86 Volts to ground...OUCH !!!!!

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pridelion

Member
Church with old 1x4 recessed mount flour. fixtures. Felt a tingle.....tester from fixture frame screw to A/C wall register screw...86volts. What can this be from? I need some possibilities/solutions. Thank you, the rookie.
 

nolabama

Senior Member
Location
new orleans la
you probably scratched yourself - 86 volts is a little more than a tingle in my experience - open the circut and then open the fixture and see what you see - you could have been shocked though, ballasts do get hot and cook insulation - and a lot of older flourescents are not grounded
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Rookie, grab a good tester and an extension cord. Check the fixture and the register against each slot of the cord.
 

e57

Senior Member
76nemo said:
Depending on what tester you are using, it may be ghost voltage. Are you sure you felt a tingle?
So anything short of the generic 120 window on a solenoid tester is some sort of phantom to blame on the equipment and therefore the user of said equipment????

You may have been shocked by the load side of a live circuit. (IMO sometimes that can hurt worse) Many older ballast configurations would have the neutral run out to the lamp - and in it's many ballast changes since original install it may have been miswired - or what you thought was a circuit that was off was still on, and/or the ballast is going/gone bad. Either way the fixture does not sound as though it was grounded. Conversely to more popular advice of turning it off until it goes away to find it - turn everything off, and turn things back on one by one until it returns. Then investigate that circuit/circuits. As it could be a few circuits if it is say a ground partially carrying current parallel with the neutral.
 

rich123

Member
sounds like you have a floating nuetral. I Don't know the cicumstances, but I would make sure your power source is properly bonded.
 
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