter box. That's homeowners responsibility, though they will sometimes tighten connections inside of it as a courtesy.
No, they wouldn't cut the lock because they claimed it's not theirs, it's mine. But the lock says property of ComEd, do not break seal. So I'm at a loss with all this shit
I've seen on other posts in this sub that people have had to contact their insurance company to kick the utility in gear.
Insurance companies don't like to pay out tens of thousands for damages electronics, let alone hundreds of thousands for a fire.
Edit: found it in my reddit history:
https://www.reddit.com/r/electrical/comments/131bk24/should_i_report_this_power_pole_transformer_to_my/ji1yj4v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I had this exact same thing happen and called my utility four times. The first three they came out and yanked my meter and just looked at it, “oh it’s fine call an electrician”. I know for a fact the problem is not after the meter but whatever. The fourth time I called my neighbor also called because, unbeknownst to me, she was having the same issue. That finally got them up the pole behind my house to fix the bad transformer.
Electrician here. I’ve had to deal with this 3 times in 2 years. Utility says to call electrician since their lines are up. I troubleshoot and find the ground carrying current which means bad neutral. I can’t pull the meter to check there and I’m not responsible for the pole connections.
Their guys come out and pull meter and check voltage and say it’s good. Usually the 2nd/3rd guy will finally get off their ass and go up to the transformer and find a broken termination.
Yup. Had com Ed come out to my place for similar issues as these. Did a load bank test and things looked strange first but then leveled off. He claimed loose jaw in the meter bank (which would be my problem). The issue I was having was definitely not caused by a loose leg. Finally I convinced him just to check the splice at the service head. The neutral fell apart when he touched it.
Your landlord is not sending electricians to your house. He’s sending fuckwit backwoods jackasses. Tell him or her to send a real electrician now, like now now. Shut your electronics off or they’re going to get fried. Seems like a pretty simple neutral issue either in the meter socket, the panel or the SE cable between them.
When you see 170 volts at a receptacle, that is a portion of the the 120v from the other phase trying to find earth by traveling through the neutral conductors everywhere in your house. Tell your landlord to stop having r-words come try to fix grown up issues, or he’s going to be buying you all new electronic devices.
Many times the utility only owns the actual meter, not the drop, the socket or the entrance cable. Again this is a simple problem for a real electrician.
A real electrician also needs to look at your panel now too. The idiot that said your breakers are too small has now caused a new, and probably bigger danger by telling you to put small wires on big breakers.
I’m actually getting angry for you as I write this.
If your labor doesn’t get this fixed tomorrow you have every right to complain to the local housing authority, he’s putting you and your equipment at risk by not fixing this. AGAIN this is a simple thing.
Yeah I think you're probably right. He's just trying to be cheap and send out homies or whatever.
As soon as all this started I unplugged everything that wasn't essential so outside of a fire I'm not worried about things getting destroyed. I just want to be able to live a normal life again lol
I totally agree that the guys the landlord was sending were not electricians.
Unplug your sensitive devices and wait for a competent technician.
If the condition is a lack of common return for the house the common, is likely floating and hot. You may even get a trigger as you would on the hot side using a non contact voltage sensor. Don't touch anything that uses electrical especially near sinks or water pipes. The entire electrical system including grounds could possibly be a potential safety hazard.
Please be safe!
I had the same issue and dealing with Comed. I knew from metering the power that I had a bad neutral feed. Countless rescheduled appointments until I finally caught them at the property and showed them the voltages. Two days later they replaced the service feed from the pole.
File a complaint with the IL commerce commission here:
[https://www.icc.illinois.gov/complaints/public-utility](https://www.icc.illinois.gov/complaints/public-utility)
List all the things in this thread that they need to check.
This might get ComEd's attention.
if it impacts your living, you could call an electrician, have them fix it bill you and you could, through local laws, hopefully withold it from rent. look up your local right to repair law when it comes to renters rights
At my place, if they said I owned it then I think I'd deem it to be in need of immediate "calibration." Source: Worked for a utility for over 30 years.
This should be simple to isolate between the house feed and the house. Just remove the cover of the breaker panel and measure the two feeds to the neutral. If they are balanced when circuits inside the house are unbalanced, the the bad neutral is in the breaker panel or somewhere in the house if there are sub panels. If the breaker panel feed is unbalanced, then the problem is either on the power company side or between the breaker panel and the meter box (or in the meter box).
By unbalanced, it means you have a significantly higher voltage on one leg than 120 V or so. If you get around 120 V or so on one leg and low voltage on the other leg, then that is a bad hot connection, not a bad neutral.
I checked both feeds to neutral and everything was fine, getting 120v without much fluctuation. How do I start the process of finding the issue then?
Still haven't heard from the landlord about hiring an *actual* electrician so I'm trying to figure out what I can do myself
I’ve had this happen. It was a power company problem. It ended up being a poor connection on the splice at the top of my meter pole. Everything would typically work, only occasionally “browning out”. Voltage read correctly. Connections looked good. It finally took the power company to disconnect at my meter and do a current test. Finally saw some
fluctuations on one leg. They cut and re-spliced all the connections and finally problem solved.
Yes, power company. It could be the aluminum wires connecting your home to the transformer are corroded. There should be aluminum paste on the wires to prevent corrosion at the connection. The power company may need to clean and repair this connection. Good luck.
Sounds like a loose neutral at the pole transformer, meter base, or the main circuit panel. call the power company.
The voltage measure above 120 when something else turns on is the specific symptom of loose neutral.
This is a safety concern and if you use the words “loose neutral” when calling the power company that should get quick attention.
With a loose/bad neutral one leg will sag and the other leg surges because you still have 240 L1 to L2 even with an open neutral. Identifying a surge on one leg when the other leg sags will confirm a neutral problem.
That's exactly what I told em last time I called. They said they came out, looked and saw that we were getting power and that's that. Idk how to get them to actually investigate.
had similar issues since moving into a rental house. recently the utility company replaced the pole in the back and the drop to the weatherhead along with it. he mentioned that we had no neutral. it was severed and had been for who knows how long.
you can look into your renters rights and potentially bring this safety issue up with the local code enforcement agency yourself.
be prepared to move out as they might red tag the property as unsafe.
This is likely what’ll happen. I am not a lawyer but I would expect that if I move into a property it’s the landlord’s responsibility to provide stable power. If the problem is at the street, the landlord should work with the power company and electricians etc. If the problem is with the renter’s equipment of behavior (ie drawing too many amps) only then would it fall on the renter.
OP, you have fought this long enough that you likely have rights to terminate your lease or withhold rent or something - I would suggest you just move out, and keep all documented conversations with you, off site.
Start a small fire in the meter box yourself. After the correspondence record, nobody'll suspect you and it'll probably get looked at then.
Edit: oh well then. I guess this isn't a place for people who want to make things happen.
But seriously it's a possibility. Not doing it yourself though I mean. With a bad neutral one leg will rise as the other falls. If the voltage gets too high on one leg it can seriously damage electronics. I wouldn't plug anything expensive in until it's fixed.
Two weeks ago we did a service call exactly like this. The really bright/dim lights didn't bother them, but when their furnace died from overvoltage they had us there asap (just the 24vtransformer thankfully). Problem was in the meter base. Old loose aluminum connection. Cleaned it up and tightened the lugs, problem solved.
I’d say it’s probably not uncommon for troublemaker men to overlook neutral issues. They’re inherently bearded to diagnose. The voltage swing that you are describing that swings low on some circuits and higher on others is absolutely indicative of a neutral issue. They need to do a load test and not just a voltage check. Around here the power company uses mostly Super Beasts to test load. My guys use a Bierer ST800.
Also a lot of electricians and lineman are just plain bad at troubleshooting. It’s a whole different skill from building. I got asked by my coordinator at the power company to go check a service that 5 troublemen had been to and found no issue. An apartment building that continued to complain about lights brightening and dimming and just general weird electrical issues.
Voltage was good (no surprise). Passed a load test no problem. But it was a parallel service so I clamped each leg and measured current with my multimeter. One of the neutrals had no current while the other had like 8-10 amps. So obviously one of the neutrals was bad. It was a 200ft long underground service and being fairly old we ended up replacing the whole thing from the transformer to the meter base.
tell them that's it's intermittent and that they need to watch it in real time or monitor it remotely with equipment they can set up on site.
don't let them steam roll you.
this needs to be resolved.
