electricity pulses

[C.B.]

The electricity pulses throughout the house when the shower is turned on. I have never seen this before, so any help as to what could be causing this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[pepparz]

electrickerty can be viewed as a long tube filled with marbles, push one in one end and one falls out the other end, the same is true with water as you have seen, it kind of pulses. dont worry about it.

 

[Rockingit]

Ignore ^^^, for starters. What do you mean by 'pulses'? Are you saying that things like lights dim up and down?

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

electrickerty can be viewed as a long tube filled with marbles, push one in one end and one falls out the other end, the same is true with water as you have seen, it kind of pulses. dont worry about it.

what the bloody heck are you talking about?

 

[Silly Sausage]

electrickerty can be viewed as a long tube filled with marbles, push one in one end and one falls out the other end, the same is true with water as you have seen, it kind of pulses. dont worry about it.

what the bloody heck are you talking about?

Full wave rectified AC, without capacitive smoothing - Direct Current! :smilielol5::crazy:

 

[pepparz]

I'm not making fun, this really is how electricity behaves.

 

[C.B.]

Ignore ^^^, for starters. What do you mean by 'pulses'? Are you saying that things like lights dim up and down?

Yes lights dim up and down, lamps that are plugged into sockets dim up and down and the oven also does the same???

 

[telectrix]

utopia? more like la-la land.

 

[snowhead]

Loose neutral.

 

[pepparz]

Yes im the man from utopia

 

[Marvo]

There's probably a poor termination somewhere, you'd need to get an electrician in to test the impedance of the various circuts and track the problem down. It could even be a problem on the supplier side as well but any competent sparks should be able to find it easily and call the DNO if necessary.

 

[ian.settle1]

utopia? more like la-la land.

More like Cuckoo land

 

[RogertheBodger]

The 'Marbles' theory has awakened a dim memory from College. I seem to remember a Tutor comparing electron flow in a conductor to a game of shove halfpenny, line em up touching, hit the first one, and the end one goes flying off. Must be the same thing with marbles?

It was a good game, not so sure about the comparison with current flow, but pulsing was definitely not involved.

 

[pepparz]

Its usually called CLOUD cuckoo land

 

[stef]

The electricity pulses throughout the house when the shower is turned on. I have never seen this before, so any help as to what could be causing this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

TT supply by any chance? Tranny might not be man enough. If not TT then ... When did this start then? Anything changed on the installation? Might be a termination problem on supplier's side. What about neighbours, do they have the same problem? Can you measure the frequency of the pulsing, is it regular? How much is the voltage drop?

 

[Lighthouse Phil]

The water is heated very quickly within the shower heating cylinder and the thermostat cuts in and out just as quick. During its heating cycle there is more of a load on the supply and the supply voltage drops slightly,, as the stat opens and stops heating, the full supply voltage is returned until the next heating cycle,,,its only a matter of seconds between the cycles. Check that the cable supplying the shower is capable of supplying the required current and is not over heating

 

[stef]

The water is heated very quickly within the shower heating cylinder and the thermostat cuts in and out just as quick. During its heating cycle there is more of a load on the supply and the supply voltage drops slightly,, as the stat opens and stops heating, the full supply voltage is returned until the next heating cycle,,,its only a matter of seconds between the cycles. Check that the cable supplying the shower is capable of supplying the required current and is not over heating

Now that sounds reasonable.

 

[Rockingit]

Any current using device will cause a drop in voltage to occur - bigger the load, larger the drop. That's why we have to size up cables correctly. In my own house, turn the 11kW shower on and the few remaining tungsten lights dim down ever so slightly. All cables correctly sized, installed and terminated, it's just V/IR at work. If I want to solve the problem, I guess I could just ask the DNO to give me a fatter cable....

OP - if the pulsing is significant, then get a competent sparky to double check all the terminations, as others have said. If that's not the issue then it might be time to talk to your energy provider as needing investigation.