Home circuit question

Pretty hard to tell from where I sit. Loose connection or loose neutral are some of the things that come to mind. If your smelling something THAT is a bad sign with electrical connections. Get some one to look at it sooner than later. Turn the breaker off feeding the area of the smell.

Believe your nose. Now, it *may* be you need to clean the lint/dust away from the dryer intake and such, or it *may* be an overheated electrical outlet. Please take the time to find out which, ASAP.

FWIW, clothes dryers are a common cause of fires when not kept properly cleaned out and provided with clear discharge vent.

daestrom

I thoroughly vacuumed out the dryer exhaust today, that was a great suggestion. There was a sizable wad of crud inside the dryer at a corner of the pipe in the bottom below the lint filter.

Any idea why a darkness-triggered halogen would temporarily go out when the dryer comes on? Is it a voltage drop thing.?

Trace that burning smell with your nose - urgently.

Could the light sensitive light be reacting to the basement light ? (ie turning off as a result of the light shining out of the basement window?)

Paul

natural gas

security

basement

"Paul E. Coughlin" wrote

Yes, I think now that I recognize it as an overheating electric motor, but it has not re-occurred. I suspect an overloaded dryer. It's very high on my priority list.

No, the indoor light is turned on when entering the laundry area, that doesn't affect the security light. It is responding to the dryer being turned on. My wife says it responds to the washing machine also. I suspect it's a voltage drop in the whole system triggering the light's on/off mechanism.

Lee

i feel for you and you could have a serious problem.

i wonder though if you have notice other lights getting brighter instead of darker when the dryer or washer come on. pay particular attention to this and watch lights everywhere. if you start burning out light bulbs anywhere or everwhere and and ntice a loud hum from the fridge or freezer call the power company and ask if they could check the neutral bushing or nuetral insulator on their tranformer or for anything unuall up there.

it dont happen often but when it does its a bugger.

fearfakter

good luck

does it get brighter or dimmer????

the hot smell culd be from voltage going up instead of down. you you lost your netral sourse and things are getting hot smelling it could becuse your devices are seeking 220 instead of 110 thought the bonding jumper inthe panel and the ground rods are inefective or partially working. if it has rained rescently. it can jump from high voltage to low voltage depending on the rods. if this is the problem you will find out shortly. your dryer or light bulbs will let you know 1st. if you have a constant voltage dip when the dryer starts then you probley have shorted heating snap switches in the dryer which will quit heating presently. if things continue to dip drastically when utilities are started then definately lookfor motors and motor bearings like other have said. the lights will tell you......

fearfakter

The thing is most likely TRIAC triggered, in which dropout can easily be triggered by large inductive loads. Same thing sometimes happens with dimmers.