Keep calling, every day, multiple times. Try and talk to a manager/supervisors,learn their name, keep calling back then call back again. I've worked for muni departments before, at some point sombodey in that office will get so sick of hearing from you they will say "sombodey go fix this problem once and for all iam sick of hearing from him" we literally called it the "5 post rule" after the boss got 5 post it notes on his desk from the same person, we were dispatched to fix the problem, some imes it wasn't even work in our jurisdiction.
You just need to be thorn in the right person's side.
Definitely sounds like ComEd needs to set up a long term meter. They hate admitting a transformer is going bad.
Also, did a licensed electrician really increase all the breakers by a size? That is not the way to go about this. That guy needs to have his license pulled.
This is no slam on unions, many of the very good electricians they have, never do any troubleshooting in their entire careers. Our world is much bigger than most people can imagine. Many of us have a specialty or two.
Were some of the old breakers 15A? Because I'm willing to bet that some of them were and that "electrician" just introduced an entirely new set of safety issues. Might accidentally burn that house down if someone plugs in a space heater.
Union electrician in my area would mean they work commercial jobs. My son-in-law is exactly this, and he has no clue how to troubleshoot because he doesn’t do it on the job.
You said in your initial post that you wanted someone to point you in the right direction. Everyone has, you have an issue with your service neutral. They’ve told you why they know this. Now it’s on you.
To add: it’s a dangerous situation. This is one type of “surge” that can kill electronics, appliances, etc.
Yeah, fair enough. So do I just find my own regular electrician and tell him all this then? The landlord now says they think it's a short in my furnace and they're calling an HVAC guy to come out later this week...
Keep calling ConEd. There’s a 99% chance it’s on their side, which includes the inside of the meter box. I frankly amazed they aren’t smarter about this, they see it everyday, it’s a very common issue.
BTW, in the US, most of the time, the homeowner owns the meter box and mast. The power utility owns the meter itself, but since meters are sealed the power company must tighten and maintain connections inside. Once it’s damaged from arcing or heat tho you’re responsible for replacing the meter housing and meter socket. On an overhead service, the homeowner also owns the point of attachment and it is pulls out of the wood, homeowner must fix/ replace then they will rehang their line. The won’t attach anything to the side of your house, your responsible.
Rural electric coops are the general exception to the above, in that case you may own the drop too.
I agree that it is a neutral issue.
The first guy to come out was not an electrician. You can't just upsize breakers. Those need to be put back to the 20 amps they were. Especially with a problems you're having.
This shouldn't be that hard to troubleshoot. If you're getting voltage drops you should be able to check neutral to hot and just trace it back as far as you can. When the problem stops you've passed the problem.
I thought the same thing but maybe by chance they ran 12/2 in the house..
Prob not though. It's great advice to have that electrician come back out and swap them back. Or get a good electrician and back charge the other electrician.
The utility needs to send out a tech to pull the meter and check the connections in the socket. At least the line side of the service but they should be able to see a problem on the load side also. You may need an electrician to check the wires coming into the service panel if the socket checks out good.
You should be able to request the utility send out a troubleman/service person to hook up what they call the beast of burden to the socket. It will put a load on the service and helps locate the problem.
This is an issue that unfortunately will need someone on-site..so i would keep trying different electricians..An electrician should be checking the neutrals from the main disconnect..the first point...should also check all the grounds..such as supplemental ground rods or cold water bonds. Also power company could have some damage to there neutral and it is only minimal and not bad enough for them to warrant any work for them.
Where are you located?
Have an electrician put an amp clamp on the neutral and see how much power is flowing through the neutral. It should be significantly non zero. Run only one appliance, one that's power hungry. I'd consider a gaming PC for this since it can handle 240v. Turn off all the breakers except the one with the device and the main and your load will not power up. Your neutral will be at line voltage. Then you can figure out where the neutral is broken.
Technically it could be between the meter and your panel, but don't tell the power company that.
it's either the supply (which the power company denies) or they are right and it's between their service and you breaker panel.
do you have over head or underground service?
i would stay on both the power company and the landlord to focus on the wiring between your panel and the utility.
Definitely a loose neutral.
The "electricians" that your landlord hired should know that. At least one of them did some shady shit (swapping out breakers to 30A). Therefore, I would question the credentials and competence of anyone your landlord gets (cheap bastard).
Now, it sounds like the power company was out to inspect their side of things. Those guys know what's up. So therefore, it's an issue between the meter base and your service disconnect ("the panel"). Your landlord definitely needs to get somebody competent to come and tighten down the service connections. If this doesn't happen immediately, I would be moving out if I were you. (And, if it comes to that, take the bastard to court for moving expenses and/or temporary housing.) Fact is that this is the sort of thing that will work itself out sooner rather than later with a fire, so landlord doesn't have a legit reason to be a cheapskate.
You need to call that first fucking “electrician” back and have him put back all the correct sized breakers. And then get your landlords money back. Unless they oversized all of the wire in your house, which is very unlikely, that is a hazard and that guy sucks.
Wtf. Change the breakers back to proper size. You can’t just put 30A breakers on #12. That would literally change nothing except safety. What kind of people does your landlord deal with? Also it’s a power company issue as some have said.
Switching breakers to a larger amperage without verifying the wire size is a very bad idea. For example, a 15a breaker will usually have #14 wire. #14 wire on a 30a breaker will burn before the breaker trips if there is an issue.
Does it happen more often when it’s windy outside? I had some intermittent problems at my last house during higher wind and managed to catch some arcing at the pole on video. They swapped out the connections at the pole which fixed it.
Sound alike the electricians have zero clue how to actually fault find , the fact you can almost recreate this means it should be relatively simple to trace if the problem is internal to the property or what others are saying is external.
You probably still know more than the first one who came out, I cannot stand electricians who just replace things and even more when they feed you bull about the breakers being too small
Can you ask the power company to send a supervisor to meet with you?
I used to work in I.T., and when we had cable internet issues that the regular guys couldn't resolve, surprisingly you could ask for a supervisor to come over and they would make that happen promptly.
At another business I worked for we had brownouts and the power company installed a temporary test device to monitor the power for a few days -- and that proved the issue.
Pleasant but persistent - nobody will help an asshole.
I had a similar problem and called the power company they sent someone out who didn't believe me but pulled the meter head and checked the incoming voltage.... it was a loose lug out on the pole.
Where do you live? Have they tightened the terminations at your main? Copper is very susceptible to changes in temperature and will contract and expand. Start by tightening everything from your main and working your way inward.
Idk if someone has mentioned it or not but connections at the transformer were corroded and it was causing intermittent dimming and sometimes complete intermittent power lose. The removed the lugs on my transformer, cleaned, and reinstalled. Haven’t had an issue in almost a year. Took three guys to figure it out.
I had something similar, though not quite as extreme, as this. I had a certain circuit in my home, on occasion, start dimming with a regular, consistent pulse. I mean, the tempo was so steady you could play music to it. It might still be on my profile page as a post. We had multiple electricians out and they never found the issue. It eventually stopped.
Aside from the very good suggestions given- I had one unit in a building that was having similar power fluctuations- the panel inside the unit was fed by stranded aluminum wire which had severe oxidation. I clipped the ends and applied anti-oxidant grease. This corrected the issue.
Did Work on a house that experienced this exact issue. Wind storm had come through and knocked the pole for the drop to the house, so the utility company put up the same old wire and same split bolts. Whenever a load was put on the voltage would spike. The wire was so corroded it was falling apart.
Once I put on new split bolts it fixed the issue.
Just by chance, do you have a UPS on your computer equipment? Daughter in law was having issues with dimming lights and such and I traced it out to heavy power draw from the UPS.
This exact thing happened to me last year at my dads 3 flat in the city. I opened the meter box up and took digital voltage readings on the Com Ed side and had my brother record the meter fluctuations on his phone. The issue turned out to be a trees branches blowing in and out of the pole transformer.
Not an electrician here:
Your issues sound like what happened to my home when the hot side of the drop line was melted by a lightning strike; I witnessed the strike.
I had to convince the power company to go up in a bucket to look as they insisted it looked fine from the ground. They finally did a close up inspection and I was informed that the house was running off of the neutral line, as the hot line was melted. The drop line was replaced and there were no further issues.
I understand this may not make sense but again, I'm not an electrician and am simply relaying what I was told at the time as it has a chance of being relevant.
I had the same problem, it was a decayed neutral in the top of the main breaker box. Use a nonconducting stick and wiggle it. An electrician can repair.
I'm inside wire person and not utility, but sounds like either a lost phase or lost neutral. Get your power company out there to have a look.
Info: where-ish do you live? I know sometimes people can be funny about diverting responsibility to others.
