Stray voltage at swimming pool

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Danstewart

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Location
Pittsburgh, PA
I work for an electric utility company and i'm working on a stray voltage in a inground swimming pool. The customer is getting about 1.5V in the pool. I have a neutral isolator installed at
customer's transformer. The voltage seems to be coming from cable tv. When the coax is
Disconnected from from the customer's house the voltage goes away. I asked the cable company to Install some type of isolator, but they told me there is no such thing. They said all they have is a voltage blocker but it does not block stray voltage. Is there such as device out there? If so,
does anyone have any information on the device?

Thanks
Dan
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
If you don't have time for the entire video then start at 30 min. and 42 sec . This is where they talk about the de-coupler for cable.
 
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Danstewart

Member
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
stickboy1375 said:
YEs, they make such a beast... The pool must be older and or missing proper bonding, because they should not be seeing this issue.
Click to expand...

The pool is around 20 years old. Since the cable company says this device does not exist, does anyone know where I can get a de-coupler? I can at least share this with the customer.

Thanks for all the info. , the part of the video was very good. I will have to watch entire video this weekend.
 
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Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Danstewart said:
I work for an electric utility company and i'm working on a stray voltage in a inground swimming pool. The customer is getting about 1.5V in the pool. I have a neutral isolator installed at
customer's transformer. The voltage seems to be coming from cable tv. When the coax is
Disconnected from from the customer's house the voltage goes away. I asked the cable company to Install some type of isolator, but they told me there is no such thing. They said all they have is a voltage blocker but it does not block stray voltage. Is there such as device out there? If so,
does anyone have any information on the device?

Thanks
Dan
Click to expand...

If you have isolated the problem to the cable company, why are you still in it? Around here the cable company won't common bond, and we have had a couple of instances of stray voltages coming from cable lines. Once we give the customer the number to the cable companies operations department, they will usually fix the problem.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
Hv&Lv said:
If you have isolated the problem to the cable company, why are you still in it? Around here the cable company won't common bond, and we have had a couple of instances of stray voltages coming from cable lines. Once we give the customer the number to the cable companies operations department, they will usually fix the problem.
Click to expand...

How can they not common bond? Wouldn't grounding the cable at every structure create this?
 
H

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Danstewart said:
I work for an electric utility company and i'm working on a stray voltage in a inground swimming pool. The customer is getting about 1.5V in the pool. I have a neutral isolator installed at
customer's transformer. The voltage seems to be coming from cable tv. When the coax is
Disconnected from from the customer's house the voltage goes away. I asked the cable company to Install some type of isolator, but they told me there is no such thing. They said all they have is a voltage blocker but it does not block stray voltage. Is there such as device out there? If so,
does anyone have any information on the device?

Thanks
Dan
Click to expand...

I am curious, would this happen to be in an underground primary fed development with CN cable?
 
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Danstewart

Member
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Hv&Lv said:
I am curious, would this happen to be in an underground primary fed development with CN cable?
Click to expand...

It is a primary underground radial feed, but is not a CN. We actually pulled the primary riser cutout and disconnected the entire tap (primary, neutral, ground) and the voltage was still there. We remove the cable and its gone. I tell the customer its the cable companys issue and the cable company tells the customer he is picking it up off of us. The customer is an electrican and is siding with the cable company.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
Danstewart said:
It is a primary underground radial feed, but is not a CN. We actually pulled the primary riser cutout and disconnected the entire tap (primary, neutral, ground) and the voltage was still there. We remove the cable and its gone. I tell the customer its the cable companys issue and the cable company tells the customer he is picking it up off of us. The customer is an electrican and is siding with the cable company.
Click to expand...

Im surprised you're just not telling the homeowner to install a proper pool bonding grid and move on...
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
Danstewart said:
Ive told this guy that, but thats not what he wants to hear. I'm interested in in this de-coupler in case i come across this again.
Click to expand...

personally, I really dont think it's his decision. :) I dont believe you are responsible on voltage drop issues, not sure what guide lines you follow, but seems like this is totally his problem.
 
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