Flickering lights

Over the weekend we noticed that the lights were flickering. Initially we thought the living room light bulbs needs to be replaced but then my tenant (2nd Fl) called me reporting the same issue. We carefully looked at each room and confirmed all lights were flickering, even the basement. We have 3 meters total and all flrs are experiencing it. It does not flicker constantly just intermittently. We asked our neighbor and they do not have the issue. Anyone know what could cause this? should I contact ConEd? or a electrician? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

namahs

in Electricians 10 years and 2 months ago

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namahs | 10 years and 2 months ago

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An update on this. So Friday evening, I got home and no one called but my lights magically stopped flickering. Tenant confirmed the same thing. I figured ConEd probably fixed the issue themselves during the afternoon. Come around 9PM, I see a ConEd truck blocking my driveway. I went out to speak to the crew and they mentioned they are here to look at my issue. I told them I don’t have any flickering anymore. So the ConEd crew said it will be difficult to look at the issue now and they will put on schedule for 1-2 weeks for a daytime crew to look at the underground wiring. If anything happens before that to call them back again and they will dispatch immediately. They did not ask me for an electrician or anything to verify. Also the ConEd crew said it is pretty common for lights to flicker or have outages during a snowstorm due to the salt getting into the underground wiring. It corrodes or causes temporary issues. Alright, that is my story..hopefully this is the end of it.

dorkofwindsor | 10 years and 2 months ago

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yeah as a rule coned does not like to deal with consumers as they have people calling them about the stupidest stuff on earth that is not an issue beyond the demarc point. actually, there isn’t really a serviceable demarcation point for consumers to test, so you need to get whacked by hiring an electrician first. nature of the beast for a dangerous service i suppose.

daveinbedstuy | 10 years and 2 months ago

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I would definetely mention that you are smelling smoke either from the street or through the channel that the wires travel in. I once had smoke enter my basement from a fire outside in the manhole area. You will get a much quicker response and avoid having to pay an electrician.

Bessie | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Our electrician had to call them and tell them it was definitely the street and not us.

Arkady | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Initially w/ my experience, ConEd wanted verification by my electrician but when I said I saw smoke coming out of the hole in the street they sent a crew w/o my having to hire anyone.

namahs | 10 years and 2 months ago

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I just filed the issue with ConEd online and they called, hopefully have a crew to take a look this evening. Bessie, So what happen? did you electrician had to do something?

Bessie | 10 years and 2 months ago

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We had the same thing. Con Ed required that we have our electrician contact them.

Arkady | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Agree w/ Dave – same happened to me. I did see/smell burning at the cover in the street. Lost one leg coming into the house.

daveinbedstuy | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Likely what GreenThinker says, salt getting into manhole and shorting mains. If some lights/circuits go out and not others then you have a failure of one of the live feeds coming in (You won’t be able to run anything that is 220v) which happened to me a few years ago.

namahs | 10 years and 2 months ago

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I surveyed all the floors, there are no NEW high current appliance running. Again the flickering is happening every night (past week) and its not consistent..it happens and stops, on all floors. I will file a complaint to ConEd first and see what they can do.

GreenThinker | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Call coned, it’s most likely an issue with their cable. Water/salt might of gotten into a manhole somewhere and it’s causing issues, or your neutral is damaged/undersized for the amount of load. Was anyone running anything major, flipping on a shopvac or using a high current appliance can cause lights to flicker.

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