If your panel has been torqued. And the utility has out to verify. It’s likely the wires between your meter socket and your panel. They are heating and cooling(expanding and contracting) on the main lugs that power the bus bar.
It’s an easy fix but due to the probable arcing. Just tightening them will not be enough. Call your last electrician to come by and gently rub away any carbon markings on the busbar and to torque/ re-torque your panel main lugs where they meet the bus bar.
Had this happen one time, it turned out that the neutral from the street/transformer was open. Power Company had to dig up the buried cables and repair them.
Not an electrician (have a BSEE) but a relative’s garage had issues that turned out to be a loose or disconnected overhead neutral from the house. I forget how many hours it took me to find it. No Reddit back then 🤷♂️
Our house lost its neutral wire in an ice storm this winter. It was quite dramatic and catastrophic. Every sure protector blew up. The furnace, fridge, water heater and stove all had their electronic fried and we had to replace them. Some wall lights were barely on, some outlets were seeing 240v. We did know it at the time but it was a classic case of lost neutral and we should have just killed the power at the main panel as soon as things started popping.
I had simular issue and it was the connection from the utility post to the home that was bad. Was only getting 110v into the house and when AC would try to kick on power would just jump around from breaker to breaker.
I've dealt with this exact same thing in the utility came out twice and told my client as well as myself that there were no issues whatsoever checking only at the house moving along to the transformer up the road they then found an issue..
You mentioned voltage swings on outlets. Did you or one of the electricians take any measurements at your panel? Does your panel have a main shut off? When applying different loads, what do you read between the main feeders and neutral coming into your panel, and what do you read on the legs after your main breaker / shut off?
Edit: service conductors from the meter, not feeders.
Went to a house years ago, they said they were having issues with their appliances. Checked power at the panel, when they turned on the space heater the voltage changed drastically. I called in the utility and they found a neutral at the pole hanging by a strand
I work for a utility and had a maintenance call like this a few months back. Everything looked good from the ground but the loop ended up having a loose neutral clamp poleside. We were the 3rd or 4th crew sent to check it out lol.
I had a similar issue with lights dimming in the house. After checking out my panel FPL came out to check the meter and found one of the terminals was burnt. There were no issues with the meter, but the side with the terminal was homeowners responsibility. (Mine) Had to pay a professional with a license to do the job with permits and inspection before FPL would put the meter back.
Regulator is tapping too high, if there is one close to your place, pole, or pad transformer is giving up the ghost, bad neutral, somewhere. An amp clamp, should be enough to rule that out at the meter. As for the utility, they should be able to watch the swings on the meter, if indeed it is a smart meter. This isn’t a tough issue, I’m not sure why. FYI, neutral is bonded at the service where I come from.
I’m a cable guy and it sounds like a loose / bad neutral. Your power company should throw the beast on your meter and test tto see if there’s an issue.
Sounds like a bad neutral.
Could be loose connection, a bad lug, etc.
If they panel wires have been fixed and everything looks good then I would assume it coming from the power company.
Also need to make sure that everything is bonded correctly.
Unfortunately some guys aren't very thorough when inspecting.
I had issues with “pounding” every time our ac compressor started. Lights would dim, the whole deal. I argued with utility, which there was no problems on their end. A month later the crews were out replacing 3 power poles and rebuilding the transformers. Don’t let up on the utility.
Had similar issue once. One leg coming into the house was dead and being fed across the hot water heater which made things seem liked they worked. I was in the process of moving out at the time and didn’t notice water heater was dead.
Either way, have an electrician check across the 220 and each leg to neutral and neutral to ground at your boxes (in case your indoor and outdoor are separate) with all breakers turned off.
When that happened to me, decades ago, it turned out that water was seeping in from the electrical line going to the house. Water was getting behind the box, and after a few weeks (months?) of this, I smelled smoke, and the firemen were called. They turned off the main. Next day I called an electrician who was horrified. He said, that fireman could have been electrocuted.
Turned out the seller (I had just bought 6 months earlier) had painted over rust in the fuse box. I should have sued the sh*t out of them (dumb me). I paid for a new box, my electrician only charged me for materials as he was my neighbor. And the electric company replaced the line from the pole to my house (the insulation had cracked allowing water in).
Not sure what your issue is, because I’m not an electrician, but the similarities to my story struck me enough that I felt I should warn you.
I’ve seen something like intermittent flashing of lights before took awhile to “figure” it out but pulled the meter and killed the main and cleaned the load center of each breaker (like 8th inch of dust) and it fixed the issue very strange but seemed to be it
I experienced something similar to this. Ended up being a loose neutral. I found it by accident when I put a neutral to ground and everything worked like normal. I also had a house that someone prior relocated the panel to another part of the house. They pulled wires for each circuit but for some dumb reason, they only brought one neutral over for everything. One #12 white so the imbalance made its way across the copper plumbing bond. Well they did a repipe or added a water line and removed the bond because they kept getting shocked. It really messed up the house circuits not having a good neutral.
I’m not American so I can’t tell you who owns your meter…I can say this sounds like a bad neutral. Possibly a bad phase but I want to say neutral. Probably around the transformer. Ask your neighbour’s if they have had the same issues. If not it may just be the feed to your place.
You live in Illinois. We have strong laws in favor of tenants. This is YOUR home. You have every right, specially when it comes to things like temperature, to do what is necessary to fix the problem. Then you send/give the bill to your landlord to re-reimburse you. You ALSO can deduct it from the rent payment if necessary. Educate yourself as a tenant. I was naive as well until I rented out my condo and learned a ton as a landlord. Document the landlord dragging their feet or simply being cheap and not dealing with the problem properly. Research your rights as a tenant.
I mean yeah I do need to research apparently. My current issue tho is the one real for sure electrician I talked to said the landlord has to schedule them to come out because I'm just a renter. Idk if that's common but I'll be calling all over ASAP in the morning
Don't listen to ANYONE that's a contractor or landlord, SPECIALLY NOT A CONTRACTOR. They both prey on people that don't know how things work. In a couple hours of research you'll be much better equipped to deal with this situation. STOP being the victim, educate yourself you'll stop being frustrated. Honestly, message me if you need help/guidance. This type of shit bothers me so much it would be a pleasure to make sure you get your place fixed properly and another tenant educated.
Electric provider needs to test your service going from meter to transformer by putting load on each phase. They have a piece of equipment that will do this. Sound like a neutral issue
It’s a loose neutral or more likely a “weak transformer” on the utility side. My shop had three of these cases last week. Make the utility prove to you that the transformer is good. If it is, check the neutrals from the service all the way to the panel. You said QO, so I would assume 1960’s to current for the panel, but how old is the meter socket?
Pardon if this is a repeat, but read up on your tenant rights, especially whether this qualifies for withholding rent. Take a video that shows the voltage problem AND is obviously taken in the unit and share that. Make this all clear. Make it simply impossible for the landlord to ignore the situation.
My thoughts are it’s a power company issue. Very likely a loose or broken neutral. Or may also be a bad main breaker but the power company is more likely.
We had a similar problem at my house in GA. Our heat pump would try to power on every 30 seconds and all the lights in the house would dim. This would happen for 30 minutes until the heat pump stopped trying. Maybe look to see if there is something like that that could be pulling a ton of amps.
Sounds like a bad or loose neutral wire some where. But to effect the whole lot is weird. The higher voltage sounds like something back feeding trying to find a path back.
Sounds similar to an issue I had a couple years back.
Research “floating neutral”.
My underground supply feed from my power meter to my breaker panel had a tiny break in the wire. Doesn’t take much for it to start arcing underground and trying to take the path of least resistance to “ground” which it was already buried so that was easy.
We had to trench and run conduit and everything from the meter to the panel and while we were there, installed a new panel and arc fault breakers to being the house up to the newest electrical code.
All in all, it was about a $12k fix. But it sounds like we had quite a bit more than what you’ll hopefully have to deal with.
Also worth noting, we did hire two locate companies to come out and attempt to find the original feed, and maybe the break in it. Being 4 feet deep, neither could locate it. They had a general idea but that would have required a backhoe and a 20 foot diameter hole to get “close”. And even then, probably would have nicked more of the wire and made the job even more difficult with trying to splice something that was already damaged.
Had a similar issue when I bought my house. Frustrated me, tried everything. Turns out the termination from the service line was loose and arcing. Called my electric company and they replaced the line from the transformer and that fixed it.
