Home electrics problem

Hootie19

We had our house rewired two and a half years ago. At the beginning of March we had the electrician come back to wire in some wall lights and ceiling lights in our lounge/diner. Previously we had energy efficient bulbs in - now we have halogen ones.

Ever since the new lights were put in, we have been experiencing badly flickering lights. It's not all the time, and it's mainly mid- to late-evening (8-9pm) that it starts. No other lights in the house were flickering (all energy efficient ones) except for the kitchen one, which has spotlights in it. This light fitting, however, has often flickered, ever since we put it in, several years ago - usually when one of the spotlights is about to blow.

My husband had the notion that we were only now noticing the flickering because we have changed to halogen lamps, as he said that energy efficient ones were slower to react than ordinary bulbs (hence them taking a bit longer to come to full brightness when they're first switched on), so he put a couple of ordinary bulbs in a coupe of fittings. Sure enough, when the halogen ones flickered, so did the ordinary ones at the same time.

For the past week or so, we have also noticed that our tv is making odd "buzzing" noises. I thought at first we had a massive bee in the room, but eventually tracked the noise down to the tv. I'm not altogether sure if this happens at the same time as the flickering lights, but the buzzing has happened today, without the lights being on.

AND, further to this, I have noticed yesterday and today, that when the buzzing is coming from the tv, the boiler (which is in the kitchen, next to the dining area) is also making an odd noise (it sounds a bit like an extractor fan does when the cover is blowing in the wind, if you know what I mean). I also noticed that on the front of the boiler, when it is making this noise, is a letter H flashing.

Now, coincidental to all this, at around the same time that the electrician came to put the new light fittings in for us, EDF Energy turned off the power in our area for a morning, to do some work. I wish I had saved the flyer they put through our door, telling us what they were doing, but unfortunately I didn't.

We have electrical cover with HomeServe, and one of their engineers came on Saturday. As soon as he came in, he said there was nothing he could do, said something about a range of +10% to -5% (I had stopped listening at this point so didn't really get what he was saying) and that it was an EDF problem and that they (EDF) would have to fit monitoring meters to check the levels. He told us to leave it over the weekend and see if it improved (which I thought would be unlikely, given that it had been ongoing since the middle of March!).

My husband called EDF today and one of their engineers came round today. He said that there was nothing wrong with the circuits in the house, and that they would send us some meters to plug in. This was before I noticed that the boiler was going funny at the same time as the telly was buzzing, so the engineer was unaware of this.

So the point of this post is to ask if we should be freaking out a bit more at the fact that the tv and the boiler are also now going wild, as well as the lights, or is it something that we can be a bit relaxed about (whilst still being driven potty by the flickering) and just wait for these monitoring thing to turn up in the post. The flickering is seriously bad when it gets going - just like a lightning storm! Is this something that's likely to cause damage to our electrical appliances? And if so - are we able to look to the electricity supplier (assuming it IS down to their supply) to at least contribute towards replacing them?

Sorry the post is so long, and I hope I've not left out anything vital!

will-he-payitoff

First thing I would do is ask your electrician to have a look.

Mankysteve

will-he-payitoff wrote: »

First thing I would do is ask your electrician to have a look.

Hootie19 wrote: »

.

We have electrical cover with HomeServe, and one of their engineers came on Saturday. As soon as he came in, he said there was nothing he could do, said something about a range of +10% to -5% (I had stopped listening at this point so didn't really get what he was saying) and that it was an EDF problem and that they (EDF) would have to fit monitoring meters to check the levels. He told us to leave it over the weekend and see if it improved (which I thought would be unlikely, given that it had been ongoing since the middle of March!).

There's not much more you can do than wait unfortunately. Without getting an oscilloscope on your mains it's difficult to tell what's going on. A bog standard electian is not going to have that gear.

irnbru_2

Hootie19 wrote: »

As soon as he came in, he said there was nothing he could do, said something about a range of +10% to -5% (I had stopped listening at this point so didn't really get what he was saying)

Supply voltage tolerance.

A fixmystreet user was affected by external flickering street lights.

Hootie19

will-he-payitoff wrote: »

First thing I would do is ask your electrician to have a look.

Thank you.

When the EDF engineer was here on Monday, he said there was nothing wrong with the circuits in the house, so I don't think our electrician would be able to offer any advice.

I will give him a ring though, and see if he's heard of the problem before.

Hootie19

Mankysteve wrote: »

There's not much more you can do than wait unfortunately. Without getting an oscilloscope on your mains it's difficult to tell what's going on. A bog standard electian is not going to have that gear.

Thank you - my husband called EDF again today and updated them with the problems with the tv and boiler, and they are going to "try and rush through the despatch of the monitoring "things".

I just hope that no lasting damage has been done - and that the flickering stops soon. It really is driving us nuts!

Hootie19

irnbru wrote: »

Supply voltage tolerance.

A fixmystreet user was affected by external flickering street lights.

Thank you for those intereting links. Haven't noticed the street lights flickering, but will make a point of looking this evening.

ROY47

also ask any neighbours if they have the same problem

If they do it's external fault with the supply cables

Hootie19

Have just seen one of our neighbours who says that their lights flicker a little bit, but she was shocked at how bad ours was in comparison. It's so bad tonight that we are literally sitting in the dark - just the light from the tv (which doesn't seem to be buzzing tonight) and the laptop (which is being run on the battery).

I really hope they can do something soon. Thank goodness the evenings are staying light for longer!