Are tripping breakers and blinking lights normal in a new house?
These symptoms point to unresolved electrical faults, even though builders and electricians often claim they are normal or blame you for turning a fan knob too fast. Instead of diagnosing why adjoining closet lights blink, they may simply replace a repeatedly tripping breaker, leaving you stuck with the same underlying wiring issue.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Waiting for the electrical issue to happen again to call the electrician
- 2Turning the rotary fan control switch slower
- 3Pigtailing the aluminum connections to copper outlets as a short-to-medium-term fix.
- 4Getting quotes for a full rewire to negotiate the purchase offer.
- 5Rewiring the house slowly, room by room, during other renovations.
- 6Paying for regular electrical inspections until a full rewire is affordable.
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“A breaker in the electrical panel keeps tripping. The electrician who wired the house has already replaced this "weak" breaker once before and now it's done it again.”source ↗
“When I turn the fan on, and with each speed adjustment, the lights in the room blink - the ceiling fan light, as well as the adjoining closet light.”source ↗
“The electrician and builder both say this is normal and I am turning the knob too fast.”source ↗
“We are in conditional phase of a purchase for a 1973 semi-detached home that has aluminum wiring.”source ↗
“would you recommend a whole house rewiring at some point?”source ↗
“I also had the same thought about insurance phasing this coverage out over time and is something to consider if we ever want to sell.”source ↗
“I purchased a similar home. In the process of rewiring my home slowly and have done this many times and still do with my clients.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2New appliance installed wrong and broken
- 26Electrician installed an outlet instead of a generator inlet box
- 2How to get power restored after an emergency electrical shutoff
- 4Why does touching my breaker panel turn my electric dryer back on?
- 6Why do older houses have no outlets?
- 2Is normal plumbing wear in a new home a leak?