Open neutral to house

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

goco15

New User
Location
IL
Occupation
Aviation Safety Inspector
We have a 20 year old house with original 200 amp residential service. Our provider is a small Light and Water utility. Last week they notified us they would be in the neighborhood doing some routine work on Thursday (yesterday) and our power might be off for a few hours. When my wife got home from work yesterday, (I am out of town) she smelled a pungent, what she described as a “horrible” electric smell. She found one of our surge protectors significantly melted and another damaged but not as bad. When she turned on a hallway light switch “sparks” came out briefly the light did not go on. She immediately called the Fire department who contacted the Utility who also came over. I know the furnace is not working now but the LEDs on the thermostat look normal, and according to her at least one lamp in the house “blew up”. I have no idea what else was affected. We have an electrician coming today to inspect.

I was able to get a hold of our utility’s crew supervisor who said they had experienced an “open neutral” in the wiring that goes to our house. He said that might have caused a “220 spike” throughout our house leading to things like melted surge suppressors.

My questions are: Is what the crew supervisor said plausible? What are the most significant short and long term consequences to a house experiencing a 220 spike? About 4 months ago we paid $2,300 for a new refrigerator which still seems to be working but is it possible the frig, not to mention everything else with PC boards in it, have been compromised?
 
(Approved as asking input only, not DIY)
An "open neutral" will definitely cause spikes" in voltage. Likely some of your equipment actually saw lower than normal voltages and no damage was caused whereas some would see higher, damaging voltages. I'm sure there have been cases where damage showed up at a later date but, from what I've seen, if the appliance appears fine now, you shouldn't have future failure based on this incident.
 
Sounds like the supervisor is admitting that they made a mistake by having an open neutral in the supply. The things that you've mentioned are consistent with having an open neutral. I would ask them how you go about getting their insurer to pay for your damages.
 
Agree with going back to the utility for the damages. Loose neutrals happen, if it is on the utility side they will usually pay for it if you ask, if you do not say anything they wont volunteer to pick up the bill.
 
I think "spike" is not a good description. It is more like voltage variation. The way I describe this to my layperson customers is this. Think voltage as a tug-of-war competition with a flag in the middle of a rope. The neutral is like the referee who holds the flag exactly in the middle so the rope (voltage analogy) is the same length on both sides of the flag. When the neutral (referee) let's go, the voltage swings up and down as the pull (electric load) on each end of the rope changes.

Hope this helps to visualize it.

As others said, you could have had high and low voltages, both are bad. Low voltages cause motors to draw excessive current, stressing the winding insulation. High voltage can cause insulation failures and damage to electronics.

Mark
 
If you wouldn’t mind sharing the name of the utility company I’d like to leave them a positive review for what may possibly be the first honest admission of fault by a power company.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: UBG
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top