stray voltage

R

rwood

Member
Location
ri
Occupation
electrician
Hi
I was replacing a non afci breaker with a afci breaker wire was a 2 wire that came in on the side of the panel.
with the neutral off the buss and hot wire off the breaker I had 120 v to ground on both, unfortunately I found out the hard way
after shutting off other breakers found one on a separate phase when shut off voltage went away. This is a older house
Do you think somewhere in the house these 2 neutrals are crossed ?

thanks Rob
 
first, why would you want to install AFCI protection, on a circuit that did not have it and it is not required?

second, yes, i think the neutral has been connected from a different circuit somewhere downstream. and it sounds like you are getting neutrals cris-crossed from another circuit. get your neutral opened back up and get your meter on the 120v to ground. then, begin shutting off the other breakers. this will at least tell you which circuit the neutral is being cris-crossed from. getting things straightened out may be a different matter.
 
thanks
added some wiring in the bathroom for a exhaust fan, here in RI need to arc/fault found the breaker probably been like this for 50 years
I agree finding it is not going to be easy
 
ptonsparky said:
Could have been a Multi-wire branch circuit. Very common. Learn to deal with them. They were legal and used everywhere.

That said, grabbing a neutral from wherever you could was done often enough.
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wire was 2 wire coming in on side of panel didn't go out as one but became one somewhere
 
rwood said:
lighting circuit is not dedicated to bathroom so I believe it does
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That raises a good question.

In that application you have a circuit that was (presumably) wired to code at the time it was installed. It feeds various lighting outlets that are NOW required to be AFCI protected. You jumped off of that circuit in a room that is NOT on its own required to be AFCI protected. What is your obligation?

I personally think that if you did not do any work in a room that requires AFCI protection, that you should not need to AFCI protect the circuit. If however you needed to get into an outlet box that is in another room, then you would need to.

That said, 210.12(E) doesn't seem to allow much wiggle room in my favor.

Rob G
Seattle
 
marmathsen said:
That raises a good question.

In that application you have a circuit that was (presumably) wired to code at the time it was installed. It feeds various lighting outlets that are NOW required to be AFCI protected. You jumped off of that circuit in a room that is NOT on its own required to be AFCI protected. What is your obligation?

I personally think that if you did not do any work in a room that requires AFCI protection, that you should not need to AFCI protect the circuit. If however you needed to get into an outlet box that is in another room, then you would need to.

That said, 210.12(E) doesn't seem to allow much wiggle room in my favor.

Rob G
Seattle
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thanks for your input rather be safe than sorry My bigger concern is the crossed neutrals homeowner says he has a electrician friend that will fix it I install these fans for these weatherization agency's that work for the state They will not pay me to rewire the whole circuit or trouble shoot the problem. Unfortunately I did all the work then went to the panel to replace the breaker and after getting a shock off the neutral with nothing tied in If I didn't change the breaker would of never know there was a issue Notified him and the agency about the problem not sure what else I can do ?
any suggestions Thanks Rob W
 
rwood said:
thanks for your input rather be safe than sorry My bigger concern is the crossed neutrals homeowner says he has a electrician friend that will fix it I install these fans for these weatherization agency's that work for the state They will not pay me to rewire the whole circuit or trouble shoot the problem. Unfortunately I did all the work then went to the panel to replace the breaker and after getting a shock off the neutral with nothing tied in If I didn't change the breaker would of never know there was a issue Notified him and the agency about the problem not sure what else I can do ?
any suggestions Thanks Rob W
Click to expand...

I think you did what you could. I hope they told you the truth and are having someone address the issue.

Rob G
Seattle
 
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