Voltage on ground wire present

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cppoly

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I noticed something strange when a fluke volt tester (lights up red and beeps on 90 - 1000VAC) sounded off by touching a faceplate of a receptacle in my basement without actually putting the tester into the hot opening. I turned off the breaker, and took out the receptacle from the backbox. The tester was sounding off when I touched the receptacle's top and bottom metal body. The tester was also sounding off on the ground screw and all along the bare copper ground wire back to its splice. The tester did not sound off on the neutral terminal or anywhere along the neutral wire. I disconnected the ground wire from the receptacle's terminal and the tester was sounding off on the bare copper ground wire just floating in the air. I separated the bare copper ground wire as far away from the hot wire as possible to make sure the tester was just not picking up on the hot wire's magnetic field and the tester was still sounding off on the floating ground wire. How bad is this? I did the same procedure with another receptacle and did not have the same grounding issue.
 
Sounds like you probably have voltage of some kind on that conductor, I would hazard to guess the ground is floating.

But non-contact testers will run you in circles trying to troubleshoot with them. Get a wiggy and a multimeter and take some measurements. Bring an extension-cord over and compare your receptacle ground to a known good ground to see if you've got continuity.
 
big john said:
Sounds like you probably have voltage of some kind on that conductor, I would hazard to guess the ground is floating.

But non-contact testers will run you in circles trying to troubleshoot with them. Get a wiggy and a multimeter and take some measurements. Bring an extension-cord over and compare your receptacle ground to a known good ground to see if you've got continuity.
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It should go without saying, but I will dsyvit anyway: Check for voltage before checking with your ohmmeter. If there is voltage you can be pretty sure that there is no continuity (except maybe through a voltage source.)
 
I don't have to tools to check additional information, just have the no contact voltage tester. If I turn off the breaker and I don't have a voltage on the ground wire does that mean the problem is isolated to the circuit?
 
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