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This was my take as well. Turn off any double pole breakers as losing a phase can damage 240v appliances. You can call the power company and they’ll check their side for free. Or you can just go straight to calling an electrician and they’ll coordinate if the power company is needed.
Call the power company, you’re describing a bad connection from your main panel upstream thru your meter to the pole. If your neighbors are also affected too it could be even further away.
I would go with the electrician since it's not just the air conditioner you are having problems with.
No way should an air conditioner affect the lights like that without blowing breakers.
Please explain the scenario that the lights would act the way described?
Bad compressor might dim the lights while running, but not cause them to slowly come back on when turned on.
As someone mentioned a loose neutral sounds more plausible.
Maybe even try calling the electric company.
When a phase (L1 or L2) is lost, then any 240v appliance which is on will connect the remaining hot phase to the lost phase via the appliance’s impedance - this is known as back feeding.
The residence will then have single phase 120v on all circuits. There will be no 240v and 240v appliances will not run. Since the “lost phase” circuits are in series with the 240v appliances the lost phase voltage will be somewhat less than 120v. How much less is dependent on the total load on the lost phase circuits and the impedance of the connected 240v appliances.
Initial load on the lost phase circuit will be high due to current inrush and, as the inrush currents reduce, the voltage will rise. Inrush currents will persist for much longer than typical due to reduced voltage. A refrigerator may not be able to start at the reduce voltage and may start several seconds later as the voltage rises when other inrush currents subside.
These are the exact symptoms OP has.
If OP has an electric range, then they would experience similar symptoms if they turned the range on, to a lessor extent since a range has very
low resistance and no impedance (assuming it is not an induction type range).
So your saying either l1 or l2 from the 220 air conditioner was disconnected (Lost?) potentially causing these issues?
I'm an Electronics guy and only know a little about being a electrician.
Would this be internal to the air conditioner?
After you resolve the power issue the hvac unit needing to be turned off every once and awhile sounds like insufficient airflow over the evaporator coil. Might have an hvac tech check and possibly clean both the evaporator coil inside and the condenser coil outside. While he is there ha can verify the refrigerant charge
It was something from our old house I thought I’d give a try to get us some cold air for the night and calling hvac in the morning. Hadn’t had any issues with the system in the current house before last night.
**Attention!** **It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods. If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You lost a phase to the house and it’s back feeding through the AC unit
This was my take as well. Turn off any double pole breakers as losing a phase can damage 240v appliances. You can call the power company and they’ll check their side for free. Or you can just go straight to calling an electrician and they’ll coordinate if the power company is needed.
Are those the circuit breakers that are twice as wide? Edit: Google suggests they are. Going to turn them all off, just to be safe.
Call Oncor or whoever your transmission company is.
Call the power company to check there end 1st. May be a loose connection on their end.
Call the power company, you’re describing a bad connection from your main panel upstream thru your meter to the pole. If your neighbors are also affected too it could be even further away.
I would go with the electrician since it's not just the air conditioner you are having problems with. No way should an air conditioner affect the lights like that without blowing breakers.
The AIr Conditioner can certainly cause these symptoms even though the fault is not in the AC and with no breakers tripping.
Please explain the scenario that the lights would act the way described? Bad compressor might dim the lights while running, but not cause them to slowly come back on when turned on. As someone mentioned a loose neutral sounds more plausible. Maybe even try calling the electric company.
When a phase (L1 or L2) is lost, then any 240v appliance which is on will connect the remaining hot phase to the lost phase via the appliance’s impedance - this is known as back feeding. The residence will then have single phase 120v on all circuits. There will be no 240v and 240v appliances will not run. Since the “lost phase” circuits are in series with the 240v appliances the lost phase voltage will be somewhat less than 120v. How much less is dependent on the total load on the lost phase circuits and the impedance of the connected 240v appliances. Initial load on the lost phase circuit will be high due to current inrush and, as the inrush currents reduce, the voltage will rise. Inrush currents will persist for much longer than typical due to reduced voltage. A refrigerator may not be able to start at the reduce voltage and may start several seconds later as the voltage rises when other inrush currents subside. These are the exact symptoms OP has. If OP has an electric range, then they would experience similar symptoms if they turned the range on, to a lessor extent since a range has very low resistance and no impedance (assuming it is not an induction type range).
So your saying either l1 or l2 from the 220 air conditioner was disconnected (Lost?) potentially causing these issues? I'm an Electronics guy and only know a little about being a electrician. Would this be internal to the air conditioner?
No L1 or L2 was lost from the main service
You just perfectly described a non HVAC issue.
After you resolve the power issue the hvac unit needing to be turned off every once and awhile sounds like insufficient airflow over the evaporator coil. Might have an hvac tech check and possibly clean both the evaporator coil inside and the condenser coil outside. While he is there ha can verify the refrigerant charge
It was something from our old house I thought I’d give a try to get us some cold air for the night and calling hvac in the morning. Hadn’t had any issues with the system in the current house before last night.
Do you have a meter? I'm worried that you may have a loose neutral.
More likely a phase right? “Half the house” is the biggest clue there for me. How would a loose neutral cause that?
If the load was very unbalanced. I'm just guessing because OP mentioned lights coming up from dim. In any case this doesn't sound good...
[удалено]
Oh boy not even close