what could be causing this!

[JohnW2]

Given this is something which started recently, I would echo the advice to contact your DNO. It would be strange for those changes to cause what you have described.

Do you not think that, as I suggested, he should first confirm that neighbours are experiencing similar - and if they are not, having his own installation checked by an electrician as a matter of some urgency before assuming that it is due to a problem upstream of his meter?

Kind Regards, John

 

[EddieM]

I lived in rural Bucks for 40+ years and can echo JohnW2's experience of having frequent short (and some not so short) powercuts. Perhaps even more annoying were the brown outs. But as has been said, I would check with a few neighbours to see if they are experiencing the same.

 

[JohnW2]

I lived in rural Bucks for 40+ years and can echo JohnW2's experience of having frequent short (and some not so short) powercuts. Perhaps even more annoying were the brown outs.

It doesn't sound as if rural Bucks has changed much, then - it's certainly been unchanged here for 30+ years!

The great majority of our cuts are very short, which is why I can't quantify them from my monitoring records - which cannot reliably document losses of power of <30 seconds, and cannot document them at all if <~12 seconds (the usual rate of sampling).

What has changed here is that for the first couple of decades we were here, lightning within miles of here would very often trip something in the network, leading to a loss of power for a few seconds, sometimes as much as a minute or three. However, about 10 years ago that more-or-less stopped happening.

But as has been said, I would check with a few neighbours to see if they are experiencing the same.

Despite some apparently contrary opinions, that remains my view....

... two or three years ago, a friend of mine experienced similar - a few weeks of periodic very brief 'glitches' in his electricity supply. However, his neighbours were not experiencing the same and, when an electrician inspected his installation, it transpired that there was a very loose connection in his CU (can't remember whether it was Main Switch, RCD or what) - which clearly represented an ongoing fire risk. Once that was sorted out, he had no problems. Had he waited for the DNO to investigate a possible very occasional issue with their network, he could have suffered a house fire whilst he was waiting!

Kind Regards, John

 

[EddieM]

Rural bucks, home to politicians, current and ex, pop stars, "celebs" and several Rothschild estates changes surprisingly little

 

[JohnW2]

Rural bucks, home to politicians, current and ex, pop stars, "celebs" and several Rothschild estates changes surprisingly little

Well, I'm closer to a Rothschild estate than any of the others, but being in the very 'top left hand corner' of Bucks (a few hundred yards from Oxfordshire, and 5-6 miles from Northants), I'm relatively remote from most of the other things you mention!

Kind Regards, John

 

[EddieM]

Ah, I guessed wrong at Olney then Me, South bucks lad.

 

[scousespark]

Do you not think that, as I suggested, he should first confirm that neighbours are experiencing similar - and if they are not, having his own installation checked by an electrician as a matter of some urgency before assuming that it is due to a problem upstream of his meter?

Kind Regards, John

Given what we have seen posted, I would say that a call to the DNO would be warranted. Temporary blips are most commonly symptoms of a supply problem. Asking neighbours is hit and miss and not conclusive. There may be a fault on the phase, but the neighbours may be unaffected or not have noticed.


experiencing problem

 

[JohnW2]

Given what we have seen posted, I would say that a call to the DNO would be warranted. Temporary blips are most commonly symptoms of a supply problem. Asking neighbours is hit and miss and not conclusive. There may be a fault on the phase, but the neighbours may be unaffected or not have noticed. experiencing problem

That's all possible, but I remain concerned.

Given how long the DNO might take (weeks? months?) to investigate very transient and very occasional glitches in supply, I would still worry that a fault in the OP's installation (which you surely must accept as a possibility) could result in problems, even possible a house fire, whilst waiting for the DNO to reach some conclusion.

I don't want to 'panic' the OP into having his installation inspected, but if he could ascertain that neighbours were experiencing similar things to him, that would at least reduce the likelihood that the problem was within his installation, so might give some degree of 'reassurance'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[scousespark]

The problem with asking neighbours is it is unreliable. You may get a yes and happy days. However, a no could be a false negative. The fault may be on 1 phase, or the neighbour may have not noticed blips. If I was called my first response would be to contact the DNO. It’s not impossible that the fault is in the premises, but the symptoms would point more at the supply. I’d be interested to know what the OP did and if he got sorted.

