Are you wondering why are my lights getting brighter all of a sudden? Are electrical appliances and electronics acting strange. It’s worse than you think.
In total if your lights keep getting brighter, you have lost the neutral power connection to your home. This means you do have not 120 volt anymore and everything now has 240 volt feeding through it. You need to shut your main power switch off immediately and call your electrician at once.
Damage can occur by not shutting the power off so make sure you do so.
1.Why Are My Lights Getting Brighter?
If you have issues with your lights getting brighter and then dimmer in your house and chances are you have a problem either with a loose neutral connection or a problem coming in from the utility.
The neutral connection is a connection between the two hots of your electrical service that gives you 120 volts to your house.
Without the neutral connection you will only have 240 volt entering your house.
This causes an issue because every 120 volt appliance or circuit will then have 240 volt or there close to it.
This is commonly seen during storms when a neutral connection is lost to the house.
This is also commonly seen when you have a loose neutral connection inside of your power panel causing multiple circuits to have issues.
Please note that this is extremely dangerous to your electrical system.
You need to shut your main switch off to your home at once.
Anything that gets to 240 volts that should have 120volt will most likely blow up.
This includes all electronic devices TVs computers. Any lighting that is 120 volt.
Any appliances that are 120 volt like your fridge, microwave, dishwasher etc.
2.Why Are My Lights Getting Brighter In A Storm?
Sometimes in a windstorm tree to fall on powerlines.
The neutral connection is the connection on the line coming in your house that supports the electrical wires.
If a tree falls on the wires if they break the neutral connection because it is more rigid send it to flexible to 240 volt both wires coming into your house.
This causes 240 to still be hooked up but you end up losing a neutral in process.
This is usually when we get calls for all kinds of crazy electrical things going on his house.
Again this is when you lose in the neutral connection and you need to shut your main power up immediately.
3.Why Are My Lights Getting Brighter And Blowing Out?
In North America your lighting circuits are 120 volt.
When it loses its neutral connection and you have 240 volt running through your lighting circuits.
It will blow up everything in that circuit.
This includes incandescent lightbulbs.
A dimmer is associated with the equipment or any LED lighting fixtures. Dimmers are very sensitive electrical devices that are subject to not working if they see too many voltage spikes.
Led bulbs of all kinds are also very sensitive.
4. Why Are My Lights Getting Brighter Can This Problem Cause An Electrical Fire?
Absolutely this can cause an electrical fire.
Any equipment that is hooked up to 120 volts it now becomes 240 volts can very quickly over heat.
Overheating will definitely cause a fire.
Your TV your computer your fridge etc.
We hope we are getting the point across as you need to shut down your main power switch because this is an absolute emergency.
We cannot stress this point enough.
5.What If The Problem Is Not In The House But On The Powerline?
If this issue is caused on the incoming lines coming from the utility you still need to shut your power right away.
You will most likely need to call your electrician which will then tell you to call your power utility.
How are you Jody will come out and repair the issue up there in your store power probably get up. Do you bury that if there are any trees close to your property business partner you may want to look at getting a three strand or talk to your local area so the bugs getting this done for you. The steps without a problem
6.What Appliances Can Be Affected By This?
Any appliance that is 120 volt you can expect to have issues with.
Your fridge your freezer, microwave, dishwasher, washer machine all of the above can be affected.
Once 240 volt run through these appliances they will need to be checked by a proper appliance repair man to make sure they are still good.
Even though you think that they are not directly affected within a few weeks they could still burn out.
These appliances do not like having the wrong voltage run through them.
7.Which Electronics Can Burn Up?
Any electronic device including any devices that are installed in your electrical system like GFCI’s and smoke detectors.
All those these things are hardwired they can still be subject injury due to losing the neutral.
All of your computers your TV your power bars your search protectors etc.
This is all stuff that needs to be thoroughly checked.
We have seen cases where the surge protector has actually taken 240 volt and melted.
8.What Kind Of Damage Should I Expect To My Electrical System?
Although most wiring in your home is rated for 300 volt it still needs to be all thoroughly checked.
We will come in and perform a wire check on the installation of the conductors.
We also check any of the 120 volt breakers which should also be replaced.
Any devices including plugs, dimmers, switches should also be replaced.
You can see the snowball effect that happens when you lose or neutral.
9.Will I Have To Replace My Wiring?
In some cases you will need to have some of the circuit wiring replaced.
This is due to overheating from the appliance or the device hooked to the other end of the wire.
This can cause the insulation on the wire to burn and or the conductor itself.
When we perform our wire check on the insulation resistance we can tell whether the wire is still good or not. This is usually a requirement of the insurance company when we come in to check the system out after the damage has happened.
10.Does My Insurance Company Cover Something Like This?
Yes most insurance companies will cover this kind of damage because it is so extensive. Speak to your local insurance company or your insured to talk about how the process needs to work. The insurance company will usually pay us to come in and assess the damage to give them a quote to repair all of the issues. In addition the insurance company operating upon appliance repair man to come in and look at all the additional issues.
11.How Do I Stop This From Happening Again?
Although there is no 100% way to completely stop this.
The best thing to do is make sure you do your maintenance. Have your local electrician come in every couple of years to check the connections in your panel.
Have them look for any signs of wear or corrosion that may cause a loose connection.
In addition make sure your powerlines are clear of trees are falling debris in your local area.
Speak with your utility service provider to see if they would want to do it or you should hire someone to do it for you.
There’s also the option of having underground power installed to illuminate the overhead lines to being risk of corrosion or being hit by trees.
Unfortunately underground power can be quite a bit more expensive so speak to your local electrician about having this done.
12.Would The Power Utility Be Responsible For The Damage?
Whenever there is an issue with the powerline causing you to lose a neutral the utility service provider will come and repair the issue.
Whether or not it falls back on the liability of the power utility doing neglect to tell me the lines.
It really comes down to the power utilities requirements.
You’ll need to speak to your local power utility to see how to proceed. In most cases they will not call liable or cover the damage.
It is also a good idea to have the power companies thoroughly checked the connections where they connect onto the top of the house onto your electrical service.
Sometimes the neutral connection can come loose.
If you notice the problem during a windstorm this is a sure sign of why this is happening.
Any part of an electrical system that is subject to weather can always corrode.
This is why it’s a good idea to have them check this out for you. The call should be usually free as they are responsible right to the point of attachment on the side of your house.
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13.Why do the lights in my house flicker sometimes?
When this happens, it’s usually because the neutral power connection has been lost. This means that you no longer have 120 volt coming into your home and 240 volt is now flowing in. The lights in your house experience a fluctuation in voltage that causes them to flicker.
The best way to avoid these problems is to make sure the neutral power connection is always present and intact. If you’re still experiencing these issues, call an electrician right away!
