electrical problem -- lights go off and then on again

[Bobbi]

At our nice senior park, the park's outside light, sort of a cute street light on a pole, will go off for 20 seconds to one minute, then come back on.
What also goes off are my table lamp, my outside porch light, and my ceiling fan light. All come back on together.
They are on a same wall, sort of, as the ceiling fan is pretty far away and in another room from the other lights. The others are on the same side of the home as the outside light.
The park manager came today and didn't really understand it, and said he's bringing an electrician to look at it.
The only electrical thing that was done in the home lately was the ceiling fan was replaced with a new cute one. Everything has worked fine for two weeks or so until now.
Any ideas???

[Mark Bower]

It all sounds pretty wierd. Almost like the street light is wired into your own home!
Let's find out what the electrician says.

Mark You gotta see my repair manual!

[Nendail Smith]

How old is the park? I live in a mobile home park that is very old and all of the homes are older. If this type of problem were to happen here the first thing I'd be looking to is a bad underground leg.

The Electrical is fed to your house on 2 110 volt legs, if one of those legs is cracked it can cause intermitten problems.. When you put enough amperage draw on the line it will heat up and can cause the crack to grow and stop electric from flowing, the power shuts down and the wire cools off and comes back on.

The park I live in (and my parents managed for the last 21 years) it's mostly all aluminum wiring under ground still and this type of problem is common.

The street light going out with it is a little weird but it is completely possable that the street light is wired into your house wiring and you pay the bill. Some properties put a street light in every yard and hook them in like that. *shrug.

Let us know what it happens to be, be interesting to find out.

[Steve Hartman]

I don't know who's problem it is; but I can say with almost certainty that it isn't YOUR problem. The reason I say this is because the street light is likely NOT being fed from your house main, but further up the line before it gets to your house.

If you have a metered main at your mobile home and you pay your bill to the power company directly, then the power company has a problem. If your mobile home is not metered and you pay the park for electricity, then it's the park's problem.

Cause? Probably a chronic open hot wire at a splice connection point. Often times aluminum feeders are spliced to copper sub feeders or vice-versa. While initially these connections hold if done properly, over time, simply put, the copper and aluminum react to eat each other up. Eventually they rot to the point where the amount of current on the line will cause them to fail erratically until they burn completely apart.

Now, if your lights dim....or get brighter, then you're probably looking at an open nuetral. At any rate when he finds the problem connection he should really check all three connections anyway because it's likely the other connections need to be remade also. I'd also guess I may be speaking Greek to you. S'OK.....just hand this post to the park manager and have him pass it on.

Also remind him (or her....) that depending on where the bad connection is, it has the potential of being a serious fire threat.

Good Luck

[Bobbi]

Thank you all for your replies. The park owner came with an electrician and replaced a condensor, I think, saying the old one was corroded. Since then (about a week) everything has been fine. (I was not there; they talked with my sister, who thought they said it was a condensor.)

We do pay the park for electricity. They get it in bulk and then read everyone's individual meter and bill each home.

I am worried about the "serious fire threat." What can be done about that? If the condensor replacement stopped the lights going off and on, are we in the clear as far as a fire threat?

And Steve, what are the "all three connections" you talk about?

It is like Greek to me, you're right! I do appreciate the help very much.