Overvoltage

Over the past year we've noticed that we have lots of lights that burn out, and more recently our smoke detectors (wired into house AC with 9V battery backup) have had several batteries blowup. I just went around the house and measured the voltage in outlets and found that some were at 139 VAC, and some were at the normal 124 VAC. The power company came and checked the voltage outside and said it's 124 VAC, and suggested I may have a grounding or neutral problem. How can I find the problem? Anyone know a really good electrician in the DFW area (near the airport)? Please email me at snipped-for-privacy@bcg.com Thanks Guy

Reply to
gilliland.guy
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Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get yourself $3 wiring tester.

All you need to do is just plug it in.., and it will tell you if circuit is not wired correctly.

Not very likely.... Get another voltmeter and measure again...

Reply to
Bria

How to find a good contractor? Might as well ask why we are here. Can't help you.

The utility's explanation is possible. Only problem is that in order to have overvoltage in someplaces you must have undervoltage in others. Did you find that? If not, then you don't have a loose neutral. With correct circuits your 120v circuits are 120v hot to neutral. With a loose neutral, you have no 120v circuits; they are all 240v, but half the circuits are in series with the other half. If everything balanced it would not matter, as all devices would see 120v. But it is rarely balanced. Then the two halves see different voltages; if you see 139v on one circuit, you will see 110v on another; and 170v on one and 70v on another. The math is very complicated, but you get the idea. So, do you have some bulbs that aren't as bright as they should be, or some outlets that read too low?

Reason I am suspicious is that, while it is not impossible for some the circuits to have exactly the right voltage with a loose neutral, it is unlikely. (Now it is possible to have a smaller problem, a loose neutral on a multiwire circuit. Then only two circuits would be affected; one would be overvoltage and its sister would see undervoltage, but you would still have undervoltage. That is a much easier problem to fix, but from your description you have a more extensive problem)

I hope either you or they checked both legs at the breaker box; they should be 120v (plus or minus 5%). Don't measure at an outlet, measure from the screws on a breaker to ground. If you aren't comfortable doing it, then you shouldn't; but somebody has to. (It is exactly as dangerous as measuring at an outlet, no more-no less, but it feels more dangerous.)

Reply to
toller

I'm not a licensed electrician but the above advice is very good and correct. I had a similar problem in my last home. In fact, from time to time the neutral would open and put 240 volts on part of the house. Now that will end the life of your bulbs and wall warts quickly. I went to a junction box, which was installed when the main panel was moved during and addition, and found 4 neutrals twisted into one fried wire nut. I cleaned up the "not to code" mess and called an electrician to bring it "all" back to code. I think that is where you are at this point....that is, bring in an expert....good luck, Ross

Reply to
Ross Mac

I am a tad confused with your post.

You say 139 volts and also 124 volts. Measured how? with what? near the same time? What you need is a recording volt meter. A strip chart meter for a week would be nice, but probably the utility will not put one on unless you "squeak really loud". A simple measurement at one point in time does not tell you much of anything. (when looking at anomalies) If your comfortable with playing about live wires, acquire an Fluke 87 and place in on "record max voltage" run for 24 hours. then repeat on "min voltage". This will tell you what the mins-maxes are, but not when. When is the key, a lot of voltage anomalies are time of day related.

A loose neutral in your home will be hard pressed to create more voltage that you start with on a 120v circuit. A loose ground on your serving transformer is a different story.

IEEE 519 says that the utilities are supposed to maintain +10% to -5% of nominal voltage. The next paragraph says "except for short periods of time".

Reply to
SQLit

In my limited experience, if the neutral was lost at the panel or upstream, causing the ground to carry the unbalanced current, the voltage drops, not increases.

Isn't this house like violating some laws of physics?

later,

tom @

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Reply to
newsgroups01REMOVEME

Those little testers will not find a floating neutral. That would appear to be the OP's problem.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

It sounds like they are right. A floating neutral problem (kind of like a ground problem) is almost sure to be the problem.

You home is supplied with 240V AC not 120V. It splits the 240V (OK I know this is a simplification but it works here.). It does this by using the neutral (the third wire) to balance the voltage so when two circuits are not using the same current they both still get 120V. When that neutral gets loose or disconnected it means one half will bet something between 120 and

240V and the other will get between 0 and 120V depending on the load. Lower load = higher voltage. The smoke detectors are low power users and are on all the time, so if the other half of their circuit were to draw a lot of current, the system would try to push all that same current back through the smoke detectors by increasing the current up to 240V.

