voltage on service loop

[loose neutral]

hi all.

I had a typical service call for flickering lights and to make long story short, discovered one leg with bad connection at the service loop. so I climb ladder and I cut this phase below the service butt splice and now was fixing on doing a kerney on new splice. I start stripping my wire (the one ime thinking is disconnected leading down to the top lug in the meter)...and zappo :? How in the heck is this still hot. I took voltage reading and it was reading 110v to ground. So i more carefully finish my tap and took reading back down in the panel and all voltages were back to nominal and everything else checked out.

My questions: I realize service drop is hot.. but how was there voltage on the cut wire leading down to meter tap? I did not pull the electric meter to do this. it was in there so tight, i would have broke something. is there any capacitance to hold charge in these digital meters?

thanks
george

 

[iwire]

You left the main on in the panel and you are getting whacked by voltage going into the house on the connected leg, going through loads in the house and going back out the wire you were working on.

What are you doing climbing poles?

 

[HackElectric]

I always pull the meter and leave it out when doing what you were doing. But before pulling the meter, I shut off the main breaker.

Remember, even if you didn't have voltage backfeeding thru that cable, you could have had a large arc in your hands when re-splicing it if there was a load connected to that leg. That's why you should always shut off the main and (IMO) pull the meter.

 

[loose neutral]

sorry for not mentioning but main was 100 % off and meter verified. and ime not some renegade climbing up to a pole xtransformer. worked many splices at service point previously and never experienced this. I understand the skepticism but the main was double checked after encountering the live wire and still a charge.

the only wire that should be hot is the phase that was not cut. I get a reading of 110v on the cut wire still connected to meter pan and ultimately the main which was off and verified off with meter.

So a more precise question: do can digital meters hold a charge?

t

 

[GoldDigger]

So a more precise question: do can digital meters hold a charge?

No but their voltage coils and power supply can certainly act as a line to line load!
We do not normally think of the meter as a load, but it is.
And as I understand it, to save on money and still deliver a reasonable accuracy the 120/240 meter measures current in both phase lines independently but only measures line to line voltage and assumes the two sides are balanced.
A smart meter might be a lower resistance load than a spinner, but even an old meter should produce the same effect.


Tapatalk!

 

[HackElectric]

What GoldDigger says makes sense.

Either way, pulling the meter would have saved you from the zap :thumbsup: