[nostatic]

Ok, for those that know your home electrical. The rental house I'm in was "redone" about 5 years ago. There is now a main breaker board that looks newer mounted on the outside of the garage (next to where the meter is - the drop hits the house on the roof above), and a secondary breaker board in the garage which I think was the original. Since we moved in some of the built-in light fixtures (most all CF) have flickered on and off. One of the bedrooms (now the music room) has been the worst, with the overhead light turning on and off on its own, as do the outlets. Not good for music gear. The main light is attached to a dimmer switch right outside the room (odd setup) and I figure that might be part of the issue.

But, lately it has been getting worse, with other outlets (the wall that the tv/cable/internet is plugged into, using a surge protector) now cutting power on and off. Last night while I was at rehearsal evidently it was really acting up and eventually most evertything in the house just went out. The only thing that remained hot was the kitchen, central heater, and a couple of wall outlets (adjacent to kitchen and master bedroom, and oddly enough an outlet in the music room that is in the closet). I checked both boxes and nothing was tripped. I turned most of them off and on again but nothing.

Went to bed and around 4am the lights came back on. I got up, turned them off, then went back to sleep. Got up this morning and everything was still working. Went to turn on the light in the master closet (CF), it flickered on, off, on, off, then was ok. Turned it off, went to look at the power strip and it was still on so I moved the internet from the extension cord (going to one of the "good" outlets) back to where it was. The light on the power strip flickered on and off and on and then everything died again - except the kitchen, etc.

Went to work, called the landlord. Came back home this afternoon and everything is back on, but when I turn on a light (it flickers and the power has already cut off and come back a few times on the router/cable (that I had put back into the original strip).

So wtf? I assume bad wiring somewhere. The landlord said there was never a problem before and that my music stuff must be the cause. I have very little gear in there and it is low current draw stuff (class D amp, etc). Plus if it was drawing too much it should trip a breaker which has never happened. Almost all of the built-in lights flicker and power cycle so seems there is something systemic wrong. The wiring at the new breaker box looks like crap.

Thoughts?