Pro tip: A flickering streetlight in Portland taught me to always check the neutral first

I was on a call for a flickering light in a whole city block last month, and I spent an hour checking the hot side at each pole. The problem was a single loose neutral lug in the main panel two streets over, which was feeding back through the shared return. Now I start at the neutral for any group flicker issue. Has anyone else found a weird neutral problem that threw them off?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean_hunt6114d ago

Oh man, that's a solid lesson learned the hard way! I had a similar headache with a whole row of parking lot lights flickering like crazy. I chased voltage on the hot legs forever before a buddy told me to clamp the neutral. Found a corroded connection at the very first junction box, it was feeding all that noise back down the line. Your method is spot on, start at the neutral and save yourself the time.

ellis.victor14d ago

Ever wonder why neutrals are always the last thing we check? It's like your car making a weird noise and you replace the whole engine before checking the oil. That little wire causes so much chaos when it goes bad.