Whats happening to the electricity in my house??

Factual Questions
21

One other slight confusion, to add into the mix.
I just recently pushed some friends to diligently get on the phone with the power company, as they had both dimming lights, with multiple dim-to-dark power drops, but then they also had brighter than normal cycles. Was clear, in my mind, it wasn’t at the house, due to the “brighter” cycles.
When the second power guy to come out got REALLY pushed, to “look further, cause you have not solved the problem,” he “discovered” a “Well, I’ll Be, I’ve never seen that! Good thing you had me Keep lookin’! That woulda been DanGerouS!”
The ground line had fractured somewhere on the power company side of things, so they had a fully “floating ground” on the power company side of things and apparently their house was becoming the “shortest route to ground” for the system. (best description I could get, translated through the memory of a person who not only doesn’t “speak the language” but is closer to thinking it might damage her head if she learned “engineer think.”

She was glad the washing machine quit making funny noises!

A “recovering engineer” … its a one-day-at-a-time kind of thing …

22

Wyatt
Let me try to make it less confusing.
The power from the transformer (at the street ) is as Q.E.D. and engineer describe it. There is also a wire from the neutral from the transformer at the street into the earth at the street which makes the surrounding earth at the street at the same ground potential as the neutral itself. This means that current seeking ground at the street (all current seeks ground) would not find any one path “easier” than any other. So someone touching a wet power pole doesn’t find him/herself becoming the easiest path to ground.

Now, at your house, say 100 feet from the transformer (remember, the transormer has a nice happy ground [sub]at the street[/sub]) in come the three wires. - the first 120v phase (the term “phase” is used colloquially here) the second 120v phase, and the common neutral. Let’s also assume your house and its electrical system is all happily grounded. But let’s say that the neutral wire from the transformer is not grounded at your house, only connected to your house’s main neutral wire. Your house therefore, may not be at the same ground potential as the transformer/pole/neutral wire at the transformer. Which path would a hot wire seeking ground take?
The real answer is all paths , but the easiest path will get more of the “load”. The easiest path could be anywhere in the system, including your water pipes, which if metal, are bonded to the grounding “system”, or through you when attempting to wash the car.

So, in a properly connected home, the 2 hot and one neutral from the transformer are connected to the meter base. From the meter base, three equivalent wires are connected to the bus bars in your main panel one for each of the 2 hots one for the neutral. All electical wires in your house (consisting of a hot and a neutral) are connected to one of the hot bus bars and the neutral.
As for the grounding, the meter base is connected to the main panel enclosure. The neutral bus bar is connected to the main panel enclosure. Each device in your house is connected (this is the green or bare wire) to the grounding bus bar in the panel which is connected to the main panel enclosure. The metal water pipes are connected to the main panel enclosure. The main panel enclosure is connected to an 8 foot solid copper rod driven into the earth within X number of feet of the panel. (There are local variations and exception to the Electrical Code for some of this, but in the main this is accurate).

Now, what we have is everything from the transformer at the street, to the cabinet of your microwave all connected together groundwise and all at the same ground potential. Current seeking ground will not find any part of the path easier than any other part of the path.

A loose neutral in your panel means that the neutral not only is not at the same ground potential as the rest of the system, but that the ground wire is carrying the neutral load - a bad thing (you don’t expect current in a ground wire).
A disconnected ground means the same kind of thing. The neutral is acting as the ground and all parts of your house are not at the same ground potential as the neutral - a bad thing (The neutrals in your house are only grounded at the panel).

Either of these two bad things happening will often still allow your system to work to some degree or other, which makes them, um, worserer.

A loose or disconnected hot wire comes to your attention because things stop working or go up in flames.
This last thing is worserest.

A floating ground at the Power Co.'s end indeed means that the easiest path to ground for the transformer, and everything connected to it, may well be at your house.

23

Nutmanget - correct. Except there are two ground rods required now. Like you said, you have to bond the nuetral to the ground bar and the panel and the water supply (if applicable) and the ground rods. All this stuff has to be mechanically bonded. Sometimes when the bonding is opened you can have voltage problems in older homes.

We`re dealing with a single phase, center tapped system which delivers 120 volts to ground and 240 across the windings. There could be many reasons for the electrical problems in the OP.
Bad connection at the pole.
Bad connection at the meter.
If overhead, bad splice at the weather-head.
Bad main breaker or termination.
Loose nuetral anywhere in problem circuit. (doubtful).

Id bet the problem is at the main breaker inside the panel. Look for discolored wires at any visible terminations. Dont get too involved with this, very dangerous.

24

I’m no electrician but maybe this might help.

When I first bought this house what seemed like HALF of the house was going off and on just like in the OP. Sometimes it would stay off for more than an hour and sometimes it would blink off and on.

It was totally random. No breakers would trip in the breaker box.

Long story short, One of the lines went from the basement all the way up into an unused bedroom, only fed one of four outlets there then zig-zagged all through the house until it fed the family room (tv) and garage lights (other side of house)

That ONE outlet in the first bedroom had a loose wire which an electrician found. He replaced the outlet, everything worked fine since.
Why the breaker didn’t trip, I don’t know.

25

The breaker didn`t trip because an overcurrent event never took place.

26

Nut, thanks for the further thought on the subject,
Actually, from the bits that made it through the ‘translation link’ the ground problem was not at the house, at all … but rather in the parts that have to do with the power company. The home owner relayed it to me that the broken ground was the one that went all the way back to the power station, but am now thinking it was the ground lead at the transformer itself.
Which ever, she understood him to say her home was becoming the shortest distance to ground for several houses, not just hers.
Combined with the fractured wire being one that is usually “assumed” to be mechanically solid, and “not the place to look for a problem” Was just my insistance that she had to Lean on the power company on their second visit, that this HAD to be SOLVED that actually had the guy stop and think, Sherlock Holmes style, once you’ve eliminated All probable explainations, the only remaining solution, no matter How improbable, Is the answer.

27

Here in Northen California, it depands on when the service was put in. My house uses 240/120 single phase but newer neighborhoods have two phases of 208V with nuetral. This bites because the clothes drier and stove lose about 25% of the power output because most appliances are still rated for 240V. I have heard though, that if you look, you can find household appliances rated for 208V.