CERTIFIED ELECRICIANS.....I NEED HELP!!!!

[Alone]

The electricity in my apt is constantly dimming all my lights around the entire apt like a faint very light flicker/dimming. It happens about 20 -30 times a minute. Its like a blink of an eye dimming or surge.

I had a ballast burn out on me the other day. Could this be the cauze of my ballast burning out?
If I wasnt in the room when the ballast started smoking ALOT..would the electricity arch and the ballast blowup or catch fire...!!!????? Would it trip the breaker before it caught fire?
Would this flickering cauze the ballasts to overheat trying to control the electric flow?

I have alot of questions about this subject and growing. So please... if your an electrician please, please, please, help me.
TYVM!

 

[rock solid]

not an electrician but can sure bump it up for your safety

 

[Tyga]

I think that it might have to do with some sort of voltage drop...Not pisitive though. Hopefully one of the sparky's will chime their thoughts in.

 

[Guest 315072]

have u tried shuttin equipment down .. 1 at a time.. to see if its just using too much power? or 1 at a time to fin out maybe if 1 of the things plugged in is causing this? ill bump also.. but id try to shut down things that take alot of power. and see if its still happening....

 

[Guest 315072]

mainly check the plug that burned hte ballast out!!! take off the cover.. make sure theres not any melted wire and shit man .. this sounds if its sagging .. but .. usually because a bad connection or wire or something!

wouldnt take this lightly man u dont wana come home to the cops and fire department fucking u up.

 

[Alone]

Ive gotten advice from you all and I appreciate the time and concern but I need these specific q's answered:

1) - If I wasnt there to shut the ballast off when it was smoking would the ballast just stop working or would it continue to run electricity through it until it arched or exploded or something?


2) - Why didnt the breaker trip as soon as this happened shutting down the lights?

3) -All the lights do it in the downstairs neighbors house too. Its just a slight flicker or dimming that is fast like a blink of an eye but it happens constantly. Can this burn out a ballast?

 

[Guest 315072]

what u are describing sounds likes a surge or something called i thing a sag.. in the electricity..

umm the ballast thing.. is a wierd question.. it really depends on y it started smoking.. and honestly.. if ur breaker didntgo while that was smoking and shit.. id go get those things with six plugs.. and a little circuit breaker so that if something happens and ur circuit breaker doesnt trip.. the one on the plug should!! just like how most ACs have the little box with the fuse in it !..


i had a 400w ballast start smoking and the thing ran fine it was wierd.. so we just didnt use it. i opened it up.. to find.. a loose wire and burned wire.. replaced the wiring of the entire ballast and wala shes back up and going..

dude open the ballast up! and see what the issue was..

and if u can keep the ballasts outside of the grow room this will keep the life going longer..

i recently helped a friend build a box around a shelf on his shelving unit with panda film.. and ducting to make the box keep the heat from ballasts going straight out the exhaust instead of heating up the room im trying to cool..

another thing.. do alarm clocks need to be reset.. or clocks on stoves and shit or is it only flickering just lights? or can u see or hear flickering withing everything u plug in or what? more details needed to help man.

 

[Guest 315072]

could also be a lose connection coming from the main power line..

bad transformer close to ur house!..

lose connections in the breaker panel..!

i mean.. this could be anything from too much power being used in the house itself... or a lose or bad connection outside the houose.. but seeing as its happenin to ur neighbors.. sounds like u should ask ur other neighbors if its happening in surrounding houses its probably outside ur houose.. if its just ur building or house or whatever.. then atleast u can start to narrow it down!

 

[Guest 315072]

Flickering lights are almost always caused by a poor connection somewhere in the circuit. If lights flicker when you turn on a switch, the problem is probably in the switch, but if all the lights in a room or a part of the house flicker, you may have a bad connection at the panel or a faulty circuit breaker. If you are familiar with the circuit and know that some lights on it are operating normally, look for a loose connection somewhere along the line. It will probably be accompanied by arcing, which will blacken wires and may create a burning smell.

Read more: Strange House Electrical Malfunctions | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8351209_strange-house-electrical-malfunctions.html#ixzz23GVFDm6a

 

[ItGrowsHerb]

Had a transformer on a pole go bad nearby and it caused the weirdest things. The next door neighbors fuse panel outside was hot but not tripping, my tv would fluctuate on and off, things ran at different speeds.. it was as if a variac had set the voltages upwards differently. If I can recall my multimeter showed 160 volts?

Took a day and a night to get it swapped out. No power for the meantime. I wasnt growing so it was just an odd evening, mostly sittiing outside with the neighbors in the nighttime heat watching a power co. guy assess stuff...

 

[rives]

Ive gotten advice from you all and I appreciate the time and concern but I need these specific q's answered:

1) - If I wasnt there to shut the ballast off when it was smoking would the ballast just stop working or would it continue to run electricity through it until it arched or exploded or something?


2) - Why didnt the breaker trip as soon as this happened shutting down the lights?

3) -All the lights do it in the downstairs neighbors house too. Its just a slight flicker or dimming that is fast like a blink of an eye but it happens constantly. Can this burn out a ballast?

1) It will continue to smoke until either a) it has exhausted it's fuel source or b) it finally burns through the insulation & shorts to ground or it burns the component up.