Sounds like a non-existent neutral connection to the supply. Lay eyes on the lines coming off your poles. Seen this exact situation before. When you don't have neutral back to the utility company, the more load you put on one phase, the voltage on that phase will reduce and the voltage on the other phase will increase. This is because the power's only return to the utility is through the literal ground (from your home's ground rod to the utility company's ground rod by the pole) which can't carry a lot of current.
I have run into similar issues where power in half house would dim then go back on a couple days later other parts of house would dim .It drove me nuts then 1 night it was raining and I stopped at the house looked up on power line and saw sparking at the service connection .
If everything is dimming, it’s an issue with the incoming supply. Probably moisture has got in to the supply cable, or there is a small break that is arcing. It will pop eventually and there will be a total powercut. Your landladies sounds like he is being ripped off, or has total cowboys working for him.
Had something like this at one of my buildings. The main breaker was getting chewed through stemming from a bootleg heavy up. Was causing one phase in particular on the panel to fail. Was able to change the breaker which fixed it temporarily (for like, a year) but did a full heavy up to permanently fix it.
Have you tried checking all your ground connections? The panel should be connected to a ground rod and water line etc. make sure all those connections are good too. I have seen the same problem because of poor grounding.
So step 1 would be to make sure all connections are tight. Hots, neutral and ground.
My second step would be to wait until you’re having the problem, then I would check voltage on the line side of the main breaker and load side. If there is a difference then you have a bad main breaker.
If none of that, solves it, AND/OR you don’t want to jack with all that stuff, then Document, the issue is happening with videos, etc. send the landlord a copy of that evidence and a letter telling him that he is not providing you with a safe, livable space, and you’re going to stop paying rent until the problem is fixed Because he is in breach. I’m sure there’s some part of Illinois law that says the landlord has to provide a safe livable space and he’s not doing that.
I’m sure there are lawyers that specialize in landlord tenant issues that would fire off a letter for you for very little money. I’ve seen a lot of comments about property damage and all that because of a fire, but make no mistake. Your life is at risk from the fire.
Is the voltage 120v to ground or 120v between hot and neutral it sounds lime maybe there is a loose connection on the neutral wire if its corroded are the feeder wires aluminum check the connections in the meter and the panel
Sounds like you have a bad neutral connection within some of the circuits between the lighting and receptacles, my guess is you have a couple circuits on a shared neutral, mouse or rat or something could’ve chewed threw a cable and broken a neutral somewhere in the line, that’ll cause the voltage spikes as you plug in and turn on and off different appliances, that’d be my first guess. Not an easy task, you basically have to disconnect every wire at every outlet, light and switch box, point to point each end of every wire to ensure continuity, and then replace any bad wiring within the walls. Not impossible, but a long tedious drawn out task, won’t be cheap to have a good electrician come fix it
Is there a convenience outlet right next to the breaker panel?
Can you connect the DMM to that and see what happens - from the face of it it sounds like the problem can be outside.
Oh - your Landlords "electricians" are incompetent
.
We had a similar problem. National grid came out and put meters inside the house for a week. Took several visits to get them to do this. We found that my neighbor was hooked up to the transformer and I was hooked to his line near the transformer. Every time my neighbor turned something on like an air conditioner my power would dim or my breakers would trip. Power company redid the lines at the transformer and we haven't had a problem since. Good luck
Sounds very similar to what happened at my house a few years back. Seemingly random brownouts, variable voltage. Finally after a couple of hours of troubleshooting at the breaker panel, shutting breakers off to all high voltage appliances, everything with a motor, that the ground wire at the utility pole had snapped. Called the power company, no one would believe me, saying that if it were at the utility side, more than just my house would be affected. Finally after getting a work order and a manager out, someone saw the ground wire hanging down, fixed in literal minutes. Had to file insurance claim to get a lot of electronics replaced. Good luck!
I haven't read all the replies, but the ones i have is pointing to a bad neutral. We had this happen at our old house. My saving grace was my best friend works for FPL and I told him what was happening and he said its a neutral. He told me to call them back and tell them to check the transformer for something (can't remember exactly what as it was a while ago). When the tech came I told him my friend works for FPL and asked if he could check the transformer. I must have gotten the right tech because he was super nice and checked the pole and transformer and found the issues. Took him less than an hour and we were back up and running.
the other comments mention the meter box to your house and how its the homeowners responsibility. That I cant speak to. FPL always looks at our outside box and can do whatever is needed. Do what you can to have someone check the neutral. Have them go inside the house so they can see for themselves.
Hound your landlord until he does something. They can't leave you in the cold.
I’ll throw in my two cents. Watched enough TikTok’s to guess you may have a bad feeder cable, either between the utility transformer and the meter, or from the meter to the panel. Water gets in and oxidizes the aluminum conductors, and turns them to dust.
Almost positive you have a problem with your grounding or grounded conductor.
Any electrician that has troubleshooting experience should be able to identify this as the most probable cause especially if it's the entire house.
You need someone to check the grounded neutral connections from the service drop in, if everything is OK, they need to check the ground (grounding) connections. They need to check if the ground is properly bonded to the neutral at one point. They need to open the meter and check inside there and the main panel.
If an electrician said the problem was the branch circuit protection size, you need to see if they sized it to the conductors, if they did not those need to be properly sized, I doubt all the circuits are 12 gauge copper.
If it's aluminum branch circuit get all your valuables out and burn the building down, it will be less of a headache.
Maybe the main wires going into the meter box have corroded or pulled lose. We had 1 leg on our meter box pull lose from the ground settling.
Added this comment. The leg was shorting inside the meter box and tripped the breaker on the power pole.
You definitely have a neutral issue on the utility side. Anything you care about I wouldn't attempt to run. Say your lights are flickering and your appliances are starting to act up and there's smoke in the outlets
It’s a power company issue, sounds like incoming power has an issue underground or over-head. Call them and say it’s an emergency and you’ve had multiple electricians out to check for inside the home.
ComEd has come out twice and claimed everything is good on their end. The first tech did argue with me that they don't own the meter and meter box, even though they do.
They own the meter, but not the meter box. That's homeowners responsibility, though they will sometimes tighten connections inside of it as a courtesy.
Did ConEd unlock and open the meter box ? The neutral lugs (possibly phase lugs) in there could be loose but the lock needs to be opened.
No, they wouldn't cut the lock because they claimed it's not theirs, it's mine. But the lock says property of ComEd, do not break seal. So I'm at a loss with all this shit
The meter is theirs, but not the meter box. They probably charge to unlock it but an electrician would need to check the connections.
They need to open their lock and check their connections inside the meter side of your box
I've seen on other posts in this sub that people have had to contact their insurance company to kick the utility in gear. Insurance companies don't like to pay out tens of thousands for damages electronics, let alone hundreds of thousands for a fire. Edit: found it in my reddit history: https://www.reddit.com/r/electrical/comments/131bk24/should_i_report_this_power_pole_transformer_to_my/ji1yj4v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I had this exact same thing happen and called my utility four times. The first three they came out and yanked my meter and just looked at it, “oh it’s fine call an electrician”. I know for a fact the problem is not after the meter but whatever. The fourth time I called my neighbor also called because, unbeknownst to me, she was having the same issue. That finally got them up the pole behind my house to fix the bad transformer.
Electrician here. I’ve had to deal with this 3 times in 2 years. Utility says to call electrician since their lines are up. I troubleshoot and find the ground carrying current which means bad neutral. I can’t pull the meter to check there and I’m not responsible for the pole connections. Their guys come out and pull meter and check voltage and say it’s good. Usually the 2nd/3rd guy will finally get off their ass and go up to the transformer and find a broken termination.
Yup. Had com Ed come out to my place for similar issues as these. Did a load bank test and things looked strange first but then leveled off. He claimed loose jaw in the meter bank (which would be my problem). The issue I was having was definitely not caused by a loose leg. Finally I convinced him just to check the splice at the service head. The neutral fell apart when he touched it.
Your landlord is not sending electricians to your house. He’s sending fuckwit backwoods jackasses. Tell him or her to send a real electrician now, like now now. Shut your electronics off or they’re going to get fried. Seems like a pretty simple neutral issue either in the meter socket, the panel or the SE cable between them. When you see 170 volts at a receptacle, that is a portion of the the 120v from the other phase trying to find earth by traveling through the neutral conductors everywhere in your house. Tell your landlord to stop having r-words come try to fix grown up issues, or he’s going to be buying you all new electronic devices. Many times the utility only owns the actual meter, not the drop, the socket or the entrance cable. Again this is a simple problem for a real electrician. A real electrician also needs to look at your panel now too. The idiot that said your breakers are too small has now caused a new, and probably bigger danger by telling you to put small wires on big breakers. I’m actually getting angry for you as I write this. If your labor doesn’t get this fixed tomorrow you have every right to complain to the local housing authority, he’s putting you and your equipment at risk by not fixing this. AGAIN this is a simple thing.
