I recently have run up against a problem with a mobile home I own, and I'm more or less at a loss as to where to begin- whenever an item is plugeed into an outlet and turned on, the lights flicker and dim or get brighter, and appliances attached to those outlets also exhibit signs of power loss, etc. I was wondering what the most likely cause would be, ort where I would look to find out what it might be. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.
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- Flickering lights, etc.
I will give you two possibilities for your problem.
1. The outlet you are using is on with the lighting circuit. You can verify this by flipping your breakers off and seeing what they control. If this is true then you need to separate the circuits or use another outlet.
2. Your main service is underated for the appliances that you have in your home. This could be a problem in your mobile home, or with the trailer park. Check with your neighbors to see if they are experiencing the same problems. If not then your main service needs upgrading.
Both of the above are dependent on your home being wired correctly.
Another real problem might be aluminum wiring. Unfortunately, many older mobile homes (and stick-built ones too) were wired with aluminum, which has a tendency to develop loose connections. A number of years ago in Sun City, AZ I checked my Father's house after he noticed outlets that were running VERY hot without anything plugged in. At that time the solution was to use wire nuts, a copper pigtail, and corrosion protection grease. This has now been found to be unreliable.
There are several web sites discussing this problem, and I think only one vendor has made a product which is safe with aluminum house wiring. In any case, aluminum wire is a job for a very well qualified electrician.
