The flickering lights in your house are your home's way of saying, "Uh, we've got an electrical problem here." Consider yourself lucky that you're getting such a heads up. One such reason for this may be because you've got aluminum and copper wire fighting against each other.
If your home was built between the mid to late 60s and early 70s, it's possible you have aluminum wire throughout it. Over the years, perhaps you or a previous owner have added devices or fixtures that came with copper wire. When you splice the copper and aluminum wire together under one termination point, say in a twist-on connector, the two metals expand and contract at different rates. Over time, this tends to loosen the twist-on connector and this is when bad things can happen.
When this happens, it's possible to have:
arcing sparking oxidation resistance heat build up fire
Thankfully, fire is the exception rather than the rule, but it can happen at any time, even if the home hasn't had any problems for several years or decades. As newer modern lifestyles -- complete with computers, appliances, and other electrical equipment to name a few -- take hold, they put extra load on the existing electrical aluminum circuitry and can be a problem waiting to happen.
So, please take this precaution seriously! Always, always, always hire a licensed electrician to evaluate your home and never try to solve the problem yourself. Electricity can be very, very dangerous.
