I finally got hit by a floating neutral last Friday

I was troubleshooting a flickering light in a 1950s house in Columbus, and found a loose neutral in the main panel that was arcing against the box. It took me two hours to track down because the voltage readings kept jumping around. Has anyone else dealt with a floating neutral that acted intermittent like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

victorhill25d ago

Floating neutrals are the worst kind of gremlin. Had one in a house from the 60s that would only act up when the AC compressor kicked on. Drove me crazy for a whole afternoon.

cora86325d ago

Wait @victorhill, but doesn't a floating neutral usually cause more constant flickering?

the_faith25d agoTop Commenter

It's really not always that bad though. I mean yeah a floating neutral can cause some flickering but half the time it's just a loose connection somewhere that takes five minutes to tighten. People act like it's some ghost in the machine when really it's just old wiring doing what old wiring does.