HardeeHouse
DIY
- Reaction score
- 4
We are working on updating a house from 1981. A little backstory about the house: the previous owner bought it new and, based on stories from neighbors, she almost never used any lights. She’d wake up at sunrise and go to bed at sunset and never turn on any lights. All of the appliances were well cared for and original. When we moved in we installed a new fridge, countertop stove, dishwasher, and washer/dryer. All of these items were installed one at a time (except the washer/dryer). The final item (W/D) was installed in March or April of this year. Since then, we expanded our closet and, in doing so, relocated an existing outlet and added a light from that outlet. The outlet is in a line of outlets so we now have 3 connections in that box. Power in from an outlet, power out to another outlet, and power out to the light’s switch.
I’ll also note that we had squirrels chew through the wiring in our barn which caused one of our breakers to trip. Before we knew the squirrels had caused it, we flipped the breaker back on and it caused all of the lights in the house to slowly go out and buzz. While we aren’t positive, we think we also saw a small spark in the panel as well.
Shortly thereafter, we noticed that certain appliances would cause all of the lights in the house to get very bright and then dim. The dryer, garbage disposal, and microwave specifically. We also tried to run an air compressor from 2 different outlets and it wouldn’t start, it kept clicking but it wouldn’t fully run. We know there’s nothing wrong with it because it worked fine in the same outlet just an hour before.
To fix the problem, we’ve tried turning off each breaker one at a time and run the garbage disposal to see where the issue might be but the lights still flickered. Next we checked the work we did in the closet and everything seemed correct. We even had the power company come out and check the meter and they didn’t find any issues. Today, we cut back as much of the damaged wire in the barn as we could find and replaced that breaker. We’ve left the breaker off in case there were more wires we hadn’t found. When replacing the breaker we also checked all of the connections in the panel and everything was tight. None of this has helped and our lights are still dimming. HELP! What am I missing?!
I’ll also note that we had squirrels chew through the wiring in our barn which caused one of our breakers to trip. Before we knew the squirrels had caused it, we flipped the breaker back on and it caused all of the lights in the house to slowly go out and buzz. While we aren’t positive, we think we also saw a small spark in the panel as well.
Shortly thereafter, we noticed that certain appliances would cause all of the lights in the house to get very bright and then dim. The dryer, garbage disposal, and microwave specifically. We also tried to run an air compressor from 2 different outlets and it wouldn’t start, it kept clicking but it wouldn’t fully run. We know there’s nothing wrong with it because it worked fine in the same outlet just an hour before.
To fix the problem, we’ve tried turning off each breaker one at a time and run the garbage disposal to see where the issue might be but the lights still flickered. Next we checked the work we did in the closet and everything seemed correct. We even had the power company come out and check the meter and they didn’t find any issues. Today, we cut back as much of the damaged wire in the barn as we could find and replaced that breaker. We’ve left the breaker off in case there were more wires we hadn’t found. When replacing the breaker we also checked all of the connections in the panel and everything was tight. None of this has helped and our lights are still dimming. HELP! What am I missing?!
