Sporadic light flickering

[ZapHelp]

I am not an electrician but am looking for some advice as to how to fix my sporadic light flickering problem that has come and gone for the year and a half I have lived in my house

I have LED lights throughout the house that generally provided steady lighting, but a few times a day they will quickly flicker once/twice at a time. Over the past couple months they seemed to stop doing this, but the past three days it looks like the problem came back and I want to resolve it once and for all. I don't know if it relevant but want to mention it hasn't really rained for the past week (to potentially rule out any electrical/water related issue).

It occurs throughout the house in every room and even the lights that are connected to outlets. I have a tenant living on a different floor that has their own breaker box, and they claim they have not seen any flickering over the same year and a half. That said, some people who have been in my house have noticed the flickering and others have not (so it's possible my tenant may just not have noticed).

I also had one electrician come by who checked all the connections (light switches, outlets, and subpanel) and they said there was a loose neutral on the subpanel that they tightened. After they did this, the flickering seemed to go away for a few weeks, but then came back.

I had the utility company come by and they did some sort of testing at the main panel and showed me that there was no voltage fluctuation. The also did the same testing at my subpanel and noted the same thing. If I recall correctly, they said that one of the main wires connecting to the busbar was not 100% snug and suggested that could be the problem, but they said it wasn't within their scope of services to fix that.

In case this info is relevant - I have NOT had any of the circuit breakers go off, and I have never had any of my electric items (e.g., TV, computers, washing machine, etc) turn off randomly. It seems to be limited to the lights only.

So what should be my next step? Is the busbar comment from the utility company the likely cause of this and I should call an electrician back in? Is there anything else to consider before calling another electrician back in?

 

[DPG]

Does the issue get worse when heavy loafs are switched on. Does it happen more when the kettle is on for example?

 

[ZapHelp]

Does the issue get worse when heavy loafs are switched on. Does it happen more when the kettle is on for example?

No - we were just watching TV and weren't running anything else. And normally when we watch TV the lights are steady

 

[DPG]

No - we were just watching TV and weren't running anything else. And normally when we watch TV the lights are steady

Just realised auto correct did its magic. I didn't mean large bread, I meant heavy electrical loads

I was just wondering if you may have a poor connection somewhere near the origin of the supply.

 

[ZapHelp]

Just realised auto correct did its magic. I didn't mean large bread, I meant heavy electrical loads

I was just wondering if you may have a poor connection somewhere near the origin of the supply.

Hmm so I guess would be best to get an electrician to take a look right (at supply origin)?

 

[RetiredNY]

Hmm so I guess would be best to get an electrician to take a look right (at supply origin)?

Maybe, maybe not. Many electricians do not have a power quality analyser, if you do call one, make sure they have it before paying for a service call. When the utility checked, they probably weren't checking during an event so you've learned nothing. It is normal for lights to react when there is a heavy load introduced onto the system, this load could be in your house or any neighbors. The further you are from the utility's supply transformer, the more obvious the voltage dip gets. Often refrigerators cycling on and off can cause this, as well as heating boilers, air-conditioners, heat-pumps and even a hair dryer, especially when lights share the same circuit, or the same 120 volt leg in your panel.