Volts on my Lawn

[JamieT]

I have an outlet on the side of my house. Today I went outside and saw that someone forgot to close the cover over the outlet. Therefore I found a bunch of volts laying on my lawn near this outlet. They were black so I know they leaked out of the hot wire side of the outlet, not the neutral. I tried to shove them back in the outlet but I kept getting shocked. I will have to call my electric company and complain that their power is leaky and I want my bill adjusted accordingly.

However, I do not understand why the outlets inside the house do not have covers and they never leak volts, yet these outdoor outlets that do have covers leak excessively when the covers are left open. Can anyone explain that?

Also, how do I clean up these volts on my lawn without getting shocked?

Jamie T. (Chicago area electrical inspector)

[RickH]

Be glad they were volts, because those amps are much harder to catch and they bite.

[DerbyDad03]

The clean up part is easy - you won't get shocked if you're not grounded when you pick up the hot volts. Each time you reach for a hot volt, jump up first, grab the hot volt and shove it back into the slot before you touch the ground. Now, at first this isn't going to be easy, so I suggest you practice with some neutral volts first. You could practice with the green grounds, but they're hard to see because they blend in with the lawn. Trust me, they're there all right. The sneaky bastards.

Ah, but wait! You say there are no whites to practice with. Actually you have to go to the breaker box to get those. You see, hot volts rush towards devices, neutral volts rush away. When the hot volts reach a slot, they just fall out (they're not too bright, unless of course they're powering a bulb). On the other hand, the neutrals are all piling up in the breaker box. Look in the back of the bus (bar).

As far as the absense of leakage inside the house, that's easy too. I'd be willing to bet that you have at least one device plugged into at least one outlet on every circuit. Therefore, all the hot volts are rushing to those devices and not falling out of the slots. Besides, if you were a hot volt, where would you rather play...inside or out?

[Uncle Monster]

Use a shopvac made of plastic, they work very well. Take the collected volts to a recycling center and exchange them for sine waves.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[RickH]

Did you end up finding all 120 of them? Sometimes the kids can step on one while they are using the slip-and-slide.

[Steve Barker LT]

It's the temperature differential..

sprinkle baking soda on them, then hose them away.

[Buck Turgidson]

Get the hose out and spray your electrical outlet with the nozzle with a very narrow stream. The problem won't occur again.

[The Reverend Natural Light]

If the volts fell out of the hot side then they can only go back in through the neutral side. Duh.

The outside outlet is probably lower than the inside outlets. When you close the cover, volts might start leaking out of the inside outlets. You should cover each one with a plastic plug before closing the lid on the outside outlet.

[GWB]

Once they've been spilled, they're useless. Get your leaf blower and blast em into your neighbor's yard.

[Harry]

It's the squirrels. They like to play with them, and never clean up the mess.

Separate the wires of a 2-wire cord all the way to the plug, Plug it in and put the other end of the hot wire in your mouth. This makes your whole body "volty", making the loose volts think you're their mother. Once they've all attached, put the neutral in your asshole so they'll go home.

[Stormin Mormon]

Do true sines cost more than modified sines?

Would you take ampicillin if you had a sine-us infection?

Getting deep in here, boys......

[Uncle Monster]

You use an oscilloscope to read sine language, correct?

[8~{} Uncle Monster

[Steve Kraus]

Rather amusing considering the problems Chicago has had with stray voltage as noted in the Reader a few years back.

[Dick Adams]

The electric company is going to be a real PITA on this one. There going to insist your house is not up to code and have one of those nasty electrical inspectors come out and find more violations than youu can imagine.

Your best bet is to put a pail right below the leaky outlet. Half fill the pail with water, stir in a pound baking soda, and add a pint of vinegar. This solution will attract the volts so they don't spread all over your yard.

Yes, inside the wiring runs upward while outside the wires run downward.

Use one of those reach-n-grab devices they give handicapped people to get stuff out of cabinets while sitting in a wheelchair.

Dick

[DerbyDad03]

- Use one of those reach-n-grab devices they give handicapped people to get stuff out of cabinets while sitting in a wheelchair.

How could that possibly work?

Those devices are for bringing stuff *down* from the cabinets. The OP needs to pick the volts *up*. The only way a reach-n-grab device will work in this scenario is if the OP digs a holes and puts the wheelchair in the hole so he has to reach up to grab the volts.

What were you thinking?

[EXT]

You have an identity problem, those are not volts they are watts. Many people have problems identifying a watt, they can be heard saying "What is a watt?" Watts can change their appearance to appear as a volt or even as an amp, but they are still a watt. Once they are out of the protection of their insulated wires they will die very fast. Yours are probably all dead by now.