An electrician removed a defective breaker from a friend's house but he never returned. A year later she had me replace the breaker. (Evidently those outlets were not terribly critical.)
I did a routine check of her AC line and found it horribly unbalanced.
One side was 108v the other 125v
I did not have time to investigate, and will have to get back there this week end. What do you folks think? I'm guessing it's a bad ground.
You are calling it a ground, but if it is the third wire comming from the power pole, it is the neutral.
That loose neutral is most often the problem with unballanced sides of the power line. If one side of the line comming in is drawing much more power than the other, you can try cutting off some of the load and see if the ballance changes. Loading the opposide of the line should change the ballance.
If the neutral lug in the panel is tight and not discolored, call the power company. They usually will come out, cut the seal, tighten the lug in the meter pan and reseal the meter. They will also verify it is not farther up stream on their side.
Absolutely, we had a floating neutral at one point, power comes in via overhead wires, had flickering lights and such on windy days. Called the power company, they were here fast. First one guy to inspect our panel, then a crew to check out the lines coming in. Cost was nothing, but problem was fixed, loose wire at the top of the mast.
+1
Bad neutral will cause those symptoms, not a bad ground.
They get there fast, but do they have to bring those giant trucks with the yellow flashers that light up the neighborhood for blocks around?
"Hey, Martha! Something big is happening over at the Kawolski's place. Grab you coat...let's take a walk."
OK
From the replies it seems the problem is the neutral.
If all is OK inside the house. I will call the power company.
There was nothing noticeably wrong inside the breaker box and I know better than to attempt anything other than minor repairs.
Thanks to all who have answered.
Cost was nothing? So, the guys all worked for free?
Don't ask me, ask Froz. He said it.
(BTW, I think you're just being a wise ass.)
Cost was nothing to me.
The Poco owns the crimps at the service point and they also own the seal on the meter base. They may even own the meter base itself, depending on where you are. Why would you pay to have them fix their own equipment? It is buried in one of those fees on your power bill and paid collectively by all of the customers.
You mean you pay the power company zero at any time? I suspect if you ask a few questions, you'll find the cost is averaged into your utility bill (and others bills).
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Stormy was just being a PITA. He knew the answer to his own question:
The answer you gave.
Pedantic much?
Extra cost to the customer was nothing. If he's in Ontario he's prepaid a few years service due to the overcharges on his bill for the last 20 years or so.
As far as Stormy being a wise ass - you DO know why they don't send Dopnkeys to school, don't you???
< rant ON > .. that Ontario thing - I would love to see a big, factual expose on our electricity system fiasco. But it would require going back to the CANDU days < early 70's ? > where the new nuclear power would be so cheap - it would not pay to even meter it ! ... dear me - what happened ! Ontario Hydro was once the industry leader - in North America - rates reliability safety innovation etc etc Really ? .. just compare our rates today with our Canadian neighbours - Manitoba and Quebec .. it's quite scary. .. and Ontario is still storing 45 years of nuclear waste in swimming pools - with no plan for storage / disposal ! I suspect that Manitoba and Quebec have a plan and budget for their nuclear waste problems - zero dollars - they have none... .. geeeze ! .. where do we move to Clare ? Parlez vous .. John T.
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Not necessarily! We had the same problem a few years ago. The lineman traced to problem to a high resistance connection in the splice on one hot side at the transformer.
It had been there since the transformer was installed in 1981. Just gotten worse over the years. The previous owner fought problems with the heat pump and well pump for years.
The lineman replaced the splice crimp connector and everything checks out properly.
Paul
Stormy was combatting the socialist mentality which says that all government stuff is free. It is not; it's very expensively paid for by tax payers.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
AKA Stormy was being a PITA.
When I provide a thoughtful and informative thought provoker, you say I'm a PITA. What does that say about you? Oh, never mind. You're too lazy and brain numb to even consider the thought.
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