Friday evening.
Our lights had been flickering for a few days and I told my wife it was probably
the transformer as it's blown more than a few times.
 
Friday when I got home from work they were really putting on a show so I ask
her to call the power company and went out to my shop.
 
Well they made the call an emergency and next thing I know there's a big truck
and I guy up in the bucket telling me, "there's the problem" - pointing to one of the
leads from the transformer that's connected to my drip-leg. ( look out)
He pulled the meter and man what a mess.
One side of the loop that has my air-con and shop was melted. Major meltdown.
 
Called an electrician and all is good and I'm just glad it didn't burn my house down.
Me not wanting it to happen again was told, "it just happens sometimes"..."lug went bad".
 
I'd never thought flickering lights could tell ya so much.

Yikes.

I am gladdened to think that you found the problem in time.

Loose connections increase resistance and that cause lots of localized heat build up, which sometimes expands the metal and restores contact enough to get by, but the repeated heating/cooling cycle just makes it worse and worse as the frequent expansion just keeps pushing the contacts further apart (loose) which causes more resistance, which causes more heat, which perpetuates the cycle until something bad happens.

I check that stuff every 5 years whether it needs it or not.

Good news!




On a similar note, my good friend who owned the place where we jammed every first Friday had a tragic episode when lighting hit his building and burned it, and everything in it, to the ground one night. That happened 3 months ago and it has left a hole our society of friends as it was a wonderful cross roads for social interaction in a non-commercial setting. We had music, and stand up, and story telling, and cooking going on etc. The fire just wiped it all out. We've been trying to be helpful to our friend and we all have been trying to come up with something that is as much fun and rewarding to take part in.

Fire can be a real downer... I'm glad you got your place fixed up in time.

all the best,
mike

"...it just happens sometimes..."

NOT what I would want to hear!  Glad it didn't turn out any worse.

The thing is, it does "just happen".

My guess is that Spacey's additions added to the current draw on his mains box, which increased the heat, which accelerated the cycle of expansion and loosening of the connections.

It's not a bad idea to go thru and tighten the connections on you mains box and outlets every few years.


BTW, I'm proud to be a member of the IBEW local 1200. ;-)


best regards,
mike

spacey


Friday evening.
Our lights had been flickering for a few days and I told my wife it was probably
the transformer as it's blown more than a few times.
 
Friday when I got home from work they were really putting on a show so I ask
her to call the power company and went out to my shop.
 
Well they made the call an emergency and next thing I know there's a big truck
and I guy up in the bucket telling me, "there's the problem" - pointing to one of the
leads from the transformer that's connected to my drip-leg. ( look out)
He pulled the meter and man what a mess.
One side of the loop that has my air-con and shop was melted. Major meltdown.
 
Called an electrician and all is good and I'm just glad it didn't burn my house down.
Me not wanting it to happen again was told, "it just happens sometimes"..."lug went bad".
 
I'd never thought flickering lights could tell ya so much.

Sometimes small simptoms lead to bigger problems.  I'm glad you caught it in time. 

 Glad it didn't turn out much worse Spacey....sorry to hear about your friend Mike, hope he had good insurance.

 Reminds me of the time I was on a commercial job where a squirrel had managed to get between two of the poles on a pole mounted transformer. Those squirrels usually only walk along one line and avoid unpleasant things. This squirrel wasn't so lucky. Instant squirrel toast. We never found all of him. That squirrel managed to knock out power to half the neighborhood and cause a transformer explosion all in one day.

mike_mccue


Yikes.

I am gladdened to think that you found the problem in time.

Loose connections increase resistance and that cause lots of localized heat build up, which sometimes expands the metal and restores contact enough to get by, but the repeated heating/cooling cycle just makes it worse and worse as the frequent expansion just keeps pushing the contacts further apart (loose) which causes more resistance, which causes more heat, which perpetuates the cycle until something bad happens.

I check that stuff every 5 years whether it needs it or not.

Good news!