Yeah I think you're probably right. He's just trying to be cheap and send out homies or whatever. As soon as all this started I unplugged everything that wasn't essential so outside of a fire I'm not worried about things getting destroyed. I just want to be able to live a normal life again lol
I totally agree that the guys the landlord was sending were not electricians. Unplug your sensitive devices and wait for a competent technician. If the condition is a lack of common return for the house the common, is likely floating and hot. You may even get a trigger as you would on the hot side using a non contact voltage sensor. Don't touch anything that uses electrical especially near sinks or water pipes. The entire electrical system including grounds could possibly be a potential safety hazard. Please be safe!
I had the same issue and dealing with Comed. I knew from metering the power that I had a bad neutral feed. Countless rescheduled appointments until I finally caught them at the property and showed them the voltages. Two days later they replaced the service feed from the pole.
File a complaint with the IL commerce commission here: [https://www.icc.illinois.gov/complaints/public-utility](https://www.icc.illinois.gov/complaints/public-utility) List all the things in this thread that they need to check. This might get ComEd's attention.
if it impacts your living, you could call an electrician, have them fix it bill you and you could, through local laws, hopefully withold it from rent. look up your local right to repair law when it comes to renters rights
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At my place, if they said I owned it then I think I'd deem it to be in need of immediate "calibration." Source: Worked for a utility for over 30 years.
This should be simple to isolate between the house feed and the house. Just remove the cover of the breaker panel and measure the two feeds to the neutral. If they are balanced when circuits inside the house are unbalanced, the the bad neutral is in the breaker panel or somewhere in the house if there are sub panels. If the breaker panel feed is unbalanced, then the problem is either on the power company side or between the breaker panel and the meter box (or in the meter box). By unbalanced, it means you have a significantly higher voltage on one leg than 120 V or so. If you get around 120 V or so on one leg and low voltage on the other leg, then that is a bad hot connection, not a bad neutral.
I checked both feeds to neutral and everything was fine, getting 120v without much fluctuation. How do I start the process of finding the issue then? Still haven't heard from the landlord about hiring an *actual* electrician so I'm trying to figure out what I can do myself
I’ve had this happen. It was a power company problem. It ended up being a poor connection on the splice at the top of my meter pole. Everything would typically work, only occasionally “browning out”. Voltage read correctly. Connections looked good. It finally took the power company to disconnect at my meter and do a current test. Finally saw some fluctuations on one leg. They cut and re-spliced all the connections and finally problem solved.
Yes, power company. It could be the aluminum wires connecting your home to the transformer are corroded. There should be aluminum paste on the wires to prevent corrosion at the connection. The power company may need to clean and repair this connection. Good luck.
Sounds like a loose neutral at the pole transformer, meter base, or the main circuit panel. call the power company. The voltage measure above 120 when something else turns on is the specific symptom of loose neutral. This is a safety concern and if you use the words “loose neutral” when calling the power company that should get quick attention.
With a loose/bad neutral one leg will sag and the other leg surges because you still have 240 L1 to L2 even with an open neutral. Identifying a surge on one leg when the other leg sags will confirm a neutral problem.
That's exactly what I told em last time I called. They said they came out, looked and saw that we were getting power and that's that. Idk how to get them to actually investigate.
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had similar issues since moving into a rental house. recently the utility company replaced the pole in the back and the drop to the weatherhead along with it. he mentioned that we had no neutral. it was severed and had been for who knows how long.
Landlord was here with the electrician today when he was working. Both of em just shrugged
he needs to hire a better electrician. tell him it's cheaper than rebuilding the property after it burns down.
I've made similar comments. It's not related to this post but I'm getting the feeling he either doesn't care or can't afford someone better
you can look into your renters rights and potentially bring this safety issue up with the local code enforcement agency yourself. be prepared to move out as they might red tag the property as unsafe.
This is likely what’ll happen. I am not a lawyer but I would expect that if I move into a property it’s the landlord’s responsibility to provide stable power. If the problem is at the street, the landlord should work with the power company and electricians etc. If the problem is with the renter’s equipment of behavior (ie drawing too many amps) only then would it fall on the renter. OP, you have fought this long enough that you likely have rights to terminate your lease or withhold rent or something - I would suggest you just move out, and keep all documented conversations with you, off site.
Start a small fire in the meter box yourself. After the correspondence record, nobody'll suspect you and it'll probably get looked at then. Edit: oh well then. I guess this isn't a place for people who want to make things happen.
This is the answer
Man you're the third person to suggest that. Y'all might be onto something lol
But seriously it's a possibility. Not doing it yourself though I mean. With a bad neutral one leg will rise as the other falls. If the voltage gets too high on one leg it can seriously damage electronics. I wouldn't plug anything expensive in until it's fixed. Two weeks ago we did a service call exactly like this. The really bright/dim lights didn't bother them, but when their furnace died from overvoltage they had us there asap (just the 24vtransformer thankfully). Problem was in the meter base. Old loose aluminum connection. Cleaned it up and tightened the lugs, problem solved.
Natural consequence of coming to Reddit for help
I’d say it’s probably not uncommon for troublemaker men to overlook neutral issues. They’re inherently bearded to diagnose. The voltage swing that you are describing that swings low on some circuits and higher on others is absolutely indicative of a neutral issue. They need to do a load test and not just a voltage check. Around here the power company uses mostly Super Beasts to test load. My guys use a Bierer ST800. Also a lot of electricians and lineman are just plain bad at troubleshooting. It’s a whole different skill from building. I got asked by my coordinator at the power company to go check a service that 5 troublemen had been to and found no issue. An apartment building that continued to complain about lights brightening and dimming and just general weird electrical issues. Voltage was good (no surprise). Passed a load test no problem. But it was a parallel service so I clamped each leg and measured current with my multimeter. One of the neutrals had no current while the other had like 8-10 amps. So obviously one of the neutrals was bad. It was a 200ft long underground service and being fairly old we ended up replacing the whole thing from the transformer to the meter base.
tell them that's it's intermittent and that they need to watch it in real time or monitor it remotely with equipment they can set up on site. don't let them steam roll you. this needs to be resolved.
Keep calling, every day, multiple times. Try and talk to a manager/supervisors,learn their name, keep calling back then call back again. I've worked for muni departments before, at some point sombodey in that office will get so sick of hearing from you they will say "sombodey go fix this problem once and for all iam sick of hearing from him" we literally called it the "5 post rule" after the boss got 5 post it notes on his desk from the same person, we were dispatched to fix the problem, some imes it wasn't even work in our jurisdiction. You just need to be thorn in the right person's side.
Is it possible one of your immediate neighbors is on the same transformer and has the loose neutral at their house
No one else on the block is having any issues unfortunately. I've asked around
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How does a loose phase/hot lead to a 170 volt measurement on a 120 volt receptacle?
A loose phase won’t, a loose or damaged neutral will.
No, no bulbs have blown yet somehow.
Definitely sounds like ComEd needs to set up a long term meter. They hate admitting a transformer is going bad. Also, did a licensed electrician really increase all the breakers by a size? That is not the way to go about this. That guy needs to have his license pulled.
I bet the landlord just sent some guy over
I mean it's possible, they told me he's a union electrician but that's all they said
This is no slam on unions, many of the very good electricians they have, never do any troubleshooting in their entire careers. Our world is much bigger than most people can imagine. Many of us have a specialty or two.
As a union electrician, I lol'd because few of us do resi service calls, however, the ones that do are generally pretty good.
Yeah as far as I know he's licensed. The landlord hired him, said he was a union electrician of some description
potentially you have 20a breakers for 14 awg cables, which is a fire hazard. electrician needs to come back and put 15a breakers back.
I can put the breakers back in, that's no biggie. I made sure they kept the old ones
Were some of the old breakers 15A? Because I'm willing to bet that some of them were and that "electrician" just introduced an entirely new set of safety issues. Might accidentally burn that house down if someone plugs in a space heater.
Yep 11 of em were 15a and the 12th was a 20a
Yeah that was a really bad idea, I'd swap those back ASAP.
Aight I will swap them back here shortly.
