Flickering light when electric showers on - faulty wiring or switch?

MuffinsDa

We live in an old house. Most of the wiring has been redone in the resent years, I think (we only moved in a few months ago).

Lately, when we put on any electric showers there's severe flickering on lights all around the house. This got worse over the weekend, when our heating was broken and we had nearlt 6000W of electrical heating going out at times. At those times, even putting on the kettle, oven or washing machine caused major flickering and occasional tripping of a specific switch which I think is for the part of the circuit that electric showers are on.

It has got better since, and there were no problem with appliances but this morning when I put on the electric showers it started that again.

There was a leak in the roof a while back in a location not too far from a socket.

What could be the possible cause of that? :

1. Faulty switch(es)?
2. Faulty wiring - possibly due to water ingress? (Potentially very dangerous?).

Having an electrician to come and have a look at it on Saturday morning but want to have an idea beforehand!

any advice would be greatly appreciated!

M cebee

consumer unit or ESBN -more than likely

Bruthal

Are they actually continously flickering during the use of the shower or just a noticable dip in the lights when the shower is on?

sparcocars

Problems like this occur a lot due to a bad neutral connection. Could be at your own fuse board, esb main fuse, esb minipillar(in you live in an estate) or esb LV overhead lines if you live in the countryside. Could also be a fault on your ESB supply cable coming into your house. If it is only a partial fault on the cable then voltage will only dip when load is brought on it. If your electrician finds nothing wrong with your installation then ring esb networks and connections can be checked and cables tested for faults.

Bruthal

A bad main neutral connection to the neutral bar in a mini pillar would be far more serious than at the DB board in the house though. It could just as easily be a phase connection problem also, or just a dip due to the load. Its not clear from the OP if the lights continously flicker or just dip.

And the voltage will dip to some extent on most domestic installations when a shower type load comes on. And if the main supply cable is smaller than the 16 square required these days there will be a bigger dip.

sparcocars

robbie7730 wrote: »

A bad main neutral connection to the neutral bar in a mini pillar would be far more serious than at the DB board in the house though. It could just as easily be a phase connection problem also, or just a dip due to the load. Its not clear from the OP if the lights continously flicker or just dip.

And the voltage will dip to some extent on most domestic installations when a shower type load comes on. And if the main supply cable is smaller than the 16 square required these days there will be a bigger dip.

I agree with that also.

MuffinsDa

Thanks guys.

The lights continually flicker under load, not just a dip.

It happened this afternoon when cooker was used, and again when kettle used. No shower or any other heavy load in operation at that time.

Any ideas?