Bizarre Electrical

OK, I've had a continuing hassle develop w/ the ground in the old barn over the last year or so.

Finally, about two months ago I replaced the ground rod w/ new and all seemed well. As of about a week ago, the gremlin is back--there's enough to light a couple 100W bulbs at not quite full intensity and outlets measure full 125V but not enough current to power motors, etc. Clearly it's the ground as all the 240V gear is fully functional.

It's _extremely_ hard to fathom a new rod can have gone south so quickly and we've had sufficient rain that it certainly is the case of excessively dry ground.

Yesterday I ran a jumper directly from the ground bar in the circuit box to the ground and made no difference whatsoever in the symptoms.

It is _all_ 120V circuits, not just one so seems as though not possible to be a failed breaker not passing current; but for the life of me I can't figure out another common-mode cause...

Anybody got any ideas or ever had such a symptom? I may end up calling the pro on this one...was out just last week to help find a broken underground feeder to another of the outbuildings; too bad the symptom hadn't reared it's head again then or woulda' had him take a look then.

Reply to
dpb
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I'm not an electrician. But, if you're using a ground to carry current, you are probably illegal and you are definitely unsafe.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

What are you doing depending on a ground rod to carry the current that a neutral wire should be used for ?

YOu should have at the least 3 wires and really 4 wires comming from the house (or whever the power is comming from) going to the barn. If you do have 3 wires or more, the neutral wire is broken or a bad connection somewhere.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Early '50s installation 3-wire; nobody ever heard of 4-wire back then.

The neutral is tied to the ground, of course.

It's that there's a direct connection from the box bypassing the connection/path that's been there since day one that runs back up the entrance conduit to the weatherhead at the roofline and comes back down to the ground rod that I bypassed to verify the connection at that point wasn't the failure. It's about 30 ft off the ground so not that convenient if can otherwise eliminate it as the issue.

Don't see how there's not a complete circuit here.

Reply to
dpb

On 11/03/2015 9:21 AM, dpb wrote: ...

Oh, actually, it dawns...the neutral is the carrier cable from the pole overhead over the driveway from the meter...they're all three tied at that connection up there; the return from the panel, the ground and the carrier/neutral REA strung.

That connection back to their neutral may be the culprit or I suppose it's possible the neutral connection at the junction box past the meter could be it altho that's the same box that splits off the house and other shop that we were in to isolate the aforementioned underground feed and those connections all looked pristine -- amazed me how clean/bright/shiny they were after at least 30 year (I _think_ Dad pulled new from there to the house/shop when they redid the grandparents house in the mid-70s altho that was in the time period was in TN so wasn't around). I think the feed to the barn/feedlots (a second run from the same pole to another branch box for the silo unloader and the feedlot waterers, lights, etc.) was run earlier in the very early 60s when put in the feed mill in the back of the barn and built the lots. Don't believe there's any chance those were re-run when the house was but it's also possible they did the house and all when that was done all in "one swell foop"; I cannot remember for certain even though was still at home then...

Reply to
dpb

Presumably when larger loads are put on it, the voltage drops. So, get a heater or similar, and plug it in. Then start measuring voltages from hot to neutral, tracing back. At the heater it will be well below 120V. Someplace up the chain it will be 120V, normal. Then between the two, apparently something is wrong with the neutral. The neutral current is in a conductor and it should not be a ground rod problem.

Reply to
trader_4

Yeah, see my followup that apparently crossed in the ether...but it's got to be in the path from the box back to the feed, not in front as all circuits inside the barn are affected. Hence it almost has to be that connection I didn't want to have to get up to (but I do have a manlift so it's not _that_ hard to get up there; it's just close to the feed and there's no isolation w/o cutting off the house, too, which I was hoping not to have to do again.

Not sure why had the brain cramp re: that neutral; I suppose because I just wasn't thinking of the support cable also serving as the neutral conductor.

Reply to
dpb

OP did mention some 220 volt loads which work fine, which suggests it's a problem with the neutral.

What comes to mind, here, is for the OP to check the neutral line, and look for open or corroded connections. Figuring of course, that there "is" a neutral. With his mention of three wire, might be two hots and a ground.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

With old circuits it is hard to say what they did. It could have been the barn was only wired for 240 volts and no neutral. Then someone may have wanted 120 volts so they used the origional ground for the neutral. Or it could have been wired like the old stove circuits in a house. Only 3 wires where the neutral and ground were the same wire.

Any way, he should quit fooling around with the ground rod and look at what is beind down with the neutral.

I think we are all in agreement that there must be a problem with the neutral. Either it is not used and depending on the ground, which is a very bad idea, or there is a bad or missing connection on the neutral wire.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Quite similar with a total of five here; I left of a couple of others to the other group of sheds and the machine shed (this is a operating farmstead, not just a few acres outside town).

...[part of story elided for brevity]...

This has to be one of the two connections, yes. Altho had no neutral in the well house years ago when we moved back after Dad passed away; turned out it was an actual break on the top of the last pole before the feed went underground in the neutral pigtail going down; apparently wind fatigue had finally done it in; probably had had a knick from the day it was installed. That run probably dated from the initial REA run in 1948.

I had the manlift by then so didn't have to actually climb the pole...most convenient! :)

It's not convenient with the layout to do that; Dad simply routed it up under the eaves and down the weatherhead instead of thru the wall and inside. The route is ok...

