Hello, maybe someone can help me with this. I've been having an electrician work on this but two visits and he still hasn't tracked down the problem. Story time... My house was built in 1972. We bought it last March. The electrical panel was ancient, I couldn't even see breakers or fuses in it, so I made Fannie Mae replace it prior to signing, and they did with a brand new one. A few months after moving in, we began having a strange electrical problem, which ONLY effects the bottom floor of our two-story house (and not even the entire floor). Basically, when using downstairs outlets, lights or appliances, eventually (and irregularly) the kitchen lights will start to flicker. If we don't turn stuff off, eventually we lose power to kitchen lights, living room outlets, electric range and the dishwasher. Kitchen outlets seem fine, and the refrigerator is unaffected. No breakers trip. And the range is on a totally separate circuit. If you leave it alone it will eventually resolve itself. However, here is the strangest part: if I turn on a burner on the range, it resolves instantly. And tonight, I was able to control the power to the range (as noted by the digital clock) by toggling a standing lamp in the living room. However, tonight it seemed very unstable, as when I got this light to turn on it was very dim. So far the electrician has: 1. Tightened a loose neutral on the range circuit breaker. 2. We opened the kitchen lightswitch panel and replaced a section of aluminum wiring, and he tightened several loose connections. 3. I've checked tightness of all effected outlet connections. 4. Today, when looking at the range, he opened the back panel and we found a dead mouse making connection between the hot and the neutral (eeewww). He thought this and the switch panel might've been the issue. He also noted that the range outlet has four wires in the box; but only 3 are hooked up and the range is a 3-prong plug. He recommended I replace them if the problem continues, but it seems like we're missing something. There is no aluminum wire that I can find besides the short little 2 inch section we found in the switch panel. Does anyone have an idea on this? I've been researching loose neutral and floating neutral but I really don't deal with electricity. But if somebody's dealt with this it'd be nice to offer some ideas to the electrician (or try fixing it myself). Thanks, Brian

I have a 220v 10/3 wire with no ground just black, red, white (2 hots and a neutral) that used to run to an old oven that has since been replaced with gas unit. I want to run this wire to a water heater so I only need 10/2 with ground. The panel box is older with neutrals and grounds sharing one bar. Can I use the neutral wire as a ground and mark it on both ends as such?