During the past 3 months, my house has:
burned out several new light bulbs
spontaneously turned the garden pump on and burned it out as well
killed my dsl modem
spontaneously turned the heating off time & time again
Have I somehow displeased the gods of shelter? Do I have a poltergeist? What's going on?
2007-02-21 01:23:38 · 2 answers · asked by Lyn 6 in Home & Garden ➔ Other - Home & Garden
electromagnetic disturbances is kind of a stretch, I would go with Ghosts! Honestly, it sounds like your local power company is fluctuating the voltage just a tad. It is either that or lightning. I don't think you can prove either one. Check with the neighbors to see what problems they are having. Go ahead! It will be a good way to meet them.
2007-02-21 01:30:45 · answer #1 · answered by T C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It may be that your line voltage is too high, or that you are having voltage surges. The voltage should normally be around 120 volts, but I have seen it as high as 140 volts. At too high a voltage, light bulbs will overheat significantly and burn out. It could also account for damage to your DSL modem.
On the other hand, if your heating is turning off time and time again, I would suspect a transient voltage drop. Sometimes a voltage surge is followed by a drop, but not necessarily.
Do you have a motor, arc welder, or some other very large electrical load in your vicinity? By large I mean well over 20 amps. These could induce transients into your power. Perhaps it is not at your house but at your neighbor's.
Contact your power company to see whether they could put a transient analyzer on your power line for several days. This is a microprocessor-controlled instrument that will log variations in the power. If they are not able to do this, the minimum you could do is to put a voltmeter on an outlet.
By the way, do your lights flicker or dim for a brief period of time? This indicates a voltage transient.
I can't explain the garden pump turning on by itself.
2007-02-22 03:16:28 · answer #2 · answered by Tech Dude 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