Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
i have an interesting problem to troubleshoot before work
tomorrow...... my house.
in socal, it's been raining almost nonstop for about 4 days now.
i have 3 strings of led christmas lights up across the front of the
house, total connected load of 12 watts. on 24/7 for a week now.
i come home at 3 pm today, notice the lights are out.
go outside, check gfci on corner of house, it's tripped.
unplug lights, reset gfci. it holds. plug lights back in,
they stay on. all is good.
9 pm, i go to flip on the tv in the family room, which is connected
to the same circuit feeding the weatherproof plug feeding the outside
lights. there is a "pop", and the plugs go out. the TV, which is
on a UPS, starts beeping.
this family room is a room addition, and some of the outside lights
and plugs are on the same branch circuit. the rest of the outside lights
are on a different circuit. all part of the room addition wiring.
i flip on the back yard lights, to go check the panel, and the lights
and plugs in the room come up hot, back fed off the other lighting
circuit, and they come up at 205 volts RMS. thank god for the UPS.
so, the room addition circuits are hosed, and the rest of the house
seems good, with 110 volts, and good wiring back to the service.
i went around with my little ideal suretest, and checked all the outlets.
i'm getting low impedance readings on this tester which tests all the
way back to the panel... all less than .4 ohms.
now, my first thought is floating neutral, cause of the way the lights
in the backyard and on the plug circuit were flickering when they
were all on at once.... i'm going in series thru the incandescent
lamps in the yard, and the house plugs. so i think.
so, i unplug all loads from the affected circuit, inside the house,
and the lights in the yard are still flickering, and the voltage at
the plugs inside the house is varying from 85 volts to 205 volts
RMS, its pouring rain outside, and the wind driven side of the
house is where the panel is, so i'm not all big on opening it
up tonight.
but now, i'm sitting here wondering... if it was a floating neutral,
unplugging the load on one "phase" would cause the other loads
to go off, cause they are 110 volt loads in series across a
220 volt service.
and flipping the lights on in the back yard, caused the outlets,
with nothing plugged into them as a load or a current path,
to show 200 volts RMS, with my fluke 12.
your suggestions gentlemen, on where to start? perhaps with
a bloody mary?
randy
tomorrow...... my house.
in socal, it's been raining almost nonstop for about 4 days now.
i have 3 strings of led christmas lights up across the front of the
house, total connected load of 12 watts. on 24/7 for a week now.
i come home at 3 pm today, notice the lights are out.
go outside, check gfci on corner of house, it's tripped.
unplug lights, reset gfci. it holds. plug lights back in,
they stay on. all is good.
9 pm, i go to flip on the tv in the family room, which is connected
to the same circuit feeding the weatherproof plug feeding the outside
lights. there is a "pop", and the plugs go out. the TV, which is
on a UPS, starts beeping.
this family room is a room addition, and some of the outside lights
and plugs are on the same branch circuit. the rest of the outside lights
are on a different circuit. all part of the room addition wiring.
i flip on the back yard lights, to go check the panel, and the lights
and plugs in the room come up hot, back fed off the other lighting
circuit, and they come up at 205 volts RMS. thank god for the UPS.
so, the room addition circuits are hosed, and the rest of the house
seems good, with 110 volts, and good wiring back to the service.
i went around with my little ideal suretest, and checked all the outlets.
i'm getting low impedance readings on this tester which tests all the
way back to the panel... all less than .4 ohms.
now, my first thought is floating neutral, cause of the way the lights
in the backyard and on the plug circuit were flickering when they
were all on at once.... i'm going in series thru the incandescent
lamps in the yard, and the house plugs. so i think.
so, i unplug all loads from the affected circuit, inside the house,
and the lights in the yard are still flickering, and the voltage at
the plugs inside the house is varying from 85 volts to 205 volts
RMS, its pouring rain outside, and the wind driven side of the
house is where the panel is, so i'm not all big on opening it
up tonight.
but now, i'm sitting here wondering... if it was a floating neutral,
unplugging the load on one "phase" would cause the other loads
to go off, cause they are 110 volt loads in series across a
220 volt service.
and flipping the lights on in the back yard, caused the outlets,
with nothing plugged into them as a load or a current path,
to show 200 volts RMS, with my fluke 12.
your suggestions gentlemen, on where to start? perhaps with
a bloody mary?
randy