On a similar note, my good friend who owned the place where we jammed every first Friday had a tragic episode when lighting hit his building and burned it, and everything in it, to the ground one night. That happened 3 months ago and it has left a hole our society of friends as it was a wonderful cross roads for social interaction in a non-commercial setting. We had music, and stand up, and story telling, and cooking going on etc. The fire just wiped it all out. We've been trying to be helpful to our friend and we all have been trying to come up with something that is as much fun and rewarding to take part in.

Fire can be a real downer... I'm glad you got your place fixed up in time.

all the best,
mike

Sorry about your friend's place, Mike. 

Thanks guys...posted because I didn't know if others knew we could get an early warning.

Mike I think you hit it on the head. Both were fairly new connections and probably should
have been retightened. One would think that the ones installing and making the connections would know to come back and secure things. Oh well.

Sorry about your friend too Mike.

mike_mccue


Yikes.

I am gladdened to think that you found the problem in time.

Loose connections increase resistance and that cause lots of localized heat build up, which sometimes expands the metal and restores contact enough to get by, but the repeated heating/cooling cycle just makes it worse and worse as the frequent expansion just keeps pushing the contacts further apart (loose) which causes more resistance, which causes more heat, which perpetuates the cycle until something bad happens.

I check that stuff every 5 years whether it needs it or not.

+1 Mike

Ive been out to troubleshoot a ladies house one time and as I was working on the condenser, she'd step out and ask what was going on because she'd loose power to one room and then another, off and on here and there.

So as soon as it started doing it again I grab my Fluke and hit the main panel.  Just so happened I caught the main breaker going bad (pitting/loose connections).  What her prob she was seeing was is that the fridge would kick on, rooms that were drawing the most current would kill themselves as they drew the current load higher. As it cutoff the smaller drawing rooms would come back on.  Its when its not noticeable and goes on that the fires start.

Wires DO come loose in the breaker panels after time. Good to check (IF YOU KNOW HOW)  

Having been in the electrical biz over 30 years I have seen my share of what can happen with loose phase conductors and with loose neutrals. 

A friend's dad had a house at the beach and gave me the key and asked me to find out what was causing the lights to dim on one side of the house at night. He said take your family too and spend the weekend. First night, sure enough the lights would dim and come back up.... meter on the bus bars showed a voltage dip. I called the power company and they arrived and cut the meter seal. We shined a light in and saw the lugs were fried. We opted to leave it be and secured the cover again. Removing the meter would have meant the lugs would have crumbled off, and it would have been lights out for the house. We figured the wind changing direction at night was blowing the wires and moving them in the service drop just enough to affect the lights in that side of the meter. Since I was not local, I recommended my friend to get a local electrician to replace the meter. He  gave me the key to the house again a few weeks later and asked me to replace the outlets in the house and take "all week" to do it....

I've had several memorable "floating/loose neutrals". Things were burning out in the one house...fridge, lights, TV's but when the range or the AC was on things would level out. Seems a jackleg did some work and used a 1/2" romex connector to secure the neutral at the top of the weatherhead.... obviously not a city power company job..... 

On another, we wired a house and 2 days after they turned power on, the house exploded and burned.  Insurance paid off, they didn't investigate beyond assuming that the wood preservative the owner sprayed inside on the cedar caused the explosion due to a spark..... they never found out what sparked. So the owner/builder decided to rebuild in the same place. Again, I was the primary electrician wiring the house. We got inspections and turned on the power. Next morning, the owner called the shop to say he smelled something burning..... we hustled over there immediately and pulled the panel covers off the 400a service panels.... 
95v on one and 145v on the other phase to ground...  I called the city and they came round and after looking at the panels and measuring, they said it was in my wiring. I disagreed, and asked them to humor me.....and had the crew cut the wires loose from the house at the in ground pedestal. I asked them to meter their unloaded transformer feed. 95/145... just like in the house.... after a few choice words, they called for a thumper and a back hoe.  Three hours later they had found and repaired the aluminum feeder 6 feet down in the next door neighbor's front yard.  
they gave me the section of wire they cut out.