Unequal voltages

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pridelion

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What could cause the following: (answere in simple terms please!) Ran a 20A/120V circuit to the kitchen. Four receptacles are reading 119V, two others are reading 90.1V what gives???
Also, I turned off a light switch in the living room to change out the fixture and got "rapped", upon testing i read 70V , what gives? Give me some possibilities that a rookie can understand,Thanks! Your 2nd year apprentis.
 
Re: Unequal voltages

First are you sure of the meter,fresh batteries.As to the switch being off,are you sure this was not a back switch ? Try reading kitchen outlets with a small load on them,you might be getting high impedance readings.Check for a bad gfci receptacle if they are down stream.
Often low voltages are result of open neutrals

[ March 06, 2005, 08:56 PM: Message edited by: jimwalker ]
 
Re: Unequal voltages

My problem when testing out oddball voltages in a house is trying to determine whether it is a problem with the hot or the neutral. If the wiring is modern and has a ground try measuring hot to ground to check out the neutral. If you get 120 that way it's the neutral. If still wierd, maybe it's the hot or the ground could be bad as well.

In this case, with all new components, what's the possibility of a bad run of wire or a bad outlet somewhere along the circuit. Check top and bottom of the last good one and see if both are 120. Are they push-in receptacles? and are they still pushed in?

Jim
 
Re: Unequal voltages

Here is a thought. I reported to the poco that the insulation had fallen off a butt splice. The guy who fixed it said the splice was going bad and heating up. This caused the insulation to fall off. This is possibly your problem.
 
Re: Unequal voltages

Hi Pride,
Is that 90V between the hot and grnd or hot and return? I suspect a floating (unconnnected) return in your wiring somewhere. I have often seen ~80-90V hot - grnd readings when the white wire (return) is broken. The problem at the liv room switch may be another problem. Try to solve 1 at a time.
 
Re: Unequal voltages

back track to the junction boxes you disturbed during your work---somewhere you opened an exisiting neutral. and remember, some white wire turns black when overloaded for years -- thats the reason your adding a circuit!!
 
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