Hot ground in well house...

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linespike

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I discovered that the 110 outlet in the wellhouse indicates a hot ground with a standard outlet tester. The wellhouse subpanel is supplied by a 3 conductor, 240 volt wire originating from a 200 amp breaker at the main power panel many yards away. Both the ground and neutral are screwed into the ground bus in the main panel.
In the wellhouse, when tested with an ameter, the voltage reads 120 and 240 respectively, when contacting the ground bus OR the subpanel itself, inside the panel INSTEAD of the neutral bus.
The outlet and switched light running from one 110 bar and the neutral bar in the subpanel also only function when the outlet's or light's neutral wire is in contact with the ground wire instead of the neutral. The ground bus is not attached to a braided ground wire into the soil. I'm thinking this is a potential fire hazard not to mention a serious shock or worse.

Causes:
Mice chewing on the wires below the wellhouse?
Poorly wired by previous owner.
Water seepage into supply wires?
Improperly grounded at main panel?

Solutions / recommendations?

Any advice is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Linespike
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
linespike said:
The wellhouse subpanel is supplied by a 3 conductor, 240 volt wire originating from a 200 amp breaker at the main power panel many yards away. Both the ground and neutral are screwed into the ground bus in the main panel.
Click to expand...
Not following this at all. I will assume you have 4 conductor cable going to the well house????

In the wellhouse, when tested with an ameter, the voltage reads 120 and 240 respectively, when contacting the ground bus OR the subpanel itself, inside the panel INSTEAD of the neutral bus.
Click to expand...
Please explain this further. Where are these readings coming from-- what 2 points?

The outlet and switched light running from one 110 bar and the neutral bar in the subpanel also only function when the outlet's or light's neutral wire is in contact with the ground wire instead of the neutral. The ground bus is not attached to a braided ground wire into the soil. I'm thinking this is a potential fire hazard not to mention a serious shock or worse.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a bad neutral in the underground feeder
Linespike[/quote]
 
ceb58

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
linespike said:
I discovered that the 110 outlet in the wellhouse indicates a hot ground with a standard outlet tester. The wellhouse subpanel is supplied by a 3 conductor, 240 volt wire originating from a 200 amp breaker at the main power panel many yards away. Both the ground and neutral are screwed into the ground bus in the main panel.
In the wellhouse, when tested with an ameter, the voltage reads 120 and 240 respectively, when contacting the ground bus OR the subpanel itself, inside the panel INSTEAD of the neutral bus.
The outlet and switched light running from one 110 bar and the neutral bar in the subpanel also only function when the outlet's or light's neutral wire is in contact with the ground wire instead of the neutral. The ground bus is not attached to a braided ground wire into the soil. I'm thinking this is a potential fire hazard not to mention a serious shock or worse.

Causes:
Mice chewing on the wires below the wellhouse?
Poorly wired by previous owner.
Water seepage into supply wires?
Improperly grounded at main panel?

Solutions / recommendations?

Any advice is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Linespike
Click to expand...

Let me take a stab at this one. OP SAYS sub panel is fed with three wires.
Then OP SAYS that BOTH the neut. and ground are screw into the ground bar in MAIN panel :-?.

Sounds to me that some one ran #xx-2 w/ ground to sub panel. Then they landed the egc on the ground bar with nothing on the neutral bar.
Then some one decided on a light and recp. No problem just use the egc for the neutral:mad:.
I ran into this except they just picked up one leg of the 240v off the pressure switch, wraped the neutral under a bolt on the well casing and now we have a light and recpt.
Linespike, I see from your profile you are not related to the elect. field. Your best bet is to hire someone who is.
 
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