open neutral

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domnic

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Electrical Contractor
If i have a open neutral at the weather head. and touch a copper bonded water line in the basement with no shoes on. will get shocked ?
 
It is possible. It all depends on how much imbalance current is flowing through the GES, what the total ground resistance back to the POCO secondary center tap is and where your feet are relative to the voltage zones around the ground electrode to earth connection points.

Tapatalk!
 
I agree there is a possibility that some current will go thru the neutral when you complete the path assuming the water pipes are bonded.
 
I agree with the others, I would even say it is likely.

Also any grounded metal such as a dryer, furnace, boiler, service panel, meter socket etc. could give you a shock.
 
140622-1413 EDT

Quite possibly.

With the neutral open at the weatherhead this means all neutral current will flow thru whatever paths there are to one or more ground rods at power company transformers and/ or thru neighbors grounding and neutral paths, and water lines. There can be much higher impedances thru these paths than thru the open neutral, if it were not open. The basement floor is not necessarily at the same potential as these other various paths.

With bare feet on a wet floor 1 V might be dangerous.

In my home there might not be much difference because the 1.25" copper water line runs diagonally under the basement floor and thus has good coupling to the floor, and is also the grounding electrode. My single neighbor on the transformer has a water supply common to me, but possibly thru a mile of city water line. Our transformer is connected to a single ground rod, and to no other transformers on the secondary side.

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