[rpoz-29]

I had the garage upgraded to 100 amps. The guys did a great job. I'm having another problem, but I didn't mention it to them until yesterday, and they didn't have much time to take a look. The problem is some of the lights in my house seem to dim ocassionally. This was happening before the garage work was done, so I doubt it has anything to do with it. When they dim, sometimes the computer shuts down, (it is on a surge protector), the clock on the range resets and so forth. My home is thirty-two years old, and has aluminum wiring. (Lucky me). I had a similiar problem a few years ago and an electrician from the power company opened up the meter tightened the lugs inside, (said it "single-phasing"?) and the problem went away. I thought maybe my problem was a bad circuit breaker, but not all of these items are on the same circuit. Does it sound like single-phasing? And if so, what can be done to keep them tight? Thanks folks!

Bill

[Jeff94TA]

It sounds like you are having a single phasing problem and the likely areas to look are at the main breaker & bus bars as Andy indicated or inside the meter base as before. There are two hot legs plus a neutral that enter the meter base so if you're losing one of the hots that leaves you with only one hot or a "single phase" in lieu of a two phase.

Each hot leg is 110 volts so when you combine them together that's what gives you 220 volts. Each hot leg provides power to multiple 110 volt circuits via the bus bar so that is how you can see the effect in multiple places.