Mr RB
Well-Known Member
Recently all my house lights have been flickering when other lights are turned on! This is pretty nasty and indicates a bad connection somewhere in the 240v supply to the lights, and obviously at the fuse box or between the fuse box and most of the light citcuit wiring.
I opened the fuse box and removed the cover, and carefully wiggled all the wires where they screw into the circuit breakers etc. Darn! no bad connections there. So I worked the light circuit breaker 20 times or so, in case it had corrosion between the contacts. Darn! Light still flickering.
So it was time to start crawling through the roof checking for junction boxes, or pulling out every single light switch and inspecting the wires, and/or every single light fitting in the ceiling... Yep i had been putting this off for a while.![Frown :( :(](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Then I got an idea! I have a cheap IR thermometer something like this one;
**broken link removed**
So I walked through each room and pointed the IR thermometer right at the light switch (about 2" distance), and then at the wall 6 inches to the side of the light switch.
Here are the results, tested at night with about 300W of lights turned on;
It was that easy!![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
The light in the bathroom wasn't even on at the time but that was where the problem was in the wiring!
I pulled the light switch out and the incoming 240v active wire was sparking visible blue sparks, it had totally sheared at the screw and was simply touching the brass screw with gravity holding the weight of the wire so it sat in the terminal hole.
I was glad I decided to use try the IR thermometer before pulling every light swith out, that room would have been around the middle of my list.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I opened the fuse box and removed the cover, and carefully wiggled all the wires where they screw into the circuit breakers etc. Darn! no bad connections there. So I worked the light circuit breaker 20 times or so, in case it had corrosion between the contacts. Darn! Light still flickering.
So it was time to start crawling through the roof checking for junction boxes, or pulling out every single light switch and inspecting the wires, and/or every single light fitting in the ceiling... Yep i had been putting this off for a while.
Then I got an idea! I have a cheap IR thermometer something like this one;
**broken link removed**
So I walked through each room and pointed the IR thermometer right at the light switch (about 2" distance), and then at the wall 6 inches to the side of the light switch.
Here are the results, tested at night with about 300W of lights turned on;
Code:
[B]Every light switch in the house but one;[/B]
Wall = 27'C Switch = 27'C
[B]The light switch in the bathroom[/B]
Wall = 27'C Switch = 32'C
It was that easy!
The light in the bathroom wasn't even on at the time but that was where the problem was in the wiring!
I pulled the light switch out and the incoming 240v active wire was sparking visible blue sparks, it had totally sheared at the screw and was simply touching the brass screw with gravity holding the weight of the wire so it sat in the terminal hole.
I was glad I decided to use try the IR thermometer before pulling every light swith out, that room would have been around the middle of my list.