2) There could be a variety of reasons for this. How is the grounding in the residence? Was the ballast grounded? A breaker will only trip from from supplying excessive current, which can come about in various ways. Equipment is grounded to help accelerate this process - if the component is self-destructing and an energized portion of it comes into contact with the grounded enclosure, this provides enough fault current for the breaker to trip quickly. On the other hand, if you have a failure within the ballast, the current can go up beyond what the insulation can handle, but not high enough to trip the breaker quickly. Depending on numerous factors, a 15a breaker could potentially supply 20+ amps for hours. If you have a 400w ballast on this circuit, it could be getting @ 600% rated current for a long time.

3) As was mentioned above, the this "flickering" is frequently caused by a bad connection. This could be anywhere from the supply source (transformer, pole top fusing, etc) to a funky breaker or bad wiring. If both you and your downstairs neighbor are on the same electrical service, you could start by seeing if any of the breakers are significantly warmer than others to the touch. Sometimes simply "exercising" the breaker helps - turn it on and off several times.

I realize none of this is very definitive. There just isn't a good way to trouble-shoot something like this over the net - it's difficult enough in person.

 

[ClosetAdvocate]

Tagged because I have the same thing happening at my house. We don't even have anything crazy running just normal appliances.

ETA: its from our central air conditioner. I was in the garage and the lights flickered as the air conditioner fan kicked on. That makes sense.

 

[dubwise]

Could the flickering be due to the weather head at the house? The connection from the utility provider and the physical connection to the house. I've seen them damaged after rather stormy weather....the house lights would do just as you're saying, and the utility co. would have to come out & replace these connections.

 

[OrganicBuds]

Check the neutralrunning the house. Sounds like a dropped neutral wire to me. From the pole to your house, check for bad wires. It should be visible by the eye. Could also be loose in your main breaker box.

Other than that, the other advice here sounds good.

 

[Arthritis_sucks]

Ive gotten advice from you all and I appreciate the time and concern but I need these specific q's answered:

1) - If I wasnt there to shut the ballast off when it was smoking would the ballast just stop working or would it continue to run electricity through it until it arched or exploded or something?


2) - Why didnt the breaker trip as soon as this happened shutting down the lights?

3) -All the lights do it in the downstairs neighbors house too. Its just a slight flicker or dimming that is fast like a blink of an eye but it happens constantly. Can this burn out a ballast?

Rives got it on the dot,
1. Fire...not good.
2. In apts. There are too many corners cut and electricians have been known to run a whole apartment on 2-3 breakers. Pushing their limit too far.
3. This is why you and your neighbor have a flicker...possibly you are splitting a bill and dont know it....had a apartment once like that an im sure the neighbors hated their bill.

I have a checklist when rentin a apartment for growing. Dont rent apartments for growing an if you do run a cfl grow or max 250watt hps. Try to get out an into a house rental so you can play with YOUR own breaker box.

Tips: your home lights should consist of 13w cfls and your bathroom plugs will be rated for more power consumption (hair dryer 1875 watts usually) so get a heavy duty extension cord an run your setup off that with a surge protector so no burnouts.

Typing from a phone so sorry if any spelling errors an I got no meds so the hands are crampin up....good luck, any questions im sure there are many with apartment storys an tips. Peace

 

[Arthritis_sucks]

Could the flickering be due to the weather head at the house? The connection from the utility provider and the physical connection to the house. I've seen them damaged after rather stormy weather....the house lights would do just as you're saying, and the utility co. would have to come out & replace these connections.

Check the neutralrunning the house. Sounds like a dropped neutral wire to me. From the pole to your house, check for bad wires. It should be visible by the eye. Could also be loose in your main breaker box.

Other than that, the other advice here sounds good.

Its an apartment.

 

[Alone]

The apt is a 2 family house that is very old.
Thanx everyone. Should I call the electric company? They have been working on all the lines for months replacing this and that, poles, wires,connections, etc..etc.. Me and my neighbors electric are not connected at all.

 

[ItGrowsHerb]

If you have a multimeter check the voltage at an outlet. Ideally it will read between 114 or so to 121 or so volts and maintain a steady reading with very minor tenth of a volt fluctuactions. It is a good start.

If it is out of that range it would most likely be a power co. issue.

If within range, then it could be anything.

 

[Smokin Joe]

is it the whole apt. or just part ? can you hear a buzzing sound in your breaker box? are the breakers hot ?call the electric provider first, may be their problem.

 

[Alone]

All the breaker boxes are down in the cellar.
Whats a multimeter? I can get my hands on a pen that lights up when an outlet is live but I dont think I can get a multimeter thingy. How much are they at the Depot?

After this winter... Im gonna go live in the woods in a camo tent for the summer anyways and grow 50 plants of Purps started from clone on March 1st. On May 1st... after 2 months veg time....Im packing everything up, putting it in storage, takin the 2 foot high clones topped 6x each out to the mountain... living rent and bill free while growing my 50 plants. Only investments:
50+ bails of SunshineMix #4.
50 - 30 gallon camo grow bags.
I have all the nutrients I need so life will be good out there. I can come into town whenever I want on my mountain bike. 9+ miles to town.
Thats an hour there and an hour back when I need small supplies.

Im gonna do 10 patches with 5 in each patch that will be hidden and blended into the environment guarilla style. I will live out there in camies ans stay undetected. I will change my clothes to sport shorts and shirt and biking shoes with a helmet to blend in with the other bikers who ride that long road. I'm looking forward to stop spinning my wheels paying all these high bills just to grow a little bit of medicine.

Just one summer with free sunshine, electricity, and rent and Im the golden boy.