Hi folks,
I'm trying to track down the source of our flickering light issue. This started about a month ago and seems to be progressing a bit downhill. We have a Bryant 200amp original construction panel and our home was built in 1985. I first noticed the problem late at night on the recessed ceiling fixtures(on a 15amp lighting circuit) while reading after the kids were all in bed...low power consumption times for us. Lately, though, if my wife turns on the garbage disposal(20 amp circuit), even the master bedroom closet light on the opposite end of the house (and on a different circuit) dims for a moment. Last week I shut off the main and pulled a few lighting breakers out to check for signs of arcing on the breakers/busses but didn't see anything to indicate a problem at the individual branch circuit breakers. Tonight I plugged my DVM leads into a receptacle in the living room and asked my wife to flip on the disposal for a moment. A steady read of 122 volts drops momentarily to 115 volts...and this is on a different circuit. The flickering happens regularly at other times without help from the disposal motor, I just wanted to impose a load on one circuit to test voltage on another.
Does anyone have a suggestion for the next thing I should look at? I could call the utility, but then I won't learn anything new. Would it make sense to pull the panel cover and carefully connect my DVM to the 4/0 service entrance wires between the meter and main breaker and look for voltage swings? I thought that might be a way to determine whether the problem is below or above the main. Is there a way to test the main breaker?
I'm sorry for the long post...just scratching my head and getting a bit concerned that the voltage dips aren't helping my TVs, PC, etc. get any younger.
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