Last updated August 19, 2008
Flickering Lights
If you have flickering lights, there could be many reasons for this problem. You are going to need to identify the problem before something more serious happens. One reason that lights flicker on and off is that the power level is changing. This might happen when you are running an air conditioner or an electric heater. If the circuits are being overloaded a bit, your lights will flicker from time to time. If this is happening, you might have a problem in your wiring or you need to have a separate circuit for the appliances which are the cause of the power level to change.
Lights may also flicker if you have a dimmer switch. If the dimmer switch shares the neutral wire and is experiencing spikes of voltage, you may experience flickering of the lights. If this problem is occurring, you may not need to worry unless the neutral wire is the common between two, three or more common four wire, 3phase or 120/208V systems. If this is the cause, you need to separate the neutrals or even use a filter choke. But if this is not possible, you will need a different dimmer switch that can fix the problem.
Flickering lights can happen for other reasons as well, but in any case, you should have an experienced electrician come in and troubleshoot to see why you are having this problem. It may be something simple to fix or it may be more serious problems with your wiring. You always want to be safe rather than sorry when dealing with anything electrical. Faulty wiring is blamed for more house fires than you realize. Have a professional electrician look at your wiring and switches as well as the appliances that could cause the problem. The appliance might be the culprit as well if it is drawing to much power because of a bad motor or something else.
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