Why do they always call me on this stuff? This time it's a friend who lives in town so eventually I'll be able to drive up to his place if necessary. meanwhile here is what is happening. House is a 2008 build. He has a ceiling fan and a porch light on a stack switch. For a couple of months, every time the ceiling fan is switched on the 65 inch flat screen TV drops out for 3 seconds, but switching the light doesn't affect it. He swapped the light and fan on the stack switch and the problem stayed the same, the fan still interrupts the TV. All of this is on the same 15 amp non-AFCI non multiwire branch circuit.
Sounds like you’re dealing with brief voltage sag or EMI spikes when the fan or doorbell transformer starts—but only on that specific circuit leg—causing your TV to reset. Swapping the breaker to the opposite phase or testing the TV on a different circuit (as you did with the extension cord) confirms it’s a circuit issue, not the TV. To prevent this, isolating or redistributing those motor/transformer loads is key. For consistent power stability, consider quality power‑management solutions like those from
Ovaga Technologies. Let me know if you want to know more.
I was pretty sure it was going to be an issue with the stack switch as it is probably one of those multi-configurable ones but what happened next throws that assumption out the window.
Yesterday they noticed when the doorbell rings, the TV cuts out for the same 3 seconds, yet the doorbell transformer is on the garage lighting circuit on the other side of the house! A totally separate circuit! (I had him shut the TV circuit off and the door bell still works)
Next I told him to plug a lamp into the duplex that the TV is plugged into and watch it. When switching on the ceiling fan the TV again drops out for 3 seconds but the lamp doesn't even flicker. Same result with the doorbell.
Next I told him to plug the TV into an extension cord on a different circuit. When he does this, the TV is unaffected by both the ceiling fan or the doorbell.
The only thing I can come up with is the TV is seeing something is doesn't like on that circuit, but the doorbell transformer on a different circuit really throws a monkey wrench in the works.
He's not good with a meter nor does he own one so I could drive up there and measure voltage at the TV receptacle but not sure if my old Fluke 27 would catch a nanosecond drop. He did open the panel and check for loose screws on the breakers and the neutral bus.
He texted me a photo of the (Homeline) panel, there are no multiwire branch circuits and there are 3 AFCIs for the 3 bedrooms, the living room and garage are both on separate circuits with regular breakers.
Any ideas?
