Kitchen light job showed me a simple wire problem

I fixed a flickering light in my kitchen. The problem was a loose wire. How often do you find loose wires in homes?

3 comments

3 Comments

Loose wires are way more common than people realize. I read an article saying bad connections cause a huge number of electrical fires. Houses settle and vibrate, which slowly works screws loose over years. It's SCARY how a tiny bit of corrosion or a loose nut can start heating up inside a wall. Always worth checking any flickering outlet or light right away. Older homes are especially prone to this from decades of use.

janaf912mo agoMost Upvoted

Well, @fiona607 is right about vibrations, but I never see anyone talk about how heating and cooling affect wires. When things heat up, they expand, and when they cool, they shrink. This happens every day and can slowly loosen connections over years. Older homes with bad insulation have bigger temperature changes inside the walls, making it worse. Add in the settling fiona607 mentioned, and it's a real problem. That's why any flickering should get checked fast, no matter the home's age.

tyler3681mo agoTop Commenter

Yeah, and like @janaf91 said, that daily heat expansion is basically slowly unscrewing things for you. Makes you wonder how many homes are just ticking time bombs, right?