Destroyed appliances, frequent headaches, no answers: Homeowner grapples with ‘dirty power’ nightmare

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - In a situation that could be happening to others, a Mililani Mauka woman is grappling with “dirty power” at her home — and after a year and a half of extensive troubleshooting, it’s still unclear what’s causing the surges and sags in electrical energy.

But since the problem started, the homeowner’s had to replace all her appliances. Now the new ones are failing, too. She’s also experiencing strange noises and unexplained health concerns.

Marina Thiry said she has hired close to a half dozen electricians over the past 18 months in an attempt to pinpoint any electrical issues within her house.

No one’s been able to find what’s causing the problem.

One expert who’s been trying to solve the issue said he believes it’s partly associated with something that occurs when the voltage and current generated by the home’s solar panels is sent back to Hawaiian Electric’s power gird.

Meanwhile, HNN Investigates learned HECO has also completed extensive testing.

While the company is adamant it’s not the problem, it’s refusing to hand over the raw data it collected until Thiry and her contractors sign non-disclosure agreements.

‘My dream was to come home’

For Thiry, the situation is more than just a major headache.

“I am from Wahiawa. My dream was to come back to my home. This is my retirement,” she said.

But Thiry’s life isn’t what she envisioned when she left her job on the continent to live out her golden years in Mililani Mauka.

“It started with just an odd noise. Like a hum,” she said. “I wondered what it was.”

That was toward the latter part of September 2022. Records show she reported the issue to Hawaiian Electric the following month.

At that point, she’d already lived in the home more than two years with no issues.

But shortly after the noises started, she said, the problems got worse.

“The room will suddenly begin to feel energized. What happens is there’s a pins and needles sensation,” Thiry said. “Another noise I hear is just a vibration.”

“We’ve never seen anything like this’

Thiry said the strange sounds are often accompanied by headaches or feeling pressure on her chest. The noises and sensations make it nearly impossible to get more than a few hours sleep.

And that’s not all.

“You see those three bulbs,” Thiry said, pointing to a fixture over the vanity in her primary bathroom. “They all just burst.”

Then all of her appliances started to fail.

She bought new ones. Now, the new ones are malfunctioning, too.

Initially, HECO advised Thiry to hire an electrician.

While no one was able to pinpoint the problem, experts say it’s clear there’s an issue.

HNN Investigates

George Zeigler, who heads up Signals and Power Grid Specialists America, has been involved in the case. For nearly 50 years, he’s traveled around the world to solve electrical issues others couldn’t.

He said the typical AC frequency in a home is 60 Hertz.

“The data she’s been collecting ranges clear up to 14,000 hertz,” he said.

He confirms the noises and sensations Thiry is experiencing can happen when your exposed to high frequencies, adding electromagnetic interference can destroy electronics.

After a year working on the case remotely, it still has him stumped.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

In addition to Zeigler, Thiry has hired five different Oahu-based electrical companies to inspect her home while going back and forth with HECO and solar company Enphase Energy to troubleshoot.

“There are no loose wires, no open neutrals, no open grounds. Everything seems to be wired properly. The wire sizes are correct. The circuit breakers are fine. We tested everything,” Thiry said.

But what an electrician and an inspector from the solar company did find was a loud buzz in a handhole outside her home.

Zeigler explained, “When the solar turns on, there’s a noise that appears in the handhole that’s not there when the solar’s off. So that means there’s something — either an Enphase problem or HECO’s problem accepting that voltage and current that is coming back to the power grid.”

To date, neither HECO nor the solar company have been able to fix it.

HECO transparency questioned

That’s not the only issue.

Although, Thiry stopped using her solar, problems with sounds and high frequencies persist.

During that same time period, records show HECO was called to visit Thiry’s home on multiple occasions and conducted monitoring, testing and recordings.

At one point, the utility set up a power quality monitor that captured 12 weeks of information.

Thiry says Hawaiian Electric initially agreed to hand over the raw data so her contractors could use it to help find the problem. But that didn’t happen. Instead, records show, HECO provided Thiry with a “power quality report” containing just one week’s worth of “trending” data.

HNN Investigates asked the utility to sit down with us for an on-camera interview to explain why the company wants Thiry and her contractors to sign non-disclosure agreements for the raw data.

Instead, a spokesperson responded through email, saying it’s “confidential and proprietary information of Hawaiian Electric and as such is not normally provided to customers.”

Ziegler said the response is surprising.

“I worked with the power companies here (on the mainland) all the time. And anytime we do a power study, they share the data with us,” he said.

“They want the problem fixed just as bad is the homeowner does.”

When HNN Investigates asked Zeigler about the non-disclosure agreement requirement, he responded, “Well, this non-disclosure is more than just a non-disclosure. She has to guarantee that all the contractors that work there would not expose anything that was in that data ... forever.”

Zeigler said in his decades of being an electrician, he’d never experienced anything like that before.

In a letter to the Public Utilities Commission, in response to a complaint filed by Thiry, Hawaiian Electric wrote that “extensive efforts have resulted in the confirmation that Hawaiian Electric’s service and equipment are performing within the Company’s tariff and standard of service.”

The letter went on to say as of last July, HECO informed Thiry “there was no further action Hawaiian Electric could take to further assist her at this time.”

The spokesperson confirmed the company hasn’t changed its position.

HNN Investigates also reached out to Thiry’s solar company: Enphase Energy. A week later, no one has responded to our phone calls or emails.

‘Back to square one’

Zeigler says in his experience, when the problem isn’t with the homeowner it’s generally with the power company. “Only about 10% of the time is it with an outside random source,” he said.

He says while the source of the destructive frequencies could be coming from anywhere, he has some theories as to what could be contributing to the issue.

For one, about the same time Thiry’s problems began, HECO shuttered its last coal fired power plant. He says problems could also be linked to the transformer that feeds the homes on her street.

“The transformer right now is a 25 KVA,” Zeigler said. “So if three homeowners had an EV (electric vehicle) turned on at the same time they’d be pushing that transformer to it’s recommended limits.”

There could also be an issue with a transformer cable that runs directly to Thiry’s house. While HECO is adamant that’s not the issue, Thiry believes the utility’s tests weren’t performed correctly.

It seems Thiry’s neighbors don’t appear to be impacted. But Zeigler says it’s possible more homeowners are grappling with the same issue. “It might not be the same magnitude. It could be the town over,” he said, adding he worries Thiry’s problems could be a foreshadow of more issues.

“Hawaii is the first state to commit to remove fossil fuel from the power plants,” he told HNN Investigates. “That means a lot of small houses are going to be contributing to the power grid.

“It’s never been done before. Nobody knows what effect back-feeding in the magnitude we’re talking about will have on the grid.”

Between replacing shot appliances and hiring contractors, Thiry’s out more than $18,000 — and still no closer to a solution. With no answers, she’s “back to square one.”

If you’re experiencing similar issues, we want to hear from you. Email HNN Investigates.

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