My house has intermitant power brow
My house has intermitant power brow
(OP)
My house has intermitant power brown outs. Such as digital clocks reset, stereo or TV turns off.
Checked all outlets with testor.-OK
tightened all connections on breaker panel. -OK
Had enmax check supply to the house. - OK
I have narrowed it down to the furnace.(if it is off or not running - OK )
could it be the motor performing poorly or could it be a short to ground from the thermostat?
Checked all outlets with testor.-OK
tightened all connections on breaker panel. -OK
Had enmax check supply to the house. - OK
I have narrowed it down to the furnace.(if it is off or not running - OK )
could it be the motor performing poorly or could it be a short to ground from the thermostat?






RE: My house has intermitant power brow
If you can not find a source inside your home consider the following. Have you added any significant load such as a heat pump? If so your service line and utility transformer may not be sized properly. You may have to contribute $ for any improvements.
Ask your neightbors if they are experiancing similar events. Take a look outside and see if anything has changed in your neightborhood. Customers that are connected in common to a transformer can effect thier neighbors. Common sources of problems on older secondary systems are welders and heat pumps. If your utility has performed some maintenance lately they may have changed something.
The utility can install power quality equipment that will assist in tracking down what is happening after you have ruled out most of the possible sources. Be patient with them though, this equipment is generally in use all of the time.
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
It sounds like a loose connection or possible intermitant loss of neutral, all of which are most likely utility related.
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
Confirmation of the problem cause would be a clear low-voltage condition {like lamp dimming} occurring with starting of the furnace. Does that happen? Having the problem investigated by a licensed electrical contractor before repair attempts seems like it would be time and funds well invested.
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
I had the utility put a besat meter on our service and check all connections. It was Ok so not a supply problem.
I was of the conclusion at one time that it only happened when it was damp or rainy out, but that was also when it was cooler and the furnace was cutting in.
For tha last three days I have had the furnace turned off and been trying different loads with not dimming of lights or brown outs.
I will turn the furnace on again tonight and see if the problem re surfaces.
I wonder if the motor for the humidifer is turned off when the funace is turned off as well?
Thanks for your replies. I will probably do as suggested and hire a professional to look at it. Is there a way of certifing that the electrician will be qualified for problem or trouble shooting processes?
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
Do the lights dim during these events, and for how long?
What is a 'besat meter' and if it was monitoring your service, what, if anything, did it show during one of these events? Where exactly was it connected?
I wouldn't expect that your average electrician could troubleshoot this problem.
It sounds like you may need a monitoring instrument that will record instantaneous events to find this problem, and an experienced technician or engineer. If you know that the furnace start is causing the problem, you should be able to determine, first, if there is a high current flow(short circuit) or simply an intermittent connection which opens and then burns itself closed during the current draw of a furnace start. Then use the instrument to isolate the source of the problem.
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
It seems that your have narropwed down the problem to the furnace. I would encourage you to work in that direction. Sounds like you have high inrush current to the blower motor. Does your furnace cycle on and off? Is it working ok?
What happens if you force the furnace on and off?
Also since how long has this problem been occuring?
When every thing is running what is the total current at your main panel? (measure each phase?). What is your serice size? I am not sure all of these question are relavant may sometimes provide a clue which otherwise is not obvious.
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
I was talking with a buddy(building maintenance guy) He is going to bring over a multimeter of some sort. So we will test out the draw on the motor and see if we have nay stray volts running around.
I think that circuit monitoring device would be the ticket to catch the intermitant error in action.( help isolate it)
I turned on the furnace wtached it kick in and out without dimming the lights. But later this evening they started acting up again (not as bad just dimming the lights) I rushed down stairs and the furnace wasn't running. Go figure.
thanks again for the feed back. Will see what we see tomorrow with the voltmeter.
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
None of this is very sophisticated but may be what it takes..
Good luck!
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
I have to ground connections to my plumbing - one from the panel that checked out cleaned up and reset. the other between our gas line and plumbing that i replaced.
The longest brownout that I have noticed lasted a second or more (just enough to reset the clocks)
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
RE: My house has intermitant power brow
RE: My house has intermitant power brow