EZSMART Corporation, ESA/ECRA #7012690 , North York , Ontario
Mon-Fri 08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
The lights blink, the microwave clock resets, and everything comes back on in under a second. If your power goes out and comes right back on regularly, something is either wrong on the utility side of your service or in your main panel — and repeated blips shorten the life of every electronic device in your house.
Most sub-second power blips in the GTA are caused by utility reclosers on the pole responding to a temporary fault: a squirrel across a line, a tree branch, wind blowing lines together. The recloser opens for a fraction of a second to clear the fault, then closes again automatically. You experience it as a blink. This is normal, but if it happens more than a few times a month, Toronto Hydro or Alectra needs to inspect the local line.
Not every blip is the utility’s fault. A loose lug in your main breaker, a corroded neutral at the meter, or a failing main disconnect can all cause self-resetting outages that look identical from inside the house. The difference: utility blips affect the whole neighbourhood, while in-home faults only affect you. If your neighbours are not blinking, the problem is on your side of the meter. This is essentially the same class of fault as when half your outlets stop working suddenly — the failure point is in the service or the panel.
Every time power drops and comes back, capacitors in your appliances, fridge compressors, HVAC controls, and computer power supplies see an inrush current several times higher than normal. Repeated blips age these components rapidly, and any voltage transient on the return can spike your surge-sensitive electronics. A whole-home surge protector at the panel is the single cheapest insurance against blip-related equipment loss.
The other silent cost is your data. Modern smart thermostats, garage door openers, and Wi-Fi routers all reboot on a blip, and some lose settings or drop off the network permanently after enough cycles. A single blip a month is tolerable; three a week is a quiet emergency.
Keep a log for two weeks — date, time, weather, whether neighbours were affected. If the pattern points to the utility, report it. If it points to your home, book a power outage electrician to meter both hot legs at the main and torque every panel connection to spec. A one-hour service call almost always finds the culprit.
If the blip lasts 3 to 5 seconds every time, it is a downstream sequence at the utility substation, not your house. If it is a hard flicker under a quarter-second, your side. That single distinction saves us a lot of chasing on service calls, and it can save you a service-call fee if the answer turns out to be a Toronto Hydro line issue.
Sick of resetting every clock in the house? We will find the source. Call 416-838-9006 or use our contact page for same-day service.
Utility grid switching, tree branches on lines, faulty transformer, or grid frequency issue.
Brief flickers are usually harmless. Repeated flickers can damage electronics from repeated surges.
Yes. Contact your utility to log the issue.
Yes. Whole-house and plug-in surge protectors reduce the impact of flicker events.
Sensitive devices, yes. Especially computers and entertainment equipment.
Electrician Since 2008 Journeyman Electrician Designated Master Electrician at EZSMART Corp
