Excellent news.
I've spent a lot of time doing a lot of testing today. My results are as follows with a DVD drive and a WD 3.5"HDD as test loads:
At the tech school;
- Upon connecting the power supply to the panel receptacle immediately adjacent to the power transformer feeding it at the tech school, I could perceive no visible flickering in an incandescent light bulb in my field-wired testing rig plugged into the same receptacle.
- When I moved to a location with approximately 40-50 feet of wiring [incl. appx 30-40 feet of ~#4Cu., and appx 10 feet of #12Cu.] between it and the transformer, I began to notice some faint flickering again with my test rig.
- My home has approximately 180-210 feet of wiring from the electrical service room, and I have no trouble noticing the flickering much more readily.
This information supports my hypothesis that the power supply itself is the
root cause of the issue.
When I discussed my findings with the fourth instructor in the school, we formulated a hypothesis that the intensity of the flickering generated by the power supply may be heavily influenced by the total length of wire between the power supply and the source equipment due to factors such as wire impedance, inductance, and possibly capacitance. He also brought up the important fact that switchmode power supplies and other nonlinear loads like computer PSUs have always historically been notorious for causing a range of electrical disturbances and nuisances in building distribution systems.
Later in the day, I brought the PSU to another house to continue my testing;
- Upon connecting the power supply to the circuit in a room equipped with CFL lights, no flickering was observed.
- Upon connecting the power supply to the circuit in a room equipped with incandescent lights, flickering was immediately obvious.
- The house is known to be at the very end of the transformer branch feeding a cluster of other houses, and at least 120 feet of wiring is present between the receptacle and the supplying transformer.
This was sufficient evidence to positively conclude that the power supply itself was definitely the cause of all of the flickering, which was being exponentially intensified as more wiring was introduced between the power supply and the electrical source.
I stopped by the local geek mall and picked up a Corsair HX850i to test the system with.
Lo- and behold:
NO MORE FLICKERING!
Photos of the
only test setup that was capable of manifesting absolutely no flickering with an incandescent light bulb on the same circuit:
@CBRworm: Since you mentioned that you have experienced the same flickering symptoms as me, I would be curious to know what type of power system you have supplying your computer, and how much wiring you have between your computer and your floor's substation/distro room. Perhaps a building engineer could let you photograph the nameplate on the transformer supplying your office, and possibly give you a loose estimate of the length of wiring between the two? I ask only out of scientific curiosity so that we might continue to build a knowledge base on this entire subject.
As for correcting your own issue, you could possibly try buying the same Corsair HX850i power supply that resolved my issue from a local retail store that has an easy return policy, and see if swapping your current power supply for that does anything. Otherwise, switching to CFL lighting might help mitigate the symptoms of the issue.
Let us know what you find out.
Hooray for progress!
