LOR is causing lights to surge inside

[conrailpolice]

Hey guys I started running light tonight testing and my lights on the inside are dimming alittle what can I do to fix this problem. I though about running 2 new cir breaking to the outside out light . Not sure it that would help.. ???

[DownTown]

The dimming of the lights is from the load that LOR turns on, lowering the voltage on other parts of that circuit. Chances are that a dedicated circuit for the christmas lights will solve your problem.

I still experience some light dimming at my house during certain sequences run that are "high energy". When I hit those "max power" segments, my christmas lights draw over 70 amps on dedicated circuits, and you can still tell what song is playing by the pattern the lights are flashing in.

D.T.

[scottsgrfx]

Had the same results the past couple yrs. Ours was a result of the older wiring in the house. Even if I was using seperate outlets. Look at the good side of it, if the lights inside are not dimming or flashing, then it a waring sign your lights outside are not on. lol......rewire or run new outlets and up your service to 200amp, or live with it I guess.

[Texan78]

Like others have said it sounds like you are hitting max loads. If they are not on dedicated circuits this can be expected. Even if they are, it can sometimes happen too. Have you checked your loads to make sure everything is balanced correctly?

You can up your service to 200 amps if it is not already that way, but it you don't have a 200 amp panel you really can't up you service without changing out the panel, and that is a pain and waste of money to do. You can add on a sub panel with dedicated outlets, which is what I would suggest.

[JeffF]

So funny you should mention that... I was doing a little preview for the grandparents this Saturday and for some reason I was in the basement during one of the "flicker" sequences. HOLY CRAP does the electric panel "sing". I immediately took the covers off looking for arcing and nothing. Then I noticed that the actual wire vibrates during some of the sequences. Really, really neat.

After some investigating, I found that I was loading one phase pretty heavy during some of the sequences. I was drawing ~82A on one and only ~40A on the other. I swapped a couple cords around outside and I'm more even now during those heavy sequences(although I'm a little lopsided for others but they are under much less load). After correcting that the singing is less... but it is still there(and it sounds pretty darn cool).

-Jeff

[Guest wbottomley]

I had a first year freakout when I heard my box singing to me. Did a little research and found out that it was ok.

Four years later... I hang out and sing with it. Hopefully the song won't be a blowout!:shock:

[Brian Mitchell]

Welcome to the world of animated lighting. Inside lights tapping their feet to the music is common to many of us. Singing breaker boxes are fairly common too although I've only had one breaker buzzing. But it was close to max load so I rerouted a couple things that solved it.

[conrailpolice]

LOL I when downstairs and I could hear the buzzing ..Thats amazing..



John

[Darin Miller]

Ha Ha Ha; I'm glad I found this thread. Tonight was first night running LOR 96 channels with some slow morphing huge color fades. I was checking a few things; resetting some GFCIs after unplugging those silly motorized deer; who needs deer shaped grounding rods anyway ? Everything else was awesome; cars slowing, I'm waving:shock:, ohhhh, but wait !!! What the heck is that buzzing sound as I walk past my 60 amp display panel? It thought Buzz was a name reserved for an astronaut; Major freak out; where's my clamp on meter? Check all connections, flip breakers trying to isolate it; headache mounting; maybe these Square D breakers really suck and are inferior; AAAHHHHHHH. Then I read this thread and now I can relax and go to bed. Thanks Guys

[toymakr000]

My lights really dim inside the house as well. It was fine when the display was static in 2005. You just got used to the dim lights:P
Now everything is dancing to the music, outside and inside....
I tried every thing I could. At max draw I'm using 156 A, my wiring can handle 240A.
I've decided that the problem is in the small little drop line the power company has to my house. I think It's only 6 gauge maybe 4 at best. Were getting a power drop on the whole house because the incoming wires are too small. If I designed one of my machines at work like this I'd get nailed by NFPA and NEC violations. The power companies have a secret pact or something with these agencies that allow them to get away with this.

[doug petschke]

:shock:Ok so I was reading this forum and thought geeze these guys are smoking what? I dont notice any singing in my box.. perhaps i need more load?= lights? LOL or sum of what you guys are smoking? next someone is going to tell me their box is dancin! just kidding

[Steven]

toymakr000 wrote:

I tried every thing I could. At max draw I'm using 156 A, my wiring can handle 240A.

Try switching to LEDs. I plug 90% of my display (47 channels) into a single 15A GFCI outlet.

[Mark h2o]

Geeze Jeff, how do you really feel about LED's, LOL:)

I feel the same way in many regards to LED lights.

So if I don't have any buzzing in my service box with all the lights on that means I need more channels and lights, right?