Hot gas line.

[iaov]

Was doing a service upgrade today at a small apartment building. Heating contractor was working at the next building over came over and told me he thought he got shocked off the natural gas line going into the building. I was skepticle but took out my Fluke and went to take a peek. I found 120 from the gas line to ground!!Took a look with my Wiggy to see if this was some sort of wierd induced voltage and it wasn't. I pulled the meter and the voltage went away. Put meter back in and turned off breakers until it went away. Have to go back tomorrow and find out what is wrong with this circuit. The whole place is a dump. 60 A meter and base. 4 breakers for the whole house.Obviously no proper grounding and bonding. Meter was hanging off the wall last week! Gave owner a price at that time for a new service and she said she could live without it. Fortunatly the city is going to make her do something about this.Just wondering if any of you guys have ever seen a "hot" natural gas line before.

 

[ultramegabob]

personally, I would have disconnected that circuit before I left, thats a pretty dangerous situation....

 

[iaov]

personally, I would have disconnected that circuit before I left, thats a pretty dangerous situation....

I did. They are now running the fridge off an extension cord wich I don't like either but decided was the much lesser of two evils.

 

[220/221]

The most likely suspect is voltage trying to find an alternate route "back" due to an open neutral. I've seen it on gas and water pipes.

 

[ramsy]

Perhaps explain the scope as a trouble call that could take hours to find, but explode if not repaired. You might check some of the gas appliances for neutrals tied to Grnd. Also, some bootleg receptacles (Green & white tied together) may allow parallel paths on equipment.

 

[220/221]

Yeah...there are a hundred reasons that would involve somebody doing something stupid. You just have to logically start narrowing it down. A lot of times it is a combination of things.

The branch circuit involved (if it IS a branch) might not even be the AC circuit.

One energized gas pipe I ran across was from multiple problems. The ground connection had failed at a buried JB and an AC tech replaced an internal transformer with a 120 volt model which sent the return current thru the gas pipe.

Another one I could not figure out (no attic) but it went away when the AC branch was turned off so I just replaced the circuit with exposed conduit/wire.

#1 rule. Don't assume anything.

 

[Rampage_Rick]

#1 rule. Don't assume anything.

Mine is worded differently. I borrowed it from Under Siege 2.

 

[hime]

Was doing a service upgrade today at a small apartment building. Heating contractor was working at the next building over came over and told me he thought he got shocked off the natural gas line going into the building. I was skepticle but took out my Fluke and went to take a peek. I found 120 from the gas line to ground!!Took a look with my Wiggy to see if this was some sort of wierd induced voltage and it wasn't. I pulled the meter and the voltage went away. Put meter back in and turned off breakers until it went away. Have to go back tomorrow and find out what is wrong with this circuit. The whole place is a dump. 60 A meter and base. 4 breakers for the whole house.Obviously no proper grounding and bonding. Meter was hanging off the wall last week! Gave owner a price at that time for a new service and she said she could live without it. Fortunatly the city is going to make her do something about this.Just wondering if any of you guys have ever seen a "hot" natural gas line before.

i recently had a service call at a 7/11 store employes complaining that their getting shocked on the safe. took out the old fluke and found 120 to ground . checked the cord cap ground was broken off , replaced cord cap plug in it tripped the breaker. what came up with to resolve problem when safe was origanaly installed . installer nicked the hot opon installing, the weight of the safe. he (installer) not knowing electrical cut off the ground and it worked. what gets me safe was installed 3 years ago and the employee's started getten bit just recently. when i pulled the safe out like i said the safe nicked the hot in the cord replace cord done job.

 

[iaov]

Problem is fixed. Outlet had hot and neutral swapped.No EGC hooked up. Just clipped off in the box. Gas stove had an electronic ignitor. Wiring was done by a guy who "knows all about electricity"! He also installed an outlet in the basement where he put the neutral and the ground wire under the same screw I spent years going to school, thousands and thousands of hours in OJT, thousands of dollars on continuing education, and yet I run into people all the time who have mastered our proffesion in 15 minutes!!There are some awfully smart guys out there!!

 

[cadpoint]

I'm sure its always a real trip to walk into a bad situation, odd situations, weird things that are in real time.
Is it part of everyone?s OP (operating procedure) to ask if qualified truck slammers had been to the house preceding one?s arrival?

 

[iaov]

I love the term "qualified trunk slammer". The ones that get me though are the guys who do it for free.:grin:

 

[LarryFine]

. . . I run into people all the time who have mastered our proffesion in 15 minutes!!There are some awfully smart guys out there!!

I think I followed one of them a couple of years ago. Complaint was that the washing machine worked sometimes. Small older house, washer stuck in a gutted kitchen pantry/closet.

Traced the new 12-2 NM under the house, found it taped to a cut-in-the-middle run of old, gray-cloth, no-EGC 14-3. I unwrapped the tape, which I admit was neatly wrapped, and laughed.

I imagined the thought process of whoever did this: "Let's see: Here's a handy wire. *snip* (no boom?) Black to black; okay. White to white; okay. Red to . . . Hmmm. Bare copper is red, isn't it?" :roll:

When I got back in the house, I asked if the living-room switched receptacle worked. The lady said "Now that you mention it, no, but I flip the switches (3-ways) once in a while out of habit."

Found the other end of the cut 14-3, spliced it back together in a box, ran a new HR with 12-2 for the washer, and everything worked like new again. The good guys win sometimes.