 

[JohnW2]

The problem with asking neighbours is it is unreliable. You may get a yes and happy days. However, a no could be a false negative.

All true. If one has those concerns, then surely the first step should be to get an electrician to inspect the installation as a matter of urgency, to confirm (or otherwise) that the power glitches are not a sign of an ongoing fire hazard, rather than to contact the DNO?

If the electrician finds no local problems then, yes, the next step would probably be to contact the DNO. However, with the best will in the world, a DNO's investigation of a pretty occasional and very brief supply problem is going to take time, quite possibly a lot of time - so that if 'contacting the DNO' were the first thing one did, the house could have bunt down due to a problem within the installation before the DNO reached any conclusion.

I don't really understand why you are so against speaking to neighbours. Yes, as you say, a 'No' could be a false negative, but it's very likely that the problem is in the supply (and, as has been discussed, very probably not something that a DNO could, or would be inclined to, do anything about), in which case at least some of the neighbours might say 'yes', which would reduce the probability that leaving the local installation un-inspected would allow a house fire to occur - hence perhaps more reason to make 'contacting the DNO' the fisrt step.

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

but it's very likely that the problem is in the supply (and, as has been discussed, very probably not something that a DNO

If the fault is a high resistance tap off the main cable by a service cable then the DNO will act as fast as possible. The risk to the DNO is that the heat from the high resistance joint will damage the underground street cable causing breakdown of insulation between two ( or all three ) phases.

 

[JohnW2]

If the fault is a high resistance tap off the main cable by a service cable then the DNO will act as fast as possible. The risk to the DNO is that the heat from the high resistance joint will damage the underground street cable causing breakdown of insulation between two ( or all three ) phases.

They may 'act as fast as possible' if they knew that such was the problem - but how long do you think it would take them to decide that a phenomenon manifested for "1 second, once every few days" was due to such a cause (and, indeed, how likely do you think that such a phenomenon would result from such a cause)?

For what it's worth ... since, as has been discussed, we quite frequently experience these extremely brief losses of power (or 'brownouts') in my area, over the years many of the neighbours (and myself) have spoken to the DNO about it - but, to the best of my knowledge, they have never even 'investigated', let alone done anything about it. They certainly have never appeared at my house after I have 'reported' such happenings.

Kind Regards, John

 

[Risteard]

The OP in Donegal will have the DSO to contact and not any DNO.

He should contact ESB Networks.

He should also consider having a Periodic Inspection Report compiled for the electrical installation if this has not been done recently.

He could also look at the ESB PowerCheck app to see if there are any issues in the area. What part of Donegal are you in 2019?

 

[Risteard]

Sorry, forgot to tag the OP @2019 in the above post.

 

[scousespark]

All true. If one has those concerns, then surely the first step should be to get an electrician to inspect the installation as a matter of urgency, to confirm (or otherwise) that the power glitches are not a sign of an ongoing fire hazard, rather than to contact the DNO?

If the electrician finds no local problems then, yes, the next step would probably be to contact the DNO. However, with the best will in the world, a DNO's investigation of a pretty occasional and very brief supply problem is going to take time, quite possibly a lot of time - so that if 'contacting the DNO' were the first thing one did, the house could have bunt down due to a problem within the installation before the DNO reached any conclusion.

I don't really understand why you are so against speaking to neighbours. Yes, as you say, a 'No' could be a false negative, but it's very likely that the problem is in the supply (and, as has been discussed, very probably not something that a DNO could, or would be inclined to, do anything about), in which case at least some of the neighbours might say 'yes', which would reduce the probability that leaving the local installation un-inspected would allow a house fire to occur - hence perhaps more reason to make 'contacting the DNO' the fisrt step.

Kind Regards, John

I never said I was against speaking to neighbours or calling in a spark. I just said that random loss of power across the installation would (most likely) indicate a supply problem and the supplier is the best place to start. As stated, 2019 has started having frequent blips and this started recently. That's different to your issue where you have blips with gaps of several months between instances. It would be good to know how 2019 is getting on with ths problem.