I have a question

[Inspectorcliff]

We have ran into a situation of the following and I can't come up with an answer, but I came up with a number of possibles. So, I present to the forum the following. " Switched outlet lets say, no further than 30ft from the wall switch on the longest situation and 15ft on the other situation same problem separate rooms switchs and outlets. " Final on a home, When the gfci polarity tester is plugged into the switched half, the open equipment grounding conductor light is slightly illumintated. When you read from the red wire (switched conductor) the voltage, with the switch in the o-f-f position, to neutral (white conductor) the voltmeter reads between 14 volts on the short run and 40 volts on the long run. The three wire was replaced with a new 3 wire laying in the room and the results were the same.
a) I suspected at first, a tight staple.b) a roll of nmb that had received a drowning c) maybe a loose grounding electrode conductor or a loose neutral in the panel (neither one are apparent).
Your turn? Thanks.

 

[augie47]

I'm still thinking about what the tester is actually showing. I;m a little unsure on what is taking place there.
From the second part of your scenerio, my first suspicion is that the "tab" between the recpetacles (on on of the duplexs) wasn;'t cut and you're geeting a reading thru something or it wasn't cut well enough and you're getting a little bleed voltage.
My be off base, but thats my first thought.

 

[electricalperson]

if you put a wiggy on it does it show slight voltage? im thinking it could be ghost voltage. i see this a lot with 14/3 cables and spare conductors in a raceway. sounds like that to me since the cables were replaced and the results are still the same. if thats not the answer could you megger the conductors?

 

[Inspectorcliff]

if you put a wiggy on it does it show slight voltage? im thinking it could be ghost voltage. i see this a lot with 14/3 cables and spare conductors in a raceway. sounds like that to me since the cables were replaced and the results are still the same. if thats not the answer could you megger the conductors?

That was another suggestion we gave them. Thanks.

 

[Inspectorcliff]

I'm still thinking about what the tester is actually showing. I;m a little unsure on what is taking place there.
From the second part of your scenerio, my first suspicion is that the "tab" between the recpetacles (on on of the duplexs) wasn;'t cut and you're geeting a reading thru something or it wasn't cut well enough and you're getting a little bleed voltage.
My be off base, but thats my first thought.

That is a good possible, The tab thing. Thanks.