Lights slightly flickering - Cork City centre location

04-12-2023 7:52pm #1

I’m just wondering what might be causing this? The lights in my house have been slightly flickering at times, but only during peak demand - so I think it’s a supply issue.

I noticed when the cold weather hit they have become really quite bad. So I’m assuming heat pump loads.

Wiring around here is all old quadruplex or four stack overhead urban from decades ago.

Will ESB networks do anything?! How to I log and report it? Can I get any plug in device that might monitor the voltage?

kirk. · 04-12-2023 8:24pm

Could be an external connection issue or excessive voltage drop at peak times

You'd probably check it's not an internal issue , main fuse or board etc. first before calling ESBN

05-12-2023 6:51pm

Checked and there’s nothing obvious in the house that could be causing it. It’s a fairly modern installation, all MCBs and nothing is overloaded.

The issue seems to exactly track the peak usage around 5-7pm and is very noticeable on cold days. 4 neighbours have installed heat pumps this year and EV charging, so I’m assuming the local network is just overwhelmed. Is rather old - the twisted quadrupex and 4 wire stacks, probably originally dating from the 1950s by the looks of the 4 stack anyway

I’ll get an electrical contractor involved but I would strongly suspect it’s excessive load based on the pattern.

Antenna · 05-12-2023 9:06pm

Do you have a smart meter? - they (ESBN) can probably monitor your incoming voltage remotely if it appears to be being pulled significantly low during those times

06-12-2023 12:10am

I’m getting one soon. Notification came in. I’ve a digital day/night non-smart meter that’s probably from the late 90s

meercat · 06-12-2023 6:41am

Get a rec to check your connections on the distribution board

kirk. · 06-12-2023 11:21am

You can get some idea by switching on some heavy loads and observe the dimming or flickering on an incandescent lamp

If there's not much dimming there may not be a problem at the board

If however all current using appliances and lights are switched off except the incandescent lamp and it starts dimming or flickering at peak time there is likely an external problem

kirk. · 06-12-2023 12:01pm

The 4-wire overhead LV lines weren't always great

Handy to get a 3 phase supply in but supply quality mightn't be good

If they looped the service i saw that give trouble too

06-12-2023 6:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121460831#Comment_121460831

There was no flickering at all today, but yesterday I switched off everything a the board, except for one lighting circuit which has a halogen bulb still in it. There was no dimming, what it was more like was just a rapid flicker. That would cycle for maybe 10 min, then go back to completely smooth, then go back to flickering... It's got the pattern of something being switched in and out.