flickering lights

[pses]

Hi all

I was just in a shop when suddenly all the fluorescents flicked off and then on again, the guy behind the counter told me that this always happens every day between 6 and 8 every day and rarely also outside these times, as with me a minute ago!

As I had my electrical top on he asked me if I could have a look when I'm next in the vancinity. Any ideas? I'm thinking of the incoming neutral but if anyone has any ideas before I get there I would be grateful.

Also when I say flicked off and on I don't mean like most flouros do when they are on the way out, the whole shop went dark and then came back on again.....

Any ideas I would be grateful and I'll post when I've been there and actually inspected it and had my tester out

Cheers

 

[Andy™]

my guessing is the DNO transformer changing taps

 

[roys]

Any medium to heavy industry / industrial estates near by?

 

[pses]

There's a medium estate nearby but it's mainly offices and so not factories, this shop is about half a mile away and then carry on for another half mile and your on the high st, not a massive 1 but it would still draw some juice until 6ish I was thinking it might have something to do with that

 

[ProDave]

Trouble is you need to be sitting watching a volt meter (perferably an analogue one) for a couple of hours to see what happens.

And if you are not watching when it happens, come back next day and try again.

 

[Robin Spark]

Cant you report this to the DNO so that they could investigate and maybe measure/ record the incoming supply over a couple of days?

 

[Cirrus]

I had similar on a domestic lighting system. Every 4 seconds the lighting 'pulsed' and voltage dropped. Called DNO and it turned out a phase was playing up. They sorted their end and customer happy.

 

[sparkytim]

Had this before due to volt drop caused by heavy load switching in on same supply.

 

[Evans Electric]

Could be one of the older time switches ( if its always the same time) when the operating fingers are closed together but when they pass the trigger it trips off and back on again .

Could be some heating kicking in within the shop ,or the missus switching the 10KW shower on and showing up a loose connection ,possibly neutral, in board or on the main cut-out .

Does his till go off as well ?

I had a thing similar at a Currys shop, the metal halide track lights go off after lunch and won't come back on . I went in the morning and couldn't find anything amiss , no time switch as I thought .

So went back the following lunch time to find that a member of staff ,for reasons known only to himself, would switch to tracks off ,then back on within seconds.

Turned out that these particular fittings will never restrike while the power is applied to the control gear but had to be "Dead " for about 5mins before switching on again .

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Cant you report this to the DNO so that they could investigate and maybe measure/ record the incoming supply over a couple of days?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahhaahahahhaahahhahahahahahahahaahhahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhhhhh I wouldnt hold your breath.

 

[batty]

Where about in Bucks are you PSES.