Ask me electrical questions please! You'll be helping me out!

[GloomCookie]

It flickers at least once or twice every day that it gets left on for any period of time.  It does seem to be a little worse when the living room ceiling fan is running.  I think they're connected somehow.  There's the back room, a little hallway that goes to the bathroom and bedroom, and then the living room.  When the outlet my fridge is plugged into in the back room stopped working, so did the ceiling fan, but everything else in the living room was fine.  My mom had to find the wiring map for her fiance to fix the issue.

Hmm. Is the ceiling fan on a dimmer switch? If so, that might explain it. Even if they're not on the same switch, the changes in voltage as the ceiling fan is dimmed could bleed over into the light itself. It sounds almost like whoever wired the house might have also put the refrigerator on the same circuit, so you have two motors that are going to screw around with voltage, affecting the light's performance. Only real way to fix it then would be to rewire the light to either share the circuit with a nearby light or give it a dedicated circuit to the panel.

[Numerion]

So question: lately whenever I hear my fridge start its system/fan and stop, I can hear a bleep in my speakers. I assume the speakers are reacting to a spike of some kind on the wire, but it didn't happen before. The fridge and the speaker are on completely different circuits as well.

Any hints what may be happening?

[GloomCookie]

So question: lately whenever I hear my fridge start its system/fan and stop, I can hear a bleep in my speakers. I assume the speakers are reacting to a spike of some kind on the wire, but it didn't happen before. The fridge and the speaker are on completely different circuits as well.

Any hints what may be happening?

Probably the motor in the compressor kicking on producing the magnetic field, and the sudden magnetic force is enough to make the pop.

Unless they're 'soft start' motors, most motors are basically connected to the source and are, for a brief and glorious moment, a short circuit. The reason this doesn't remain the case is that the tight windings of the wire inside the case start to produce a magnetic field, which itself starts to interfere with other electrons and it starts to generate its own impedance. Since your speakers are themselves powered in a similar fashion (just using the magnetic field to move the steady state magnet back and forth) then any nearby high magnetic field like that will cause interference. Since this magnetic field didn't exist before the motor kicked on, the speakers couldn't account for it, and that pop is just the magnet suddenly moving unexpectedly.

If you want to avoid it, move the two away from each other. There's really no other way without getting into weird stuff like Faraday cages and the like.

[Oniya]

If you want to avoid it, move the two away from each other. There's really no other way without getting into weird stuff like Faraday cages and the like.

Speaking of getting into Faraday cages, have you ever seen the lightning show from the Boston Museum of Science?  (Terrible segue, I know.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4WZPjwNYN0

Those two massive spheres on columns in center stage are Tesla Coils.

[Numerion]

Probably the motor in the compressor kicking on producing the magnetic field, and the sudden magnetic force is enough to make the pop.

Unless they're 'soft start' motors, most motors are basically connected to the source and are, for a brief and glorious moment, a short circuit. The reason this doesn't remain the case is that the tight windings of the wire inside the case start to produce a magnetic field, which itself starts to interfere with other electrons and it starts to generate its own impedance. Since your speakers are themselves powered in a similar fashion (just using the magnetic field to move the steady state magnet back and forth) then any nearby high magnetic field like that will cause interference. Since this magnetic field didn't exist before the motor kicked on, the speakers couldn't account for it, and that pop is just the magnet suddenly moving unexpectedly.

If you want to avoid it, move the two away from each other. There's really no other way without getting into weird stuff like Faraday cages and the like.

oh it didn't even occur to me it could be for magnetic field regions!

And it makes sense, I had tons of interference from wires between my setup and the kitchen and couldn't link up stuff so I redid some of the wiring and after that the speakers started responding to the fridge!

I didn't connect the two, thanks :D

[TheGlyphstone]

Speaking of getting into Faraday cages, have you ever seen the lightning show from the Boston Museum of Science?  (Terrible segue, I know.)

Those two massive spheres on columns in center stage are Tesla Coils.

Did someone say Tesla Coils?  ;D



TWO THOUSAND VOLTS, COMING UP.

[GloomCookie]

So just an update for everyone, I passed my PE exam in December 2022 and was licensed in Arkansas as my first state. Yesterday I got a notice that I've received my license in MA, so I'm now registered as an engineer in Arkansas, Maryland, Tennessee, Nevada, Texas, and Massachusetts.

So many bad decisions have been made XD

[Silvered Sutures]

How do you convert from hydro to nuclear?

[MightyMaiden]

On a 20A single phase circuit, how many LED fixtures could you have connected if the typical draw/standby was 2A/0.07A @ 100v with an inrush current of 55A 120v (First half cycle)