Open Neutral
A broken or loose neutral connection. On one circuit it kills power strangely; at the service level it makes lights surge bright and dim while voltage swings wildly between the home's two legs. The service-level version is an emergency.
The neutral is the return path, and the system needs it intact to hold each leg at a steady 120 volts. Lose the main neutral (corroded utility splice, storm-damaged connection at the weatherhead, failed lug in the panel) and the two legs see-saw: one side of the house can soar toward 180+ volts while the other sags, frying electronics on the high leg. Lights that brighten when an appliance kicks on are the signature symptom.
A lost neutral on a single branch circuit is tamer but strange: dead outlets that show voltage on a tester, devices that half-work, tingles from metal parts. Either way this is not a watch-and-wait fault: the service-level version damages equipment by the minute and can start fires, and the utility will respond quickly if the failure is on their side of the meter.
Talking to a contractor about this?
Run the project past a licensed electrical pro first. Calls are answered around the clock and routed to a pro serving your area.
- Ground Wire (Equipment Ground) : The bare or green wire that carries no current in normal use.
- Grounding Rod (Grounding Electrode) : The 8-foot copper-clad rod driven into the soil near your meter, connecting your electrical system to the earth itself.
- Bonding : Connecting all the metal parts that could become energized (panels, pipes, pool equipment, gas lines) so they sit at the same voltage and faults trip breakers instead of waiting for a person.
- Ungrounded (Two-Wire) Circuits : Pre-1960s circuits with only hot and neutral, no ground conductor.