All house lights flicker when heatpump compressor comes on

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Skolink

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#830224 3-Jun-2013 20:54

joker97: It's a giant mitsubishi mr slim by the way

A modern one probably isn't hugely more efficient. If you can write down the model number of the indoor and outdoor unit then it would be possible to find. There are a lot of "Mr Slim" units available, and the current ones are inverter units.

richms

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#830252 3-Jun-2013 21:40

We had this happening here for aaaages with large loads, turns out there was a crook neutral connection up on the pole. Fixed when they replaced the pole and now have never seen it drop below 228 V even when getting very close to 60a on the meter. Before it would drop to about 205-210 and the UPS would freak out when turning on the insinkerator or the drop saw etc.

Richard rich.ms

TechSol

299 posts

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Technical Solutions Aust

#830310 4-Jun-2013 09:03

Okay for comparison,

I live in a 80's house, with older fuse-style distribution board. 16mm incoming mains.

I have two heatpumps. The big one is a 12kw LG inverter type.

The heat pump is on it's own circuit, one a new cable at time of installation.

I have zero volt drop (flickering) issues.

Bung

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#830541 4-Jun-2013 15:55

richms: We had this happening here for aaaages with large loads, turns out there was a crook neutral connection up on the pole.

It's also common for the pole top fuse holder to be faulty especially if you are near the coast.

Niel

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#830642 4-Jun-2013 18:51

gregmcc: the biggest load of bs I've ever heard

I value your opinion, but I explained it in simple terms to someone that is not that clued up on electrical wiring (deducted from his question, and good on him for asking instead of ignoring the issue). Once the OP gets an electrician in to check it out he will get an accurate assessment of the issue instead of us guessing.

The issue with old fuse holders is not the resistance of fuse wire itself, it is the corroded contacts trying to pass current to the fuse wire. Then there is the contact resistance of old screw terminals on the back of the holder.

Our 1960's home had TPE wiring with 1x 10A circuit for the living/dining/kitchen, 1x 10A circuit for the 2 bedrooms, and 1x 10A circuit for the laundry. We had to turn our living room heater off to use the microwave or boil water, else the fuse will blow. Eventually when the fuse holder literally had part disintegrated part melted, I replaced all the holders with 16A circuit breakers. Then the lights stopped flickering when our window mount heat pump cycled on/off. The overhead wiring from the power pole was good, it had been replaced before. The issue was isolated to the fuse box. But again, when the OP gets an electrician to check out the power board he will also check out the power feed so the best advice to the OP is to get his power board checked out (rather than telling him to get his house rewired etc.).

You can never have enough Volvos!

richms

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#830669 4-Jun-2013 19:40

10A for _power_ circuits? That seems insane.

Even lighting is usually more than that now. Have seen 27A on power at a friends place. Not sure if that is legit tho...

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#830702 4-Jun-2013 20:30

I had 12A circuit breaker running the power points in half my house. Turn on the jug and toaster, or toast and clothes drier, poof. I had to have an electrician do a bit of rewiring. Old house, but rewired maybe 30 odd years ago.

Equinox IT

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Niel

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#830765 4-Jun-2013 23:35

Our lights were on 5A circuits, think it was 2 or 3 for the whole house. And there was a 5A circuit for the small bathroom bar heater, upgraded it to 10A so we could install a fan heater. The dishwasher was in the laundry so we could either wash dishes or dry clothes, but not both at the same time. We removed the house and built a new one in its place, no more power issues ;-).

You can never have enough Volvos!

webwat

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#839580 19-Jun-2013 16:16

Niel: Our lights were on 5A circuits, think it was 2 or 3 for the whole house. And there was a 5A circuit for the small bathroom bar heater, upgraded it to 10A so we could install a fan heater. The dishwasher was in the laundry so we could either wash dishes or dry clothes, but not both at the same time. We removed the house and built a new one in its place, no more power issues ;-).

Well that was better than rewiring the house...

Time to find a new industry!

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