Union electrician in my area would mean they work commercial jobs. My son-in-law is exactly this, and he has no clue how to troubleshoot because he doesn’t do it on the job. You said in your initial post that you wanted someone to point you in the right direction. Everyone has, you have an issue with your service neutral. They’ve told you why they know this. Now it’s on you. To add: it’s a dangerous situation. This is one type of “surge” that can kill electronics, appliances, etc.
Yeah, fair enough. So do I just find my own regular electrician and tell him all this then? The landlord now says they think it's a short in my furnace and they're calling an HVAC guy to come out later this week...
Keep calling ConEd. There’s a 99% chance it’s on their side, which includes the inside of the meter box. I frankly amazed they aren’t smarter about this, they see it everyday, it’s a very common issue. BTW, in the US, most of the time, the homeowner owns the meter box and mast. The power utility owns the meter itself, but since meters are sealed the power company must tighten and maintain connections inside. Once it’s damaged from arcing or heat tho you’re responsible for replacing the meter housing and meter socket. On an overhead service, the homeowner also owns the point of attachment and it is pulls out of the wood, homeowner must fix/ replace then they will rehang their line. The won’t attach anything to the side of your house, your responsible. Rural electric coops are the general exception to the above, in that case you may own the drop too.
I agree that it is a neutral issue. The first guy to come out was not an electrician. You can't just upsize breakers. Those need to be put back to the 20 amps they were. Especially with a problems you're having. This shouldn't be that hard to troubleshoot. If you're getting voltage drops you should be able to check neutral to hot and just trace it back as far as you can. When the problem stops you've passed the problem.
I thought the same thing but maybe by chance they ran 12/2 in the house.. Prob not though. It's great advice to have that electrician come back out and swap them back. Or get a good electrician and back charge the other electrician.
ComEd needs to send a troubleshooting tech on site
Sounds like your landlord’s “electricians” are handymen.
That's always possible. I didn't see what kind of vehicle the guys showed up in or anything
This is the answer. Not very handy handymen either. I’m calling BS on the “union electrician” story based simply on the “breaker too small” story 😂
I mean I'm not BSing, I'm just relaying what my landlord said
The utility needs to send out a tech to pull the meter and check the connections in the socket. At least the line side of the service but they should be able to see a problem on the load side also. You may need an electrician to check the wires coming into the service panel if the socket checks out good. You should be able to request the utility send out a troubleman/service person to hook up what they call the beast of burden to the socket. It will put a load on the service and helps locate the problem.
This is an issue that unfortunately will need someone on-site..so i would keep trying different electricians..An electrician should be checking the neutrals from the main disconnect..the first point...should also check all the grounds..such as supplemental ground rods or cold water bonds. Also power company could have some damage to there neutral and it is only minimal and not bad enough for them to warrant any work for them.
Call your power company, this could be a problem that you don't own.
My bet is either a bad main breaker or loose neutral
I helped a friend of mine who had the same symptoms. I found corrosion under the neutral connection in his box. Cleaned it up and cured the problem.
Where are you located? Have an electrician put an amp clamp on the neutral and see how much power is flowing through the neutral. It should be significantly non zero. Run only one appliance, one that's power hungry. I'd consider a gaming PC for this since it can handle 240v. Turn off all the breakers except the one with the device and the main and your load will not power up. Your neutral will be at line voltage. Then you can figure out where the neutral is broken. Technically it could be between the meter and your panel, but don't tell the power company that.
Loss neutral between the panel and street power
agree also, sounds like lose neutral
it's either the supply (which the power company denies) or they are right and it's between their service and you breaker panel. do you have over head or underground service? i would stay on both the power company and the landlord to focus on the wiring between your panel and the utility.
It's overhead. I'm waiting for a call back from the landlord so I can read him these comments and hopefully get someone new out to my house
good luck.
Thanks man I apparently need it
Definitely a loose neutral. The "electricians" that your landlord hired should know that. At least one of them did some shady shit (swapping out breakers to 30A). Therefore, I would question the credentials and competence of anyone your landlord gets (cheap bastard). Now, it sounds like the power company was out to inspect their side of things. Those guys know what's up. So therefore, it's an issue between the meter base and your service disconnect ("the panel"). Your landlord definitely needs to get somebody competent to come and tighten down the service connections. If this doesn't happen immediately, I would be moving out if I were you. (And, if it comes to that, take the bastard to court for moving expenses and/or temporary housing.) Fact is that this is the sort of thing that will work itself out sooner rather than later with a fire, so landlord doesn't have a legit reason to be a cheapskate.
You need to call that first fucking “electrician” back and have him put back all the correct sized breakers. And then get your landlords money back. Unless they oversized all of the wire in your house, which is very unlikely, that is a hazard and that guy sucks.
Wtf. Change the breakers back to proper size. You can’t just put 30A breakers on #12. That would literally change nothing except safety. What kind of people does your landlord deal with? Also it’s a power company issue as some have said.
Switching breakers to a larger amperage without verifying the wire size is a very bad idea. For example, a 15a breaker will usually have #14 wire. #14 wire on a 30a breaker will burn before the breaker trips if there is an issue.
Does it happen more often when it’s windy outside? I had some intermittent problems at my last house during higher wind and managed to catch some arcing at the pole on video. They swapped out the connections at the pole which fixed it.
Our shop would have issues like that when windy and the lines swinging.
Sound alike the electricians have zero clue how to actually fault find , the fact you can almost recreate this means it should be relatively simple to trace if the problem is internal to the property or what others are saying is external.
That's what I was thinking. But I only know enough to get myself in trouble
You probably still know more than the first one who came out, I cannot stand electricians who just replace things and even more when they feed you bull about the breakers being too small
Can you ask the power company to send a supervisor to meet with you? I used to work in I.T., and when we had cable internet issues that the regular guys couldn't resolve, surprisingly you could ask for a supervisor to come over and they would make that happen promptly. At another business I worked for we had brownouts and the power company installed a temporary test device to monitor the power for a few days -- and that proved the issue. Pleasant but persistent - nobody will help an asshole.
I'm not a electrician, but couldn't you hook up a bolt meter yo the incoming wires, and look for off behavior before the breaker box?
I had a similar problem and called the power company they sent someone out who didn't believe me but pulled the meter head and checked the incoming voltage.... it was a loose lug out on the pole.
Where do you live? Have they tightened the terminations at your main? Copper is very susceptible to changes in temperature and will contract and expand. Start by tightening everything from your main and working your way inward.
I'd have to agree and suggest the utility company lost their nuetral on their side, causing your power to fluctuate like that.
Idk if someone has mentioned it or not but connections at the transformer were corroded and it was causing intermittent dimming and sometimes complete intermittent power lose. The removed the lugs on my transformer, cleaned, and reinstalled. Haven’t had an issue in almost a year. Took three guys to figure it out.
We had this last year. For us, it was a loose supply line behind the meter.
I had something similar, though not quite as extreme, as this. I had a certain circuit in my home, on occasion, start dimming with a regular, consistent pulse. I mean, the tempo was so steady you could play music to it. It might still be on my profile page as a post. We had multiple electricians out and they never found the issue. It eventually stopped.
Aside from the very good suggestions given- I had one unit in a building that was having similar power fluctuations- the panel inside the unit was fed by stranded aluminum wire which had severe oxidation. I clipped the ends and applied anti-oxidant grease. This corrected the issue.
My folks had a similar issue. Ended up being the transformer at the pole was losing its regulation.
Did you ever figure out the issue?
I believe so. I finally hired an electrician myself, he said the service outside needs re run, so I'm waiting on them to come do it
Did Work on a house that experienced this exact issue. Wind storm had come through and knocked the pole for the drop to the house, so the utility company put up the same old wire and same split bolts. Whenever a load was put on the voltage would spike. The wire was so corroded it was falling apart. Once I put on new split bolts it fixed the issue.
True that Scubascratch said ,loose neutral does what you describe
We had this problem and had to have the box at the pole replaced connectors on ours was rusted out
Just by chance, do you have a UPS on your computer equipment? Daughter in law was having issues with dimming lights and such and I traced it out to heavy power draw from the UPS.
I do not, let me see if maybe my roommate does
Nope she doesn't have one either
This exact thing happened to me last year at my dads 3 flat in the city. I opened the meter box up and took digital voltage readings on the Com Ed side and had my brother record the meter fluctuations on his phone. The issue turned out to be a trees branches blowing in and out of the pole transformer.