Most of the time the problem is at the circuit breaker box. In this case you can be reasonable sure it is on the same circuit as the smoke detectors. If you are comfortable working inside the breaker box and know enough to keep yourself safe, (remember you can't turn off all the current in that box) check all the connections of the white wires and the big wires leading to the buss bars that the white wires are connected to.

If you are not comfortable with that idea, then call in the professional. They should be able to take care of this is short order. Don't leave it go, it can be dangerous and can damage electrical equipment. BTW if you choose to do this yourself, and the above instructions don't correct the problem. Call in the professional.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Guy,

I am an electrician that does commercial and utility work. I am not, however, in the DFW area.

You do need a real electrician there, it seems. If coworkers, friends or family cannot recommend someone, I'd suggest you find a local electrical supply house and ask the counter people there who they would recommend. These people deal with electricians all day long... and they know the knowledgeable ones and the dummies.

DO NOT open your breaker panel and start poking around, as it sounds like you don't have the training or tools to be safe. While I usually respect Mr. Meehan's comments, you should NOT attempt to tighten any "big wires" in the panel. If they are feed lines, they will be live and touching them could kill you unless you have properly insulated tools or pull the meter... usually things only electricians have and do.

Cheap digital multimeters are not known for their accuracy, either. However, a quick check (at the outlet) is to test the hot leg (the shorter of the two prongs) and the ground prong to see if you get the same readings.

Please be safe!!!

Jake

Reply to
Jake

The ground won't carry anything unless there is a short. The current has to be balanced; the exact same current goes out each hot. Some voltages drop, some increase.

Assume you have a multiwire circuit with an open neutral. There is nothing but a 50w bulb on circuit, and nothing but a 100w bulb on the other. The resistances are 288 and 144 respectively; with the neutral open the total resistance is 432. Since voltage is 240, current is 0.56a. So, the 50w bulb sees 160v and the 100w bulb sees 80v.

I am ill with bronchitis, but this has to be close enough to give the general idea.

Reply to
toller

A loose neutral can mean one circuit will get up almost 240V.

In NA the power is supplied as 240 V It is divided into two 120V parts for most uses. The three wires (plus ground) that come into your home include the 240V (between the two hot wires) and the neutral wire which when all the 120V loads are balanced carries no current. Without that neutral, then 240 is applied to each pair of circuits. If one side has only a 10W lamp and the other side has 10,000 watts of lamps that 10W lamp is going to end up with almost 240V.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

This is Turtle.

WOW Jake , i was waiting for a Super revelation of a Diagnosis and was let down by the reply you give. I will in the future have to just concider you as a Human being and not a Super Electrical Sparky in the Ski. Now I do sometime have very high expectation of people for I'm a optimist and not a Pissmorest. He He He 1

TURTLE

Reply to
TURTLE

I was talking at the panel or upstream. Like the service enterence cables are bad. There for phase a and b are still good, but unbalanced loads are carred by the ground from the panel to ground. Heavy resistance therefore voltage differential is decreased.

later,

tom @

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Reply to
newsgroups01REMOVEME

Well, T, you know the drill... the best answer is to keep Guy out of trouble in this instance.

Neutral problems can come from anywhere. Doing utility work, we see it a lot more in homes than we do on the poles or transformer interconnects, but that happens, too.

No way to tell from here.

240 volt home service is made available phase-to-phase. The voltage potential on each phase TO GROUND is always around 120 volts unless there is a utility problem. Voltage potential on the Neutral, which should be grounded at the service entrance (panel), can and does vary with the load. At no load, there is no voltage potential. If someone reads potential from Neutral to ground in a home, using a good meter, something is seriously wrong and needs a professional to fix as soon as possible. Loaded, floating neutrals are a fire and electrocution hazard, the second coming from how many devices have the neutral improperly isolated from the ground and bad equipment grounds on equipment and devices.

No Hot Shot opinion here... just the very good advice that Guy needs a good electrician. I hope he finds one.

Jake

Reply to
Jake

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