I have a strange electrical situation in a house that I bought last summer and would appreciate any insight I can get here. The house is about twelve years old and has a completely finished basement. There is a small refrigerator in the basement, and when the compressor motor cycles on, the fifteen overhead can lights in the main room of the basement, which are on the same branch circuit as the refrigerator, flash brighter for a second or so and then go back to their previous level of brightness. I had a backup sump pump installed not long after I bought the house, and this required rewiring an outlet box (on a different branch) so the two sump pumps could be on separate breakers. At the time I had the rewiring done, I had the electrician (who was from a large and well-regarded electrical contracting company where I live) investigate, and he concluded there was nothing to be concerned about.
As I continued to observe the same behavior with the lights over the next few months, I took to Google and saw a lot of discussion about this, and the responses were consistent: lights getting brighter with a motor turning on = loose neutral = dangerous. I had the same electricians out again to fix a fancy and over-complicated Lutron dimmer that was misbehaving and pointed them to the basement lights again. The guy tightened all of the connections on the relevant service panel (there are two, both of which are located in a separate room in the basement) and said neither he nor his boss, the lead electrician, had encountered lights brightening as I described but that they would be happy to install a separate circuit with a "new" neutral for the basement refrigerator. I passed for the time being. Since I had found descriptions of this issue (and dire warnings about its potential consequences) myself all over the internet, this did not inspire much confidence, so I'm taking to this forum for insight.
My questions and additional observations:
1. Much of the discussion that I've seen about this counsels people to call the power company immediately, and suggests they are likely to show up quickly to check the main connection to the utility electrical supply. In my case, the only part of the house that behaves this way is the overhead lights in the basement (which, as noted, are on the same branch circuit as the refrigerator). Assuming this is being caused by a loose neutral, could a loose connection on the main utility supply cause only one circuit in the house to behave this way, or does this behavior suggest a loose neutral only on the branch circuit (assuming such a thing is even possible...I'm a layman). If the latter, can the loose connection causing the problem be either at the service panel or the receptacle?
2. I've never observed the basement lights getting brighter when anything else happens in the house, and I've never observed any other lights in the housing getting brighter. Tonight, however, I might have observed the basement lights getting slightly brighter when the garbage disposal was turned on once upstairs on the main floor. I was in the middle of the Super Bowl and didn't go back and test this before everyone else went to bed, but assuming that actually happened, would this change your perspective on my questions above?
3. Since this appears to be "contained" to the one part of the basement, assuming it is a loose neutral, are the concerns as significant? I also have a lot of electronic equipment plugged into the same or an adjacent circuit.
4. Is it really possible that a large and well-regarded electrical contractor would be unfamiliar with a situation like this?
Thank you for any and all insight you can provide!
As I continued to observe the same behavior with the lights over the next few months, I took to Google and saw a lot of discussion about this, and the responses were consistent: lights getting brighter with a motor turning on = loose neutral = dangerous. I had the same electricians out again to fix a fancy and over-complicated Lutron dimmer that was misbehaving and pointed them to the basement lights again. The guy tightened all of the connections on the relevant service panel (there are two, both of which are located in a separate room in the basement) and said neither he nor his boss, the lead electrician, had encountered lights brightening as I described but that they would be happy to install a separate circuit with a "new" neutral for the basement refrigerator. I passed for the time being. Since I had found descriptions of this issue (and dire warnings about its potential consequences) myself all over the internet, this did not inspire much confidence, so I'm taking to this forum for insight.
My questions and additional observations:
1. Much of the discussion that I've seen about this counsels people to call the power company immediately, and suggests they are likely to show up quickly to check the main connection to the utility electrical supply. In my case, the only part of the house that behaves this way is the overhead lights in the basement (which, as noted, are on the same branch circuit as the refrigerator). Assuming this is being caused by a loose neutral, could a loose connection on the main utility supply cause only one circuit in the house to behave this way, or does this behavior suggest a loose neutral only on the branch circuit (assuming such a thing is even possible...I'm a layman). If the latter, can the loose connection causing the problem be either at the service panel or the receptacle?
2. I've never observed the basement lights getting brighter when anything else happens in the house, and I've never observed any other lights in the housing getting brighter. Tonight, however, I might have observed the basement lights getting slightly brighter when the garbage disposal was turned on once upstairs on the main floor. I was in the middle of the Super Bowl and didn't go back and test this before everyone else went to bed, but assuming that actually happened, would this change your perspective on my questions above?
3. Since this appears to be "contained" to the one part of the basement, assuming it is a loose neutral, are the concerns as significant? I also have a lot of electronic equipment plugged into the same or an adjacent circuit.
4. Is it really possible that a large and well-regarded electrical contractor would be unfamiliar with a situation like this?
Thank you for any and all insight you can provide!