Can anyone suggest a remedy for noisy house wiring? When I throw the
breakers and use my portable the buzz is gone. As soon as I flip a breaker
again, doesn't matter which one, it's back again. Ayone else had this
problem?

-Brian

the noise can possibly be from the wiring itself and not from an
appliance. if you have aluminium wires you must tighten the bolts and
screws that they are connected to. these wires deform under the pressure
and become loose over time. then any current draw is drawn through an
arc at that joint. arcing creates noise. copper wires are slightly
different. over years of use they can corrode with that green looking
crud. this oxide can cause arcing at the joint also. plus the copper
crud is a crystalline substance that can cause some crazy rf racket just
by conducting electricity through it. this crud needs to be cleaned off
the wires and screws. both of these conditions also create heat at the
joint and could possibly start a fire, so noisy wiring should be looked
at just for safety sake.

Brian wrote:
Can anyone suggest a remedy for noisy house wiring? When I throw the
breakers and use my portable the buzz is gone. As soon as I flip a breaker
again, doesn't matter which one, it's back again. Ayone else had this
problem?

The noise could be from the outside. Flip all the breakers off and go
outside with the portable, where the "service" comes up to the house,
and check that.

--
Waterloo, Iowa, October 21, 2004 -- Presidential candidate John Kerry today
declared victory in the election as hordes of DNC attorneys descended on
courtrooms all over the country, suing to disqualify Bush votes on grounds
that no sane person would vote for him.

In article . net,
says...
Can anyone suggest a remedy for noisy house wiring? When I throw the
breakers and use my portable the buzz is gone. As soon as I flip a breaker
again, doesn't matter which one, it's back again. Ayone else had this
problem?

-Brian





Turn off the power and check all the screws that clamp the wires and
I'll bet you find at least one cooked or loose.

I had this horrible noise that turned out to be coming from the aluminum
wire from the breaker panel to the A/C unit. There was a sump heater
that was on all the time, so anytime that circuit was hot, it sounded
like an arc welder that was having problems. I could hear it from 0-30
MHZ, and even up to 460 MHZ from my scanner.


It started suddenly one day, and got rapidly worse. When I turned off
the power and touched the wires, one was really hot, and the clamp in
the breaker box was all black and the paint on the inside of the cover
was all dark looking, having been "cooked".

We called an electrician friend and he and I changed out the wires in
about an hour with copper. This solved the noise problem,and the AC
worked better than it had in a long time. He was able to temporarily
get everything hooked up until he came back and put in a new breaker box
and replaced the aluminum wires from the drop to the breaker box with
copper.

Good luck..

BDK

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:13:52 -0400, BDK
wrote:

In article . net,
says...
Can anyone suggest a remedy for noisy house wiring? When I throw the
breakers and use my portable the buzz is gone. As soon as I flip a breaker
again, doesn't matter which one, it's back again. Ayone else had this
problem?

-Brian





Turn off the power and check all the screws that clamp the wires and
I'll bet you find at least one cooked or loose.

I had this horrible noise that turned out to be coming from the aluminum
wire from the breaker panel to the A/C unit. There was a sump heater
that was on all the time, so anytime that circuit was hot, it sounded
like an arc welder that was having problems. I could hear it from 0-30
MHZ, and even up to 460 MHZ from my scanner.


It started suddenly one day, and got rapidly worse. When I turned off
the power and touched the wires, one was really hot, and the clamp in
the breaker box was all black and the paint on the inside of the cover
was all dark looking, having been "cooked".

We called an electrician friend and he and I changed out the wires in
about an hour with copper. This solved the noise problem,and the AC
worked better than it had in a long time. He was able to temporarily
get everything hooked up until he came back and put in a new breaker box
and replaced the aluminum wires from the drop to the breaker box with
copper.

Good luck..

BDK

I'll go with BDK on this. I too had major noise problems (beyond what
is 'normal' for urban Los Angeles area) and found several wiring
problems; not all outlets grounded, corroded connections on some
switches and outlets plus a couple that take too much space to
elaborate here on this ng. Anyway, the wiring was the orignal 1947
'workmanship' and material so I had my home 100% rewired clear up to
the pole (and had the line to the house run underground as well) and
experienced a large improvement. While you may not need to do a
rewire, it is to your benefit to do as BDK suggests and check all
wiring connections to switches, outlets and to the breakers. If you
find any of those nasty switches/outlets in which you insert wires and
a metal 'spring' retains the wire replace it with a conventional screw
type outlet/switch and you may improve your situation. If no
improvement, unplug all appliances & home electronics and see if it
improves; if it does then plug things in one at a time to find the
culprit(s) and work from there.

Good luck to you, this is not an easy or fun task but I do wish you
the best in solving the problem.
Howard

I'll go with BDK on this. I too had major noise problems (beyond what
is 'normal' for urban Los Angeles area) and found several wiring
problems; not all outlets grounded, corroded connections on some
switches and outlets plus a couple that take too much space to
elaborate here on this ng. Anyway, the wiring was the orignal 1947
'workmanship' and material so I had my home 100% rewired clear up to
the pole (and had the line to the house run underground as well) and
experienced a large improvement. While you may not need to do a
rewire, it is to your benefit to do as BDK suggests and check all
wiring connections to switches, outlets and to the breakers. If you
find any of those nasty switches/outlets in which you insert wires and
a metal 'spring' retains the wire replace it with a conventional screw
type outlet/switch and you may improve your situation. If no
improvement, unplug all appliances & home electronics and see if it
improves; if it does then plug things in one at a time to find the
culprit(s) and work from there.

Good luck to you, this is not an easy or fun task but I do wish you
the best in solving the problem.
Howard


Thanks Howard. The house I just moved into is about seventy years old and
I'm not too sure about the wiring. The neighbor says when the prior owner
did some rennovation, he also re-wired the place, but I am not so sure that,
if it was done at all, that it was done by a professional. Also, the
powerline coming into the house is low enough that you could reach up and
touch it, if you so desired, and has a bunch of vines and twigs and things
hanging from it. Not that this is so much a radio problem, but in any event
I am going to call up the local utility company today and have them fix that
up. Well, I will try out what you all have suggested. Thanks to everyone who
replied prior. Wish me luck. 73.

-Brian

Brian wrote:

Can anyone suggest a remedy for noisy house wiring? When I throw the
breakers and use my portable the buzz is gone. As soon as I flip a breaker
again, doesn't matter which one, it's back again. Ayone else had this

The noise is probably coming into the house on the main power line.
That's why you only have to turn on one breaker to bring the noise back.
Take a portable radio outside and try to track down the source. As
someone mentioned, there's a possibility you have corroded aluminum
wiring but it's not likely. Aluminum was used in the 70's (especially in
mobile homes) when copper was expensive. If your house was built in that
era check the wires. Most areas have since outlawed aluminum wiring in
homes.


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