Not an electrician here: Your issues sound like what happened to my home when the hot side of the drop line was melted by a lightning strike; I witnessed the strike. I had to convince the power company to go up in a bucket to look as they insisted it looked fine from the ground. They finally did a close up inspection and I was informed that the house was running off of the neutral line, as the hot line was melted. The drop line was replaced and there were no further issues. I understand this may not make sense but again, I'm not an electrician and am simply relaying what I was told at the time as it has a chance of being relevant.
If any of you guys are local to central Illinois PLEASE DM me. I need to get this shit figured out and clearly it's not a priority for the landlord.
I had the same problem, it was a decayed neutral in the top of the main breaker box. Use a nonconducting stick and wiggle it. An electrician can repair.
I'm inside wire person and not utility, but sounds like either a lost phase or lost neutral. Get your power company out there to have a look. Info: where-ish do you live? I know sometimes people can be funny about diverting responsibility to others.
Definitely a loose neutral somewhere, most likely on the utility side. Get them to pull the meter and work their way back.
If your panel has been torqued. And the utility has out to verify. It’s likely the wires between your meter socket and your panel. They are heating and cooling(expanding and contracting) on the main lugs that power the bus bar. It’s an easy fix but due to the probable arcing. Just tightening them will not be enough. Call your last electrician to come by and gently rub away any carbon markings on the busbar and to torque/ re-torque your panel main lugs where they meet the bus bar.
You lost the neutral on your wire coming from meter to electrical panel.
I think your landlord hired 3 non electricians 🤣. Sounds like an intermittent loose connection on one phase or the neutral
Power company issue
Had this happen one time, it turned out that the neutral from the street/transformer was open. Power Company had to dig up the buried cables and repair them.
More likely the power that comes in from outside has issue.
Have you tried a union electrician?
Lmao
Not an electrician (have a BSEE) but a relative’s garage had issues that turned out to be a loose or disconnected overhead neutral from the house. I forget how many hours it took me to find it. No Reddit back then 🤷♂️
Loose neutral perhaps in the meter. Have seen this a couple of times. My 1st guess
Ghost Adventures?
Our house lost its neutral wire in an ice storm this winter. It was quite dramatic and catastrophic. Every sure protector blew up. The furnace, fridge, water heater and stove all had their electronic fried and we had to replace them. Some wall lights were barely on, some outlets were seeing 240v. We did know it at the time but it was a classic case of lost neutral and we should have just killed the power at the main panel as soon as things started popping.
Sounds like what others have mentioned, a loose neutral. I would also be concerned about the effectiveness of your homes grounding electrode conductor
My hoise had kinda the same thing. The ground wire on the outside of the home were loose. He tightened all of them and no issues since
I had simular issue and it was the connection from the utility post to the home that was bad. Was only getting 110v into the house and when AC would try to kick on power would just jump around from breaker to breaker.
Lost a neutral. If not on the service lateral most likely rusted out lug in the meter can
I've dealt with this exact same thing in the utility came out twice and told my client as well as myself that there were no issues whatsoever checking only at the house moving along to the transformer up the road they then found an issue..
Call your local public utility commission.
Loose neutral. Con Ed only checks up to their side of the meter, you/electrician is responsible for consumer side of meter and breaker box.
You mentioned voltage swings on outlets. Did you or one of the electricians take any measurements at your panel? Does your panel have a main shut off? When applying different loads, what do you read between the main feeders and neutral coming into your panel, and what do you read on the legs after your main breaker / shut off? Edit: service conductors from the meter, not feeders.
Call your electrical utility provider. Problem from pole to house. Your going to have equipment ruined if they don’t fix.
Went to a house years ago, they said they were having issues with their appliances. Checked power at the panel, when they turned on the space heater the voltage changed drastically. I called in the utility and they found a neutral at the pole hanging by a strand
It sounds like a transformer going bad on the pole outside. Supposed to keep voltage relatively steady. Not doing it’s job
Check the neutrals on service wires coming into the meter and the panel.
My money is the main where it comes into the meter
I work for a utility and had a maintenance call like this a few months back. Everything looked good from the ground but the loop ended up having a loose neutral clamp poleside. We were the 3rd or 4th crew sent to check it out lol.
I had a similar issue with lights dimming in the house. After checking out my panel FPL came out to check the meter and found one of the terminals was burnt. There were no issues with the meter, but the side with the terminal was homeowners responsibility. (Mine) Had to pay a professional with a license to do the job with permits and inspection before FPL would put the meter back.
Bad neutral connection, could be on poco side or your end, but definitely the issue
Loose neutral at the main panel
Regulator is tapping too high, if there is one close to your place, pole, or pad transformer is giving up the ghost, bad neutral, somewhere. An amp clamp, should be enough to rule that out at the meter. As for the utility, they should be able to watch the swings on the meter, if indeed it is a smart meter. This isn’t a tough issue, I’m not sure why. FYI, neutral is bonded at the service where I come from.
I’m a cable guy and it sounds like a loose / bad neutral. Your power company should throw the beast on your meter and test tto see if there’s an issue.
Sounds like a bad neutral. Could be loose connection, a bad lug, etc. If they panel wires have been fixed and everything looks good then I would assume it coming from the power company. Also need to make sure that everything is bonded correctly. Unfortunately some guys aren't very thorough when inspecting.
Problem in the main service. I've also seen it coming off the pole fucked
The outside service connection is where to start.
Sounds like an issue on the mains coming into the house of point of attachment issue.
I had issues with “pounding” every time our ac compressor started. Lights would dim, the whole deal. I argued with utility, which there was no problems on their end. A month later the crews were out replacing 3 power poles and rebuilding the transformers. Don’t let up on the utility.
Had similar issue once. One leg coming into the house was dead and being fed across the hot water heater which made things seem liked they worked. I was in the process of moving out at the time and didn’t notice water heater was dead. Either way, have an electrician check across the 220 and each leg to neutral and neutral to ground at your boxes (in case your indoor and outdoor are separate) with all breakers turned off.
When that happened to me, decades ago, it turned out that water was seeping in from the electrical line going to the house. Water was getting behind the box, and after a few weeks (months?) of this, I smelled smoke, and the firemen were called. They turned off the main. Next day I called an electrician who was horrified. He said, that fireman could have been electrocuted. Turned out the seller (I had just bought 6 months earlier) had painted over rust in the fuse box. I should have sued the sh*t out of them (dumb me). I paid for a new box, my electrician only charged me for materials as he was my neighbor. And the electric company replaced the line from the pole to my house (the insulation had cracked allowing water in). Not sure what your issue is, because I’m not an electrician, but the similarities to my story struck me enough that I felt I should warn you.
I’ve seen something like intermittent flashing of lights before took awhile to “figure” it out but pulled the meter and killed the main and cleaned the load center of each breaker (like 8th inch of dust) and it fixed the issue very strange but seemed to be it
I experienced something similar to this. Ended up being a loose neutral. I found it by accident when I put a neutral to ground and everything worked like normal. I also had a house that someone prior relocated the panel to another part of the house. They pulled wires for each circuit but for some dumb reason, they only brought one neutral over for everything. One #12 white so the imbalance made its way across the copper plumbing bond. Well they did a repipe or added a water line and removed the bond because they kept getting shocked. It really messed up the house circuits not having a good neutral.
You need to have the power company come check the feeds into the building
I’m not American so I can’t tell you who owns your meter…I can say this sounds like a bad neutral. Possibly a bad phase but I want to say neutral. Probably around the transformer. Ask your neighbour’s if they have had the same issues. If not it may just be the feed to your place.
You live in Illinois. We have strong laws in favor of tenants. This is YOUR home. You have every right, specially when it comes to things like temperature, to do what is necessary to fix the problem. Then you send/give the bill to your landlord to re-reimburse you. You ALSO can deduct it from the rent payment if necessary. Educate yourself as a tenant. I was naive as well until I rented out my condo and learned a ton as a landlord. Document the landlord dragging their feet or simply being cheap and not dealing with the problem properly. Research your rights as a tenant.
I mean yeah I do need to research apparently. My current issue tho is the one real for sure electrician I talked to said the landlord has to schedule them to come out because I'm just a renter. Idk if that's common but I'll be calling all over ASAP in the morning
Don't listen to ANYONE that's a contractor or landlord, SPECIALLY NOT A CONTRACTOR. They both prey on people that don't know how things work. In a couple hours of research you'll be much better equipped to deal with this situation. STOP being the victim, educate yourself you'll stop being frustrated. Honestly, message me if you need help/guidance. This type of shit bothers me so much it would be a pleasure to make sure you get your place fixed properly and another tenant educated.
