It was outdoors when property was built. I would guess that they created the mud room approximately 25-30 years ago. It has the old vertical siding and I think they put horizontal siding on the whole house when they put a small addition on in 1998.
House woes
- Thread starter RoyB
- Start date
It was outdoors when property was built. I would guess that they created the mud room approximately 25-30 years ago. It has the old vertical siding and I think they put horizontal siding on the whole house when they put a small addition on in 1998.
The yellow probably goes to a bond bushing on a rigid 90 entering the bottom of the meter pedestal/wireway
What is this a photo of in post 21? You removed the nut from the stud to check the lug?
busman
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern Virginia
- Occupation
- Master Electrician / Electrical Engineer
The PoCo's have dual size butt splices. They need them for the transition from overhead conductors to building conductors. I think the most common around here is 1/0 to 4/0. Here is one product:
Morris Products 90686 Insulated Service Entrance Compression Splices 2-25/32" UOG 48 #4 Str #2 Sol to #8 Str #6 Sol
Morris Products 90686 Insulated Service Entrance Compression Splices 2-25/32" UOG 48 #4 Str #2 Sol to #8 Str #6 Sol
www.ktool.net
Mark
Update:
POCO actually came out and tested the line side of the meter with their tester. Looked like a load bank in a suite case. Ran approx 100amps through the lines and said everything tested fine there. Implied it only tests the wires to the transformer. He was going to put an order in to put a power quality recording device on for a week.
I ran the washing machine through my Ego battery bank- Lights were fine. This certainly implies that the issue is within the wiring system of the house and not any type of RF or whatever emitted externally from the washing machine. Next test is to run an extension cord to another outlet in the house to see if that helps.
POCO actually came out and tested the line side of the meter with their tester. Looked like a load bank in a suite case. Ran approx 100amps through the lines and said everything tested fine there. Implied it only tests the wires to the transformer. He was going to put an order in to put a power quality recording device on for a week.
I ran the washing machine through my Ego battery bank- Lights were fine. This certainly implies that the issue is within the wiring system of the house and not any type of RF or whatever emitted externally from the washing machine. Next test is to run an extension cord to another outlet in the house to see if that helps.
busman
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern Virginia
- Occupation
- Master Electrician / Electrical Engineer
I did get a photo of these in the field the other day. I'll try to remember to post the photo.The PoCo's have dual size butt splices. They need them for the transition from overhead conductors to building conductors. I think the most common around here is 1/0 to 4/0. Here is one product:
Morris Products 90686 Insulated Service Entrance Compression Splices 2-25/32" UOG 48 #4 Str #2 Sol to #8 Str #6 Sol
Morris Products 90686 Insulated Service Entrance Compression Splices 2-25/32" UOG 48 #4 Str #2 Sol to #8 Str #6 Sol
Mark
Mark
Put one of the LEDs with the washing machine on the EGO. The interference could be conducted on the wiring.
busman
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern Virginia
- Occupation
- Master Electrician / Electrical Engineer
Update:
POCO put a recorder on my meter for 2 weeks. Interesting results. Peak time (6-8pm) the house runs 70-80 amps. Makes sense, everyone comes home from work, laundry starts, dinner starts, everything starts. When the house is running at peak usage, my voltage drops from 122V down to 109V.
That's over a 10% drop. ICC allows a 10% drop for up to 2 minutes. In my instances, drops were recorded in 11-15 minute intervals. We tried a real time recording as well. After turning the oven and kitchen hood on, house was drawing 25 amps. 25amps and the volts went from 122 to 119. 3% drop just running the oven- something is not right.
POCO took the readings back to the office to see what their engineers suggest as the next step. While the wiring is undersized for the distance, I would think a 25a load should be able to run with a 1% or less voltage drop with the current size wiring. To me, this indicates possibly deteriorated wiring or other issue. Transformer is 37kva and only serves my and my neighbors house. My neighbor doesn't think he has any problems so I would probably say it's in the wiring.
Good news is POCO owns the wiring. If it has to be replaced, it's on them at least. Bad news is previous owner at some point built a mud room around the meter. I would assume wiring is direct buried to the meter, which now has a concrete floor over it. Changing the wiring is not going to be easy.
POCO put a recorder on my meter for 2 weeks. Interesting results. Peak time (6-8pm) the house runs 70-80 amps. Makes sense, everyone comes home from work, laundry starts, dinner starts, everything starts. When the house is running at peak usage, my voltage drops from 122V down to 109V.
That's over a 10% drop. ICC allows a 10% drop for up to 2 minutes. In my instances, drops were recorded in 11-15 minute intervals. We tried a real time recording as well. After turning the oven and kitchen hood on, house was drawing 25 amps. 25amps and the volts went from 122 to 119. 3% drop just running the oven- something is not right.
POCO took the readings back to the office to see what their engineers suggest as the next step. While the wiring is undersized for the distance, I would think a 25a load should be able to run with a 1% or less voltage drop with the current size wiring. To me, this indicates possibly deteriorated wiring or other issue. Transformer is 37kva and only serves my and my neighbors house. My neighbor doesn't think he has any problems so I would probably say it's in the wiring.
Good news is POCO owns the wiring. If it has to be replaced, it's on them at least. Bad news is previous owner at some point built a mud room around the meter. I would assume wiring is direct buried to the meter, which now has a concrete floor over it. Changing the wiring is not going to be easy.
hbiss
EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
- Location
- Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
- Occupation
- EC
Seems to me that you are going through a lot of trouble just to try and eliminate an annoying problem caused by LEDs. If it were me I would just dump the LEDs and go back to incandescent. Hopefully, the new administration will eliminate the restrictions on incandescents like they did with water flow restrictions.
-Hal
-Hal
mtnelect
HVAC & Electrical Contractor
- Location
- Southern California
- Occupation
- Contractor, C10 & C20 - Semi Retired
If you have any, I have found that LED candelabra bases are too small to give proper filtering.
I'll go back to incandescent and probably be under 90 volts with all that extra load.
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
I could get my fault finder and be there in a couple days. I don't do shovel work. Yes, I've located faults underneath concrete slabs. I don't swing BFHs either.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
Also do a FOP test on the transferswitch contacts and the main.
Can't remove any wiring unless POCO turns off power. There is no broken lug.
Update:
POCO indicated that wiring to the house is too small and they will likely replace with a larger size. Keep in mind house is 46 years old and the house is the most efficient it's ever been. Meeting them tomorrow to see what the recorder shows after another 3 weeks. I turned the A/C on couple weeks ago. Started the pool up yesterday and filled it (well pump & Pool pump both going) and it was warm enough that the AC was probably going at some point and we were doing laundry.
They are going to run a recorder at the transformer now, indicated may need to increase the transformer due to loading.... last time they said the transformer was sized more than large enough so we will see....
POCO indicated that wiring to the house is too small and they will likely replace with a larger size. Keep in mind house is 46 years old and the house is the most efficient it's ever been. Meeting them tomorrow to see what the recorder shows after another 3 weeks. I turned the A/C on couple weeks ago. Started the pool up yesterday and filled it (well pump & Pool pump both going) and it was warm enough that the AC was probably going at some point and we were doing laundry.
They are going to run a recorder at the transformer now, indicated may need to increase the transformer due to loading.... last time they said the transformer was sized more than large enough so we will see....