Power dropping

sillysocks

About maybe once a month for the last 3/4 months at some stage our electricity has fully gone in the house for about 2/3 seconds at a time. So literally everything goes off (lights sockets etc) but pretty much straight away comes back. Our neighbours were out last time and said they didn't notice it the other times but because it's quick unless you're in the house with lights on etc you wouldn't notice. I've had a look on the Esb networks site and there were no outages listed but it's so quick I don't know if it would be recorded as an outage. Each time we hadn't just switched something on or turned something off.

We have had some electrical work done in the house over the last few years with an extension etc, all by a fully qualified electrician.

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice as to whether it might be something to worry about, I'm wondering if there is a fault in our house or wiring whether the power going out so randomly and with weeks in between would show an issue or if it sounds more like just an ESB issue?

irishfire

If it's happened your neighbours at the same times and only lasts 3-4 seconds off then it's on the ESB side.

You will likely notice that there are strong winds when this happens usually, this causes something to come close enough to the ESB lines that the line arcs or current flows between phases or to earth. A fault like this is called a transient fault as it passes away by itself fairly quickly.

When this happens the whole line will trip, and at the station a fault will be flagged, but the line will try to reclose (turn back on), 2-3 times depending on the configuration. If the line stays live then happy days, but if the reclosing fails then there is a permenant fault and the control room will log the fault to be dispatched to the local depot.

Another thing that may be happening you is that if you are close to the station, and the line trips somewhere near the end, special switches might open automatically which will isolate a permanent fault from the sections of line which have no fault. Obviously for this to happen the line needs to have an initial fault and to trip out but reclose successfully.

TLDR: if it's happening your neighbours at the same time then don't worry about it. No point contacting esb really as they know exactly when the line trips and comes back on and really if they could find the cause of the problem then they would have by now, but as it's likely a transient fault then there's no way to locate it for definite after it clears.

sillysocks

Thanks for the quick reply! The issue is we're not sure that it did happen the neighbours too. They said they hadnt noticed anything but they'd often be out, and only for the kids were complaining that the tv went off and I was in the kitchen so heard the fridge turn off we may not have noticed either. I guessed because it's so intermittent and we hadn't turned anything on/off at the time that hopefully it's not a wiring problem and it doesn't even cause inconvenience because it's back so quick. I've no idea about electrics so didn't want to dismiss it and then to end up with a major problem on our hands.

sillysocks

Oh and yesterday when it happened it wasn't windy, couldn't say for sure the other times.

irishfire

It's very unlikely to have been in tour wiring if it came back on. Domestic wiring will just trip off, there's no coming back on without you pushing the switch back up on the fuse board.

Possibly worth calling ESB Networks tomorrow and asking for it to be passed on to your local depot. The supervisor there should be able to look into it and see what's happening.

Make sure to mention that this has happened a number if times recently and also that it lasts 3-4 seconds.

sillysocks

Ok thank you! That's reassuring at least. I was imagining ringing an electrician who'd never be able to replicate the problem because it's so intermittent. I'll try ESB and just see what they say.

Thank you!

sillysocks

Was in a friends house last night in the same estate where I live, and while I was there the electricity dropped the same as it had at our house my husband texted me to say it had just happened on our house too so was kind of pleased then that it must be a general fault rather than just our house.
(Presuming I'm not cursed by spirits or something 😂)

Rang Esb networks who were fairly useless. Said there were no other reports of faults in the area and because it isn't off now there wasn't much they could do. She said next time it happens to ring straight away and they'd contact the techs. Not overly concerned anyway now I know it's not just our house.