RE: Flickering lights... any thoughts?

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxx>]

When I was trying to sort out phone systems that were crashing because
of
mains problems I wish I could have seen traces that flat !

The ones I used to get had spikes of > 200V and dips down to 60V all
over
the place. At one point I even had a 10 grand mains analyser crash
because
mains was thet bad!

We had one industrial estate where in the winter the mains voltage was
rarely above 220V and in one premises I sat watching the voltmeter and
everytime it dropped to 207V all the calls on the phone system would
drop
out.

Low cost dimmers ( and I include X10 in this ) often have a little
hiccup
where the light level will change slightly for a fraction of a second. 

Our table lamps on Lamp Modules are mostly OK although occasionally one
will
become unstable. As Ray pointed out, cycling the power will usually reset
it
but this isnt easy or convienient with Wall Switches or DIN modules as
you
have to knock all of them off.

We have one lamp controlled by an X10 Wall Switch and this occasionally
will
change level slightly and also sometimes will go off.

If you have ordinary light contolled by conventional switches that are
varying in brightness then there may be a problem either with the mains
supply or a loose connection somewhere.

On the subject of the Maplin power meter, has anyone else noticed how
crap
its timekeeping is. For something to a nice stable (over a 24 hour
period)
frequency reference called the mains it seems to not use this but rely
on
its own internal oscillator. Mine is currently several hours slow but
it
still seems to be a useful device for the price.

Keith

www.diyha.co.uk
www.kat5.tv


-----Original Message-----
From: jpm.egroup1@xxxxxxx [mailto:jpm.egroup1@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 17 January 2003 18:15
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Flickering lights... any thoughts?


Before I start powering down all the electrical circuits in the house,
I
would appreciate the groups insight.

All the HA stuff has been in & working for months now (only new
addition is
the Maplin power meter).

I noticed one of the mains halogen bulbs seem to be 'flickering'...
thought
it was on the way out, so changed it.  Then noticed that a number of
other
bulbs also seemed to be doing this.  The "flicker" is just
perceptible and
is not there all the time.

I checked the UPS log (link shown below) and the voltage does seem to be
a
bit variable (have not got the records from the past when lights did
not
flicker).

http://www.wheldrake.plus.com/voltage.jpg

I don't think any of the neighbours have just got electric arc welders
/
machinery.  The flickering is across different lighting / ring
main
circuits.

Any ideas?  Wife obviously blames all that "stuff" for the
lights behaving
this way (it would be concerning if she was correct).


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