Well, we sort of live in the woods and are used to blackouts.
But as of lately, we started having those odd mini ones. Entire lighting will not turn off, but will dim for a fraction of a second, some relays and what not click, and it all goes back to norm.
Can be few a day. Clocks do not reset, TV does not turn of, not really a power blackout. What trips is that my outdoor halogen lights go off and then take good 10 minutes to restart. It's normal, as they have light sensor delay and then warm up.
That tells me that we simply have power drop, not interruption.
Here's why I am concerned about this. Neighbor across the street that is on the same circuit has none of this. His light stays shine. He has identical light. This is too short for his back up gen to kick in.
Gal to the right of us - same, no issue.
What do I do with this number? House was built in 2001. Truth to be said, I have full house MTS panel for 2 years, for back up gen.
But my power line is buried under the drive way and that's good 250 feet of asphalt. In case something goes sour, it's mucho dinero to fix.
What do you think of this? Is it us, or Puget Sound Power? They have been trimming trees along entire street we are on, as winter time we have outage upon outage due to torn wires. This sort of coincided.
Just soliciting opinion. Is it something an electrician can check on? Have good guy. Before I get cought with pants down.

 

Wait for an answer from a professional electrician. You could have loose service feed connections at your main panel. This is a dangerous situation.

 

Sounds like it may be a loose neutral.
And can be a huge safety hazard.
Start by calling your power company ASAP and have them check there side of the line to the meter.
I'd unplug everything or better yet kill the main breaker until they show up.
A loose neutral (if that's what it turns out to be) can fry anything that's plugged in at the time, turned on or not.
One of my customers had there whole house burn down because a loose neutral.
Better to be safe then sorry.

 

OK, thank you. Loose connection does make sense. Will call Joe. Neutral as in - power supply neutral or ground neutral? It's AC, don't think ground has any to do with this.
It's not that easy for power company to check on everything all the way to meter. Gated and buried, fully fenced, so no easy access for them.

 

It is easy for them to check. Call the emergency number at power company. They fully understand the danger and will hopefully come out very soon.

 

There going to need access to both ends to check it right.
If there's no access when they show up all they can do is check at the transformer, with is only 1/2 they needed check.
Electric system neutral wire loss leads to shocked homeowner

 

Joe's positive - over the phone - it's main neutral. Said he's well familiar. Coming tomorrow. If not fixed, I'll call power company. Transformer is only 40 feet away from the gate and they have been trimming trees along the street for few weeks by now, easy to dislodge something.

 

That would be called a brownout. It's probably a power company problem and the advice to call them is good. They have emergency service 24/7; don't call customer service, call emergency service. It's probably something that will eventually be found at their connections near the transformer, but the possibility exists that it could be in the meter socket or your main service panel. It's usually best to have them check their side first.

 

Well, the way it goes, I'd rather have my side checked first, considering that meter and panel were worked on. I want to know that there is no arcing in MY house. Then we can talk to PSE. Safety first, *****ing 2nd. It's more of annoyance, really.

 

A little off topic.....

Thanks for that link Joe. That failure and dangerous situation is the primary reason why four wire cable is required for a sub panel connections as well as newer 120/240v appliances.