Strange service call

[erik peacock]

I have two dedicated circuits A phase with neutral and B phase with neutral and a ground in the same conduit. These circuits terminate at receptacles with nothing plugged in to them. The neutrals were connected together about 50' in a jbox. They did not go to the panel. I was reading 103v H-N, 15v N-G and 118 H-G. Since the neutrals were not going to the panel was this creating a dielectric in the conduit?

Erik

 

[jcole]

Sounds to me like you have an open neutral condition. What are these receptacles used for? I would not plug anything into these rec. of any value.

 

[hillbilly]

The neutrals were connected together about 50' in a jbox. They did not go to the panel.
Erik

I don't understand this statement.

Do you mean that the neutrals are not connected to the service ground?

steve

 

[cripple]

Strange service call

You stated that the circuits are dedicated, does is mean each circuit is feeding one receptacle, if so I have no idea what is going on.
But if these circuit each fed multioutlet and the neutrals are connected together, and do not go back to the panel, than you would have gone from a parallel to a series circuit. This would account for the voltage reading.

 

[beanland]

Digital Meter?

Digital Meter?

As I see it, you have two phase conductors from the panel to the jbox. Then a phase and "neutral" from the jbox to the receptacles. There is no neutral from the jbox to the panel. The voltages you read are probably due to the capacitive coupling between the conductors and the conduit and ground. Digital meters are sensitive enough to detect the voltage in this case. WARNING: The two receptacles are in series and you could get very high voltages on one if you plug anything into the other.