Reply to
dpb

I have a similar setup. There is a main disconnect on the meter pole, and from that panel, there are three power lines.

*One to the house, (underground) *One to the barn, and some sheds. (overhead triplex) *One to the garage and some sheds nearby. (overhead triplex)

Some years ago, my garage power went bonkers. It began when I could not run a Skil saw. It turned real slow or just hummed. While several lightbulbs burned out as well as my destroying a radio and my cordless drill charger. A meter indicated my lighting circuit was getting 240V as well as the radio and charger outlets. Yet, the outlet where I plugged in the Skil saw was only getting (under 120V), which varied by turning on other loads. Yet, the 240V well pump is connected to the garage, and it worked fine.

I knew it was the neutral, but the old triplex was way up on a pole next to the garage. It looked like everything was intact (from standing below the pole), but I'm not good with heights and was not climbing to the top of that pole. To confirm my suspicion about a bad ground, I happened to have a roll of about 150ft of romex on hand. I laid it across the lawn, and connected all of the wires from the meter pole neutral bar, to the neutral bar in the garage. Immediately, everything worked normally.

I shut off all the power at that meter pole. Then I carefully checked the connections that feed that garage, and tightened all the connections in that panel. Then I went up to the garage, did the same in that breaker box. I proceeded to the garage weather head, and removed the tape on the neutral connection. I cleaned all the wires, replaced the split bolt and re-taped. (yea, that's the support wire). I decided to clean up the power wires there too, and took them apart and cleaned / re-taped.

None of this solved the problem, so I knew the problem was up on one of the two poles (the garage pole, or the meter pole).

Since I'm not comfortable going up on the poles, I called an electrician. He checked everything on the meter pole and said that was OK. Then he went to the garage pole and found the neutral connection was loose and corroded. He replaced that connection and I asked him to check the other two wires too. (they were fine).

Problem solved!!!!

Reply to
Paintedcow

probably best to call the power company to make certain the problem isnt on their end.

when i was a kid, a gazillion years ago the neighborhood power transformer had a problem, eventually it caught on fire.

then everyones wierd problems went away...... after power company replaced transformer

Reply to
bob haller

This is a farm too. Most of the people on this newsgroup live in cities and are not familiar with this "typical" farm setup, with a meter pole being the source to feed all the buildings.

One of the "sheds" I referred to, is a second barn, but a small one, just to house some livestock when needed. It's near the garage. To eliminate another MAIN panel, I just ran two strands of 12-2 w gnd UF cable underground from the garage to that barn. It's only for lights and an occasional power tool or stock tank heater in winter, so those two

20A circuits suffice. I ran those cables thru underground plastic PVC conduit in case I ever need to add another circuit. I was told there should be a disconnect in that barn, but the garage panel is only 25 feet away. And since i now changed the six lightbulbs to LED, there is hardly any power used in that barn.
Reply to
Paintedcow

You still on an earth return system with no neutral??? Check your voltage right at the pole. If it is good there, run a neutral wire and don't cepend on the ground, which will give you terrible "stray voltage" problems.

Reply to
clare

dpb wrote in news:n1ai0c$39v$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

No, very clearly it is *not* the ground. It's the neutral.

Ground and neutral are not the same thing -- and if you don't understand this, you have no business monkeying around with this stuff.

Of course not. You don't have a grounding problem. You have a problem with the neutral.

I can. It's the neutral.

Sounds like a good idea. I think you're in over your head.

Reply to
Doug Miller

On 11/03/2015 4:18 PM, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote: ...

No, I don't believe there's any where in the US with that any more, even in the most remote western areas.

Only place I've seen it is in Saskatchewan out west of Weyburn towards Coronach and that area out there but even that's been 25 yr ago now when was still doing the coal analyzers service for SaskPower at Poplar River and Coronach Stations.

Weyburn's the only place I've seen the old 32V DC appliances still on showroom floors for the places that still had only their windcharger systems in like 60+ yr, too...we had one until REA got here in '48, but by '50 or '51 all our corner of SW KS was reached and the windchargers were quickly abandoned...

Reply to
dpb

Actually there was (at least in the late seventies) in some of the really outback of Kansas and or oklahoma where there were still power co-ops. - and one area of Alaska. I remember seeing the single transmission lines on some really back back roads on my way to Tulsa in '76.

Reply to
clare

Oh, there are power co-ops all over--we're still a power co-op here...there are 19 in the State of KS alone covering the whole state outside the metro areas.

I really don't think there are any single line distribution any longer, though, altho I suppose it's possible, but I don't recall seeing any in the last 50 year in the states.

Reply to
dpb

I've read of livestock not drinking because they get shocked from the waterers. Dairy cows have supposedly held milk due to the shock from the milkers. Both of those were from bad or inadequate neutrals. The modern code has all sort of neat stuff to prevent that. It must cost a bunch for a modern barn.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

I remember some friends staying at a summer camp, where the shower was shocking residents. I'm not totally sure how it played out, but I think the problem was a furnace that ran for cold mornings, and a bad neutral.

I also remember joking with the staff. Difference between if it had been boys or girls shower. Girls would learn not to touch the shocker, and promptly report it for repair. Boys would crowd around and see how many could get shocked at the same time.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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