Dimming Lights - NIE

RTNI

Hello,

Over the last number of weeks and months I have noticed lights in our house intermittently flicking off and on again, by which I mean a few milliseconds of a flicker enough to catch my eye.

In addition sometimes when i switch on lights over the house, they come on but after a second or two increase in brightness and remain at this level (called a brownout)

NIE have been out and checked connections to the house and all is ok as is the transformer in the field. I have carried out no electrical work in the house. I think I noticed this happening at my in laws house in castlereagh too but can't be sure. Has anyone else noticed either of these two things happening over say the last 3 months or so.

It's not connected to high load ppliances such as electric shower or immersion or motors starting up. Turely random occurrences which I can't replicate. All connections of live, neutral and earths tight in meter box in consumer units.

Ticked

A brownout is when the supply voltage dips but doesn't fall to zero (ie, get switched off) so lights dim down. I suspect that something switching on causes the flicker, a fridge starting up draws high current for a second or so and, in our house, causes a slight flicker, as does the electric shower.
Corrections to anything I post are gladly accepted!

RTNI

What you say is true, but unfortunately it's not in time with the fridge starting up or any other motors starting up. Thankfully this was easy to eliminate the fridge as it's the kitchen lights where the "flickering" is more noticeable due to it being a long room and the lights at one end.

It would have to be a very very slim chance that when I switch on the lights that something stops a second or two later to cause the voltage to increase and increase the light output of the lights.

Totally understand a high power device to dim the lights when it's running like as you say an electric shower.

Ticked

Are they fluorescent lights?

RTNI

No the lights affected are LED, but other lights in the house are standard tungsten lights.

BigAl94

Are they on a dimmer? http://www.downlights.co.uk/faq-why-do-leds-flicker-.html

Ticked

BigAl94 wrote: »

Are they on a dimmer? http://www.downlights.co.uk/faq-why-do-leds-flicker-.html

Interesting! The more I learn, the less, I realise, I know.........

RTNI

Nope no dimmers in the house. The fact that three seperate lighting circuits are affected points me to think that it's a fault with the supply. I shall call NIE and ask for an update on the fault that I raised.

ballyblack

A neighbour using a high drain device/machine e.g. welder ?

RTNI

Possibly but difficult to determine. Neighbours across the road don't report any problems and they are fed off the same transformer. We are fairly rural though but it is a strange situation.

A free hours ago when we arrived home we drove into the driveway and the floodlights came on by the PIR sensor. The floodlights came on at around 90% brightness (guess) then after two seconds or so they brightened to 100% brightness. This is while we were still in the car!

jjd

Had similar problem a few years ago but supply to everything was affected. Lights would dim for no reason, tv would go onto to standby etc. Eventually after complaining to NIE for a while they came out and put a supply meter in out house. It was wired into the fuse box for a couple of weeks. A few weeks after they did that they came out and replaced the transformer in the field beside our house. They problem was resolved.
New issue is power surges which to date have fried a few household appliances. Now power will go out for 10 seconds to a few minutes... Hasn't happened in a few weeks but each time I phone they seem aware of what's going on. I would continue to request NIE investigate a bit further as they are reasonably helpful and did resolve one of my problems.