You've no doubt had the experience of turning on a light or an appliance only to see all the lights in the room suddenly dim — just enough to notice — but not burn out. You know that your actions had something to do with it, but why exactly did the lights dim when technically everything should have been fine? You've got three potential causes, one of which requires immediate action.
Drawing a Little Too Much Power
You should be able to draw as much power as a circuit provides, meaning that if you plug in 15 amps' worth of appliances and lights into a 15-amp circuit, you should be able to operate everything as you normally would. However, when you hit on or near that circuit's limit, it can stress the circuit. It's not going to trip the breaker, but it can result in lights dimming a bit. Think about how the lights in your kitchen when you were a child might have dimmed a bit when the old, power-hungry refrigerator compressor turned on, or when the air conditioning started going, and how the lights would be back to normal when the other appliances reduced their power needs. If you can, move fixtures or appliances to another circuit to reduce the frequency of this happening or talk to an electrician.
Failing LED Bulbs
The switch from incandescent to compact fluorescent to LED bulbs wasn't that fast, but because the longer lifespans of CFLs and LEDs mean fewer people have seen these bulbs burn out, with home-use LEDs installed several years ago now just beginning to fail. When LED bulbs burn out, you'll often see one of the little nodes inside the bulb fail first instead of having the whole thing die at once. If that happens around the time you turn on an appliance that can make the light look dimmer than before. If you think a bulb is to blame, replace the bulb and try turning things on again and seeing if the light level is back to where it should be.
Wiring Problems
The real problem is if your dimming lights are due to incorrect or failing wiring. Water damage inside the walls, pests that chew wiring, bad installation, incorrect circuit labeling (e.g., mislabeling a 15-amp breaker as a 20-amp breaker) — all of these can lead to serious problems. If you move fixtures and appliances and replace bulbs, and you still see lights dimming when you turn on another appliance, call an electrician right away.
If you're not sure what's going on or if you think the wiring may be to blame, call a residential electrician like those at Sun Coast Electric & Networking Inc and have them take a look at the wiring. Don't let these problems sit, uninvestigated. Bad wiring is hazardous, and you need to ensure you know exactly why those lights dimmed before you decide it's nothing to worry about.
When we purchased our first home, we realized that there was a problem with some of the electrical work. Some of the lights flickered when we turned them on, and others really seemed to have issues if they were left on long term. I thought the issues was the light bulbs themselves at first, so I replaced several of them. However, after making those changes, it seemed like things were still having trouble. I began going through and thinking carefully about how to identify and resolve the challenges, and it occurred to me that working with an electrician could be helpful. I turned to the professional for help, and it was a good thing I did. Read more about electricians on this blog.