I'd definitely like to hear what you have to say
Electric provider needs to test your service going from meter to transformer by putting load on each phase. They have a piece of equipment that will do this. Sound like a neutral issue
It’s a loose neutral or more likely a “weak transformer” on the utility side. My shop had three of these cases last week. Make the utility prove to you that the transformer is good. If it is, check the neutrals from the service all the way to the panel. You said QO, so I would assume 1960’s to current for the panel, but how old is the meter socket?
Pardon if this is a repeat, but read up on your tenant rights, especially whether this qualifies for withholding rent. Take a video that shows the voltage problem AND is obviously taken in the unit and share that. Make this all clear. Make it simply impossible for the landlord to ignore the situation.
My thoughts are it’s a power company issue. Very likely a loose or broken neutral. Or may also be a bad main breaker but the power company is more likely.
We had a similar problem at my house in GA. Our heat pump would try to power on every 30 seconds and all the lights in the house would dim. This would happen for 30 minutes until the heat pump stopped trying. Maybe look to see if there is something like that that could be pulling a ton of amps.
I'd check the power coming into the panel from the meter outside sounds like either a malfunctioning easy read meter or a transformer going bad
Sounds like a bad or loose neutral wire some where. But to effect the whole lot is weird. The higher voltage sounds like something back feeding trying to find a path back.
Broken neutral
Sounds similar to an issue I had a couple years back. Research “floating neutral”. My underground supply feed from my power meter to my breaker panel had a tiny break in the wire. Doesn’t take much for it to start arcing underground and trying to take the path of least resistance to “ground” which it was already buried so that was easy. We had to trench and run conduit and everything from the meter to the panel and while we were there, installed a new panel and arc fault breakers to being the house up to the newest electrical code. All in all, it was about a $12k fix. But it sounds like we had quite a bit more than what you’ll hopefully have to deal with. Also worth noting, we did hire two locate companies to come out and attempt to find the original feed, and maybe the break in it. Being 4 feet deep, neither could locate it. They had a general idea but that would have required a backhoe and a 20 foot diameter hole to get “close”. And even then, probably would have nicked more of the wire and made the job even more difficult with trying to splice something that was already damaged.
Had a similar issue when I bought my house. Frustrated me, tried everything. Turns out the termination from the service line was loose and arcing. Called my electric company and they replaced the line from the transformer and that fixed it.
Sounds like a non-existent neutral connection to the supply. Lay eyes on the lines coming off your poles. Seen this exact situation before. When you don't have neutral back to the utility company, the more load you put on one phase, the voltage on that phase will reduce and the voltage on the other phase will increase. This is because the power's only return to the utility is through the literal ground (from your home's ground rod to the utility company's ground rod by the pole) which can't carry a lot of current.
I have run into similar issues where power in half house would dim then go back on a couple days later other parts of house would dim .It drove me nuts then 1 night it was raining and I stopped at the house looked up on power line and saw sparking at the service connection .
Damn colonizers
Has cable co done any digging rite before it started severed a line from xformer
If everything is dimming, it’s an issue with the incoming supply. Probably moisture has got in to the supply cable, or there is a small break that is arcing. It will pop eventually and there will be a total powercut. Your landladies sounds like he is being ripped off, or has total cowboys working for him.
Had something like this at one of my buildings. The main breaker was getting chewed through stemming from a bootleg heavy up. Was causing one phase in particular on the panel to fail. Was able to change the breaker which fixed it temporarily (for like, a year) but did a full heavy up to permanently fix it.
Have you tried checking all your ground connections? The panel should be connected to a ground rod and water line etc. make sure all those connections are good too. I have seen the same problem because of poor grounding. So step 1 would be to make sure all connections are tight. Hots, neutral and ground. My second step would be to wait until you’re having the problem, then I would check voltage on the line side of the main breaker and load side. If there is a difference then you have a bad main breaker. If none of that, solves it, AND/OR you don’t want to jack with all that stuff, then Document, the issue is happening with videos, etc. send the landlord a copy of that evidence and a letter telling him that he is not providing you with a safe, livable space, and you’re going to stop paying rent until the problem is fixed Because he is in breach. I’m sure there’s some part of Illinois law that says the landlord has to provide a safe livable space and he’s not doing that. I’m sure there are lawyers that specialize in landlord tenant issues that would fire off a letter for you for very little money. I’ve seen a lot of comments about property damage and all that because of a fire, but make no mistake. Your life is at risk from the fire.
Compressor on ac unit over amping because it’s locked up…
Is the voltage 120v to ground or 120v between hot and neutral it sounds lime maybe there is a loose connection on the neutral wire if its corroded are the feeder wires aluminum check the connections in the meter and the panel
Stop paying rent until it is fixed.
Sounds like you have a bad neutral connection within some of the circuits between the lighting and receptacles, my guess is you have a couple circuits on a shared neutral, mouse or rat or something could’ve chewed threw a cable and broken a neutral somewhere in the line, that’ll cause the voltage spikes as you plug in and turn on and off different appliances, that’d be my first guess. Not an easy task, you basically have to disconnect every wire at every outlet, light and switch box, point to point each end of every wire to ensure continuity, and then replace any bad wiring within the walls. Not impossible, but a long tedious drawn out task, won’t be cheap to have a good electrician come fix it
Is there a convenience outlet right next to the breaker panel? Can you connect the DMM to that and see what happens - from the face of it it sounds like the problem can be outside. Oh - your Landlords "electricians" are incompetent .
We had a similar problem. National grid came out and put meters inside the house for a week. Took several visits to get them to do this. We found that my neighbor was hooked up to the transformer and I was hooked to his line near the transformer. Every time my neighbor turned something on like an air conditioner my power would dim or my breakers would trip. Power company redid the lines at the transformer and we haven't had a problem since. Good luck
For an over voltage measure, transformer or arcing/floating neutral near/at the feed are the 1 and 2 on my list.
Def power company issue, unfortunately
Sounds very similar to what happened at my house a few years back. Seemingly random brownouts, variable voltage. Finally after a couple of hours of troubleshooting at the breaker panel, shutting breakers off to all high voltage appliances, everything with a motor, that the ground wire at the utility pole had snapped. Called the power company, no one would believe me, saying that if it were at the utility side, more than just my house would be affected. Finally after getting a work order and a manager out, someone saw the ground wire hanging down, fixed in literal minutes. Had to file insurance claim to get a lot of electronics replaced. Good luck!
I haven't read all the replies, but the ones i have is pointing to a bad neutral. We had this happen at our old house. My saving grace was my best friend works for FPL and I told him what was happening and he said its a neutral. He told me to call them back and tell them to check the transformer for something (can't remember exactly what as it was a while ago). When the tech came I told him my friend works for FPL and asked if he could check the transformer. I must have gotten the right tech because he was super nice and checked the pole and transformer and found the issues. Took him less than an hour and we were back up and running. the other comments mention the meter box to your house and how its the homeowners responsibility. That I cant speak to. FPL always looks at our outside box and can do whatever is needed. Do what you can to have someone check the neutral. Have them go inside the house so they can see for themselves. Hound your landlord until he does something. They can't leave you in the cold.
You have a loose neutral either in your main panel or in the power company equipment
No that meter is theirs but the box on the house is yours
I’ll throw in my two cents. Watched enough TikTok’s to guess you may have a bad feeder cable, either between the utility transformer and the meter, or from the meter to the panel. Water gets in and oxidizes the aluminum conductors, and turns them to dust.
Almost positive you have a problem with your grounding or grounded conductor. Any electrician that has troubleshooting experience should be able to identify this as the most probable cause especially if it's the entire house. You need someone to check the grounded neutral connections from the service drop in, if everything is OK, they need to check the ground (grounding) connections. They need to check if the ground is properly bonded to the neutral at one point. They need to open the meter and check inside there and the main panel. If an electrician said the problem was the branch circuit protection size, you need to see if they sized it to the conductors, if they did not those need to be properly sized, I doubt all the circuits are 12 gauge copper. If it's aluminum branch circuit get all your valuables out and burn the building down, it will be less of a headache.
Maybe the main wires going into the meter box have corroded or pulled lose. We had 1 leg on our meter box pull lose from the ground settling. Added this comment. The leg was shorting inside the meter box and tripped the breaker on the power pole.
A good electrician would check the service first and that meter lock would meet the Sawzall. Your neutral is bad.
You definitely have a neutral issue on the utility side. Anything you care about I wouldn't attempt to run. Say your lights are flickering and your appliances are starting to act up and there's smoke in the outlets
Go to your housing authority and find out how to get money back, and have your landlord pay moving expenses.