The incandescent lights in my house (two family attached built in 1917) tend to flutter, almost as if they were fluorescent fixtures. I was thinking that it might be the old wiring, but I just finished wiring up a couple of lights in the basement with new stuff all the way back to the recently installed service panel. The service panels are Square D–there are two of them, one for each unit–and the electrician installed all new stuff from the meter pan to the circuit breakers). I used proper gauge wire for the 15 amp circuit breaker, crossed all my t’s and dotted my i’s … so what am I missing?
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Hmm. Might be nothing but I would give my local utility and have them come out and check the system up to your meter. Most can pull the meter and install in its place a dummy load. This will check the line voltage and carrying capacity of the drop and the transformer.
In addition to this basic test. They should put a scope on the line to look at the wave form under load. Some transformer or phase angle correction problems might cause this sort of thing. Rare but possible. The testing shouldn't take half an hour and most times will be free. Most utilities will do this every few years as part of normal maintenance. As long as you don't abuse the privilege you should be all right.
A weak connection and/or a bad motor on your or your neighbors side might also cause a flicker effect. Not all that uncommon. The advantage of starting with the utility is that you can narrow the search for quickly at a reasonable cost. If the utility doesn't find anything we dig deeper. This assumes you, or your neighbor, don't have any obvious symptoms. A panel that is hot, smells funny or makes noises should raise alarms. Don't dive out a window or take up housekeeping in the snow but I wouldn't delay in calling in an electrician should any of these signs was present.
Loose ground lug on the utility side of the meter is also common.