I am not trying to comment on the guys competency, I cant assess that but I do want to respond to two points just to give you information you may not have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27
He says a megger is very expensive and it is one of the things he is saving up for, but he hasn't had an opportunity to buy one yet. He also said, it wouldn't have helped him in my situation.
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- A megger is not a cheap tool he is right, but there is no other tool that replaces it functionality.
- A cheap one would be better than none, and a cheap one can be had for well less than <$500. To me it is essential.
- The bolded part is concerning however. I started to explain above but realize now I didnt finish. Often at low load/heat levels a conductor will maintain full integrity, however as time, temperature and current increase this integrity will break down and an alternate path to ground will develop. In you case since the wires are mostly in the wall behind drywall and you dont want to rip your walls open on a goose hunt, inducing heat is difficult if not impossible. Option two would be to fully load and wait it out, time is money and costly and how much time is needed? For an intermittent problem you could have a guy in a house for days. So the final piece of the equation is current. In your case we could induce 10 AMPS while testing both sides and all should be good (heck he pulled 11) then step up to 15 then 20 etc.at 25-30A I would be convinced that we had reached the threshold, where above we could risk damaging the conductors. So if I couldnt find a problem that is right where I would go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27
but he opened up every outlet in the house, every light switch in the house and checked the wiring of each. He also checked wiring in the attic that my wife didn't see and checked stuff in each circuit breaker. She felt he was very through, but she may be a bit biased.
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The only thing he could see is the wiring in the walls....which is where it is supported by staples and could be damaged.
Again, Id bet the most likely culprit is the breaker especially if it is one circuit.
Question how long do these brownout periods last?
Is it all the upstairs power?
Can you flip a single breaker and simulate the outage? (IE is it all on one circuit?)