Lights flickering after circuit breaker install

13 years ago

Hoping for some advance from the experts. I recently added a new 15A circuit breaker to my panel as a dedicated line for the sump pump in my basement. I felt everything went well. As I walk throughout the house now, many of the lights flicker every few minutes. These lights are on a few different breakers. I'm thinking I need to make sure all connections are tight on the bus bars. Also, the ground and nuetral wires on connected on the same busbar slot for each breaker. I connected the new breaker's nuetral and ground a few open slots below the nearest connected slot. Do you think that might cause the flicker?

Thanks for your help!

Rick

Comments (4)

Ron Natalie
13 years ago
The bus bar shouldn't be a problem.

Is the flickering coincident with the pump running (or anything else starting up for that matter)?

What do you mean by flicker? Momentary dimming? Complete backout for a second?
brickeyee
13 years ago
Induction motors (like the ones used in pumps) pull very large currents every time they start.

It typically shows as very brief dimming of lights.
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btharmy
13 years ago
Put the pump on the other phase in the panel. Maybe most of your lights are on the same phase at the pump is now. Worth a shot.
brickeyee
13 years ago
"Put the pump on the other phase in the panel. Maybe most of your lights are on the same phase at the pump is now. Worth a shot."

Leg, NOT PHASE.

Residential power is most commonly 120 V/ 240 V SINGLE phase.