champion
Member
- Location
- St. Louis Missouri, US
A home owner was asking me why some of his appliances in his home were destroyed because of a badly corroded neutral connection at the meter base of his home. He told me that lights were dimming and blinking sometimes and eventually some of his appliances started to break or burn up.
The home was a 200amp service 120/240v 1 ph system. The home is in a rural area and the utility company provides a outdoor disconnect on the utility pole along with the metering equipment. The Neutral problem (defective connection) occurred at the service disconnect location where the bonding between the neutral and equipment takes place.
I do not know wether the utility company neutral terminal was the problem or the neutral service entrance terminal was the problem at this location but his input from the utility company was that the ground loop was the problem and the utility company repaired the issue.
My take on the probability of equipment or appliance destruction would only be because of a higher resistance to ground has occured because of the disappearance of the neutral connection. If the power consumption of the equipment involved remains the same and the resistance of the circuit dramatically increases to find a path back to ground, the voltage would be dramatically lowered thus increasing the current to maintain the power needed to operate the appliances effectivly.
There is always something new and interesting when it comes to electic and I would like very much to try and confirm or reinforce my theory as to what might have taken place at the gentlemans home.
Am I on track or is there something else I do not see happening to cause this expensive replacement of this mans appliances in his home?
The home was a 200amp service 120/240v 1 ph system. The home is in a rural area and the utility company provides a outdoor disconnect on the utility pole along with the metering equipment. The Neutral problem (defective connection) occurred at the service disconnect location where the bonding between the neutral and equipment takes place.
I do not know wether the utility company neutral terminal was the problem or the neutral service entrance terminal was the problem at this location but his input from the utility company was that the ground loop was the problem and the utility company repaired the issue.
My take on the probability of equipment or appliance destruction would only be because of a higher resistance to ground has occured because of the disappearance of the neutral connection. If the power consumption of the equipment involved remains the same and the resistance of the circuit dramatically increases to find a path back to ground, the voltage would be dramatically lowered thus increasing the current to maintain the power needed to operate the appliances effectivly.
There is always something new and interesting when it comes to electic and I would like very much to try and confirm or reinforce my theory as to what might have taken place at the gentlemans home.
Am I on track or is there something else I do not see happening to cause this expensive replacement of this mans appliances in his home?
