Electricial question: power surge?

Don't have any electrical experience but we had something similar happen to us and it turned out we had to have the "grounding" wire replaced.

Recently we had our lights flicker a bit. I decided I would call Con Edison if it was still doing it the next morning. That morning before I could call there was a manhole fire right on the corner and because it was starting to go before then, that was causing our lights to flicker.

I tend to be very, very nervous with any electrical issues. I would get the landlord and super to turn to this ASAP.

you can get a simple little device that has a few lights on it that you plug into each outlet to check for shorts or improper wiring. Depending on which of the 3 lights is on will tell you if there is any problem and what the problem is.

If the outlets are OK then there's a good chance it is something with the feed from the street. There are often 2 lines that come into a building and feed different parts of it so if there's a problem with one line it can knock out power to half of your apartment while the other half is fine. These types of problems usually occur around that time that lots of salt and water get into the manhole covers as it leads to corrosion of the old wiring.

do you know what size the breaker is? It's possible that over time resistance has increased thus pulling more amps leading to a blown breaker with no additional devices added. A breaker working near capacity will fail at some point.
the other possibility: have you been using an AC unit the last couple days that might be hooked to the same line?
A simple test would be to put an amp meter clamp on the line at the breaker box.

This would tell you what the amperage of everthing is and if the circuit breaker is big enough. This is not an exotic instrument. Most supers or handymen would have one of these.

What d_luxx says above is true also. Not really your problem unless you are exceeding the amperage on the breaker. Anything less than a 15 or 20 amp breaker is not practical for the 21st Century.

http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/faq/quality.html#legal

Your landlord is required to provide sufficient electricity for all items or services listed in your lease and to maintain a safe and habitable apartment. For example, if your lease states that the apartment is provided with an air conditioner, your landlord must provide enough power to run it.

If there is an exposed plate or wiring, constant blowing of fuses or evidence of electrical fires or a DECREASE in the amount of power provided to your apartment, you may wish to call HPD Code Enforcement for an inspection.

For more information or to request an inspection, call HPD Code Enforcement via the City's Citizen Service Center by dialing 311. Regarding electrical wiring, you can also contact the Department of Buildings complaints unit by contacting the City's Citizen Service Center by dialing 311.

Regarding what Ben says about 2 lines: likely at least 3 but that would feed the whole building . If that was the problem then others would be suffering too.

One other question. When the circuit blows do you experience a "brown out" elsewhere in the apartment?