Circuit overload occurs when the amount of electricity flowing to an appliance or device exceeds what it can handle. For instance, if your lamp is rated for a maximum 60 watt bulb and you don’t feel like that’s bright enough and decide to put in a 100watt bulb, you end up overloading the lamp. In the worst-case scenario, the heat from the bulb melts the socket and the insulation in the fixture wires. If this causes the wires to spark, you could end up with an electrical fire.

Sags and dips in power levels are closely related to power surges. Small appliances are usually the culprit behind these issues. It’s essentially an intermittent drop in electrical voltage. They usually only last a second. They are also known as “brown-outs.” It happens when your lights get dim and then get bright again, without going off all the way.

Brown-outs also happens when you have too many large appliances running at the same time. These appliances could be drawing too much from an outdated electric panel or could be outdated and require too much power. Additionally, old or faulty wiring can also be part of the blame.