Stumped my electrician

[Joe Johnson]

Hi I wonder if I could get a few opinions, randomly half of my house shuts off or flickers, this included the stove, lights, fans, clocks etc, then a minute or two later it comes back on, but no breakers ever trip. I had an electrician out and he suggested a loose neutral but never actually fixed anything. It is very random, sometimes doesn't happen for months then starts back up again. Any thoughts? Its not something I will attempt to fix but I'd like to have some thoughts before speaking to an electrician as the last guy seemed to think it was specific to an outlet or switch but couldn't explain how that would shut the stove off. Hydro was out and confirmed power to the meter was as expected but the randomness of the problem wasn't occurring while he was present.

 

[Uplight99]

As in half your house do you mean half of your circuits?

Do you have a dual RCD consumer unit?

 

[Joe Johnson]

Hi Uplight, everything on one side of the panel, everything connected to the other side of the panel seems doesn't seem affected.. I don't have a RCD consumer unit either..

 

[westward10]

As in half your house do you mean half of your circuits?

Do you have a dual RCD consumer unit?

They are based in Canada.

 

[brianmoooore]

Mains voltage in Canada is 120V. If split phase 120-0-120V supplies are used, as in the USA, then it's probably a fault with one of the supply phases.
Last time I had this in the UK, the cause was transformer pole fuses that were too short in length, packed out with (corroding) 2p coins.

 

[Joe Johnson]

yes split phase that’s why it only affects circuits on one side of the panel, everything shuts down on that side for a few minutes, everything on the other side is not affected.

 

[brianmoooore]

As I wrote above then, but probably for a different reason.
Anything from, and including, the main switch backwards to where your supply connects to the supply to other properties, assuming you are the only one affected. Have you checked with neighbours?

 

[Joe Johnson]

Hydro was out, they said the issue is not on their end. I’ve read elsewhere maybe faulty breaker? I’ve got another guy coming tomorrow to take a look

 

[Lucien Nunes]

What was that 'electrician' thinking?

One side of the panel fed by one hot leg / phase is OK.
One side of the panel fed by the other hot leg / phase is intermittent.
No breakers trip.

With 99.9% certainly the problem is upstream of the panel busbar and is a bad connection in the phase that is intermittent. Could be one of your components e.g. main breaker, or could be one of Hydro's e.g. meter socket. But it's not likely to be the neutral and it certainly isn't anything downstream of the busbar e.g. one of the ordinary breakers. The bad connection might already be overheated, discoloured, burnt etc. and might respond to wiggling.

Unless something very spooky is going on, this shouldn't have anyone stumped for long.

 

[Joe Johnson]

What was that 'electrician' thinking?

One side of the panel fed by one hot leg / phase is OK.
One side of the panel fed by the other hot leg / phase is intermittent.
No breakers trip.

With 99.9% certainly the problem is upstream of the panel busbar and is a bad connection in the phase that is intermittent. Could be one of your components e.g. main breaker, or could be one of Hydro's e.g. meter socket. But it's not likely to be the neutral and it certainly isn't anything downstream of the busbar e.g. one of the ordinary breakers. The bad connection might already be overheated, discoloured, burnt etc. and might respond to wiggling.

Unless something very spooky is going on, this shouldn't have anyone stumped for long.

Wow, that’s the answer hoping for, a confident one! Now at least I can have this conversation with the electrician, thanks a bunch Lucien!

 

[Megawatt]

Hi I wonder if I could get a few opinions, randomly half of my house shuts off or flickers, this included the stove, lights, fans, clocks etc, then a minute or two later it comes back on, but no breakers ever trip. I had an electrician out and he suggested a loose neutral but never actually fixed anything. It is very random, sometimes doesn't happen for months then starts back up again. Any thoughts? Its not something I will attempt to fix but I'd like to have some thoughts before speaking to an electrician as the last guy seemed to think it was specific to an outlet or switch but couldn't explain how that would shut the stove off. Hydro was out and confirmed power to the meter was as expected but the randomness of the problem wasn't occurring while he was present.

You are definitely loosing 1 leg of your hots coming in. If it was the neutral loose then everything would be acting up. It could actually be on the power company’s side, it could also be in the meter base, and it could also be a defective main breaker. Hire you another electrician and let him read this post. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[Joe Johnson]

You are definitely loosing 1 leg of your hots coming in. If it was the neutral loose then everything would be acting up. It could actually be on the power company’s side, it could also be in the meter base, and it could also be a defective main breaker. Hire you another electrician and let him read this post. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

awesome thanks!

 

[JamesBond007]

awesome thanks!

Dear Joe, has the issue been repaired? As, a technician, I experienced a fault, similar to this, in a farmhouse,
once in Essex, putting aside some very technical, reasons, consider keeping it to any simple causes, as well.
You have an intermittent fault, causing flickering, and "brown outs", i.e. not completely off, or trip of breaker.
Is this happening, in wet weather? In the farmhouse, rainwater, on a broken light fixture, did the short circuit.
It can be a general property maintenance issue, suggest checking, for any rainwater ingress, or a pipe drips.
Could also, be caused by a bathroom remodel, where fitter has not waterproofed, or capped old wiring right.