Hello
I live in Florida near Daytona. I just moved into this house and now I’m seeing a problem with my power going to all my audio gear.
First thing is this, when the a/c or my dryer turns on a few of the lights dim. Second this is this. When someone turns on or off a light switch close to my HT room or anywhere near one of my 5 audio systems. I will hear a loud pop sound though the speakers. This drives me crazy. I have some very good power blocks that are made to clean the power but they are doing nothing for this
Can someone please help me. The last thing I need to do is blow up close to 100k in audio gear
I live in Florida near Daytona. I just moved into this house and now I’m seeing a problem with my power going to all my audio gear.
First thing is this, when the a/c or my dryer turns on a few of the lights dim. Second this is this. When someone turns on or off a light switch close to my HT room or anywhere near one of my 5 audio systems. I will hear a loud pop sound though the speakers. This drives me crazy. I have some very good power blocks that are made to clean the power but they are doing nothing for this
Can someone please help me. The last thing I need to do is blow up close to 100k in audio gear
If you can afford a 100k audio system, then you can afford an electrician. Don't attempt to work on this problem yourself. New wall switches may help, but do not get light dimmers installed. Check the power panel for secure connections and corrosion. The power company will test the regulation of the AC line by recording the line voltage for a period of time, and they will replace the step-down transformer if it is outside specs.
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My lights dim when the well-pump starts. This was noted as "possible problem" when I bought the place. I had a good idea what it was, but spent a couple years being sure. My line from the street is too long for good regulation (also an issue about the pump). The place was wired for a trailer, and never re-considered when a house grew on the land. Not (after checking) un-safe, just saggy.
This is probably nothing to do with your POPs. I have some ideas, and go with Rayma's advice: Consult A Good Electrician. Houses often have wiring flaws, potentially dangerous, and not safe for DIY checking. (And this house isn't half as bad as the one I had before.)
This is probably nothing to do with your POPs. I have some ideas, and go with Rayma's advice: Consult A Good Electrician. Houses often have wiring flaws, potentially dangerous, and not safe for DIY checking. (And this house isn't half as bad as the one I had before.)
Trust me, the "pops" will not cause harm to your audio system(s). It's annoying, yes, but that's all. As far the dimming of lights, it's a sign of insufficent wiring, and that would require upgrading. One thing you can do is to kill the power at the breakers, and go around and check/tighten all the switch and outlet screws to make sure they're snug. It's tedious, I've done it, and insures good connection to the wiring. Shut the Main Breaker, and tighten all the branch breaker screws as well.
Invest in LED lighting, I found it great and saves money.
Invest in LED lighting, I found it great and saves money.
You probably don’t need to rewire the entire house. Root cause is probably at the main panel or on the pole. In either case you need an electrician and maybe a few hundred to few thousand. If you had the qualifications to do it you wouldn’t be asking here, you’d know what steps to take and just do it.
I have seen cases however where everyone points the finger and does nothing. Electrician insists everthing is fine, power company insists it’s fine, but voltage at any given outlet runs between 50 and 200 volts. The fault ended up being on the pole, affecting all 3 houses on that transformer. Electrician couldn’t do anything about it, and you’ve got to threaten the power company at gunpoint to get them to move their ***** and do anything. We ended up with an isolation transformer on a sub panel creating our own damn neutral. The lights in the house would flash like a disco all day, but the computer room and stereo ran perfectly..... You may not have to resort to something like this, but even if you did it would be less than $10k.
I have seen cases however where everyone points the finger and does nothing. Electrician insists everthing is fine, power company insists it’s fine, but voltage at any given outlet runs between 50 and 200 volts. The fault ended up being on the pole, affecting all 3 houses on that transformer. Electrician couldn’t do anything about it, and you’ve got to threaten the power company at gunpoint to get them to move their ***** and do anything. We ended up with an isolation transformer on a sub panel creating our own damn neutral. The lights in the house would flash like a disco all day, but the computer room and stereo ran perfectly..... You may not have to resort to something like this, but even if you did it would be less than $10k.
Not only on the lights themselves, but the AC load. And I hate changing lightbulbs every 15 minutes.
