incensenonsense t1_jabfwsh wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:32 AM

Not an electrician, but I think it’s worth checking hot, neutral, and ground from your lighting circuit are all tight in your breaker box (only open if you know what you’re doing, turn off the main breaker, and beware the life wires coming into the breaker are still hot—touch those or anything they may be in contact with and you are toast).

Another thing that may be worth investigating or reading more about is whether your neutral may be loose somewhere between your house and the power company supply. It may not be super obvious bc stuff will still run but go though your ground wire instead of neutral. That can definitely be a cause for flickering.

ProblimaticSolutions OP t1_jabgi5u wrote on February 28, 2023 at 5:38 AM

I will check that. Not sure if it matters (regarding the power co. side of things) but ground and neutral are on the same bar in the box, house was built in the early'40s.

incensenonsense t1_jabk82v wrote on February 28, 2023 at 6:20 AM

As I understand the issue with a loose neutral to the power company, you get power coming in through hot and instead of returning through the neutral connection to the power co, it’ll go though your ground rod next to your house (since ground and neutral are connected as in your breaker box).

ProblimaticSolutions OP t1_jablm2e wrote on February 28, 2023 at 6:36 AM

Well I checked and didn't find anything loose either on the oven or light circuit. Another item that may or may not mean anything - the breakers are right next to each other. But then again the light circuit includes stuff like my PC/Monitor and the other bedroom's light none of which have issues.

Might just have to suck it up and pay a pro.

WealthyMarmot t1_jadufm5 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 6:51 PM

Yep. You lose that center-tapped service neutral to the transformer, your 120V phase legs are now in series, which can cause severe overvoltage (up to 240V) or undervoltage depending on the balance of the load. You may also end up with dangerous current on metal appliance casings depending on the grounding system's impedence. It might be the single most dangerous failure for residential split-phase systems.