alt.engineering.electrical

wrote in message
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> Hi all,
>
> We've got a fairly new fridge, maybe a year old, and we've
> discovered that it's causing power spikes especially when
> it clicks on.

When it turns on, the compressor starts with a rather large current surge
which will cause the line voltage to droop ... the opposite of a surge. The
circuit that the fridge is on might have marginal capacity for current. It
might have high series resistance due to a bad connection or a long run of
#14 wire. Worth looking into.

> Sometimes these spikes continue for some time.
> These spikes hit any equipment that's in the kitchen and using
> different outlets. It's an old house, so my question is,
> is this a fire hazard?

Probably not, but worth looking into.

> And is this indicative of a fridge that's
> defective or could it just be the old wiring?

Is the fridge working as expected, generally speaking?

> These spikes
> cause the screen on my laptop to flicker, which doesn't
> happen when it's connected to outlets in other rooms
> (or buildings) or on battery power.

The laptop flicker is perhaps an indication of a momentary voltage sag when
the fridge starts up and draws a rather large surge current ... which is
normal.