Thanks for all the information guys
I have someone from Duke Energy ( the power company) coming over here in Tuesday so a hole house Energy Evaluation at that time I’ll show him what’s going on I do have one of those monster power rack mount power conditioners with the meter on it and it does show the power being almost 130 V I’ll show him that also show much going on and see what I can get done I did go out and buy a bunch a new light switches and outlets as I’m going to change them out throughout the house I am familiar with how to do this safely and will start doing this I was also planning on running a dedicated lines from the panel to my HT room so I can have three dedicated 20 amp breaker’s in there and also in my spare room where I have my larger system installed with my tube amps and pro amps
Thank you guys for your help and these ideas is what I was thinking but wanted to get some opinions from you guys
I have someone from Duke Energy ( the power company) coming over here in Tuesday so a hole house Energy Evaluation at that time I’ll show him what’s going on I do have one of those monster power rack mount power conditioners with the meter on it and it does show the power being almost 130 V I’ll show him that also show much going on and see what I can get done I did go out and buy a bunch a new light switches and outlets as I’m going to change them out throughout the house I am familiar with how to do this safely and will start doing this I was also planning on running a dedicated lines from the panel to my HT room so I can have three dedicated 20 amp breaker’s in there and also in my spare room where I have my larger system installed with my tube amps and pro amps
Thank you guys for your help and these ideas is what I was thinking but wanted to get some opinions from you guys
I had the "pop" noise issue at every start/stop of the compressor of my old refrigerator. I solved this issue by adding a 220nF X2 capacitor across the compressor supply contact. This has to be done carefully and with the correct wiring/components to avoid any electrical code violation and to make it look "factory" due to potential warranty issues, but it is a pretty cheap and inexpensive fix. It is more effective to fix the electromagnetic noise surce than shielding the target.
It is unlikely the wires are bad. More likely the joints and splices, which "should!" all be "readily accessible". (I found some hidden in the kitchen ceiling when we remodeled
) As mickeymoose says, the stab-in connections are popular with house builders and mostly go bad. Yes, 3000sf means tons of outlets and days just to go through them all. Recent 1400sf jobs kicked my butt.
Those stab-in connectors get oxidized and become partially rectifying. As in produces distortion and a DC component. Hit that with an inductive spike and it can produce splatter all over the spectrum. You could probably get in trouble with the FCC for excessive emissions. Not only does it make a lot of noise on the line they get HOT when you draw a lot of current through them. I wish they would outlaw them. As every room in our house got painted, the original outlets and switches came out and got replaced with spec grade. One room at a time over a period of months isn’t bad. When we had a contractor come in and do the new kitchen/den, at least he used real outlets and not the 39 cent specials.
Some appliances just produce a lot of RFI no matter how good/bad the wiring is. We had a washing machine that did it even plugged into its dedicated run.
Some appliances just produce a lot of RFI no matter how good/bad the wiring is. We had a washing machine that did it even plugged into its dedicated run.
The screw type is not unfirtunately a lazy man’s friend. You’ve got to be careful to strip the right amount of insulation, cleanly, without any nicks. And wrap the wire properly, and torque it correctly - if it’s going to pass inspection. It’s also much easier to see the quality of the work or lack thereof than with the push-in which hides a multitude of sins. And when you’re doing a DIY they are far less likely to let little things slide.
I like to wrap a layer or two of electrical tape around the outlet/switch to cover the screws on the sides - particularly if its going into a metal box.
Cheap insurance IMO.
We had mixed aluminum and copper in one house we owned. Never had a fire, but I did change the outlets and switches to make sure they were compatible.
Not that it will ever come back into vogue, but some folks in the midwest are now NOT replacing "knob and tube".
How to measure power line impedance:
https://www.omicron-lab.com/fileadm...Impedance/AppNote_PowerLineImpedance_V1.1.pdf
Not that it will ever come back into vogue, but some folks in the midwest are now NOT replacing "knob and tube".
How to measure power line impedance:
https://www.omicron-lab.com/fileadm...Impedance/AppNote_PowerLineImpedance_V1.1.pdf
Be damn sure the wiring is copper and not aluminum! If it is aluminum then you will at the very least need to change all the circuit breakers to the arc interrupting type. Better of course would be to replace it all.
Next issue is the skill set of the local workmen. I suspect it is well below average, so finding a good electrician will be quite a challenge.
Until recently 200 amp service was the standard for houses. With the emphasis on energy efficiency the older 100 amp service is coming back in fashion. Of course you will have a larger than average air conditioning load.
As to the AC power line running 130 volts, that is within acceptable standards and actually a good thing.
The test I would run is to measure the voltage between the neutral and safety ground. It needs to be less than 6 volts. A real electrician will know how to measure the safety ground resistance and be sure it complies with code requirements.
As I think everyone has mentioned not really a Diy project.
Jack seems we cross posted.
Next issue is the skill set of the local workmen. I suspect it is well below average, so finding a good electrician will be quite a challenge.
Until recently 200 amp service was the standard for houses. With the emphasis on energy efficiency the older 100 amp service is coming back in fashion. Of course you will have a larger than average air conditioning load.
As to the AC power line running 130 volts, that is within acceptable standards and actually a good thing.
The test I would run is to measure the voltage between the neutral and safety ground. It needs to be less than 6 volts. A real electrician will know how to measure the safety ground resistance and be sure it complies with code requirements.
As I think everyone has mentioned not really a Diy project.
Jack seems we cross posted.
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Just wanted to let you know that ALL the wiring in that house was replaced with copper. Over the years all the walls had been opened up for renovations.
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