Voltage between line to neutral and line to ground

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Sajid khan

Sajid khan

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Pakistan
During the inspection of the branch circuit to which some receptacles are connected, i found that there is 17V between line to neutral when the branch circuit breaker is in off position. When i check at the power panel it is the same 17V between line to neutral.
What can be the possible reasons and how it can be rectified.

Thanx

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ActionDave said:
Digital volt meter picking uplease "ghost" voltage.

If you have an old analogue meter or a low z function on your digital meter you can double check.
Click to expand...
Thanx for the suggestion.. i will check by the meter with low z function.

Can we connect our sensitive electronic equipment or any equipment in the presence of ghost voltage??

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Sajid khan said:
Thanx for the suggestion.. i will check by the meter with low z function.

Can we connect our sensitive electronic equipment or any equipment in the presence of ghost voltage??

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Yes, but I would make sure that is what you have.

By line we are assuming the load side of the branch circuit breaker that you have Off.
 
My guess, no bond between the neutral and grounding conductor.

Even a high impedance meter should have a very low reading if they were bonded together, unless maybe there is hundreds of feet to the bonding point.
 
kwired said:
My guess, no bond between the neutral and grounding conductor.

Even a high impedance meter should have a very low reading if they were bonded together, unless maybe there is hundreds of feet to the bonding point.
Click to expand...

That would certainly be a possibility if the OP had reported a voltage from neutral to ground.
But he is reporting an open switch output to neutral voltage and presumably a similar output to ground voltage. The latter was not mentioned except in the thread title.

If there is a load connected to the open circuit, it would have to be an electronic load that did not conduct line to neutral until some voltage threshold was reached.
If the switch output is not loaded at all, then there could be phantom voltage on the ungrounded wire if it runs in the same raceway as or near an energized conductor (as, for example in a switch leg or a raceway containing multiple circuits.)
 
GoldDigger said:
That would certainly be a possibility if the OP had reported a voltage from neutral to ground.
But he is reporting an open switch output to neutral voltage and presumably a similar output to ground voltage. The latter was not mentioned except in the thread title.

If there is a load connected to the open circuit, it would have to be an electronic load that did not conduct line to neutral until some voltage threshold was reached.
If the switch output is not loaded at all, then there could be phantom voltage on the ungrounded wire if it runs in the same raceway as or near an energized conductor (as, for example in a switch leg or a raceway containing multiple circuits.)
Click to expand...
I'm sorry but I don't see it that way. Reading the thread title again - the title is totally confusing, but the content of post 1 never mentions any switch other then the supply breaker that is in the off position. Says to me there is a voltage rise on either the neutral or grounding conductor. Since they are supposed to be bonded together at the main/system bonding jumper, unless there is a really long feeder or a feeder neutral going bad, I wouldn't expect that much voltage drop on the neutral - seems more likely there is no N-G bond in the first place.
 
But the OP reports 17 volts between the neutral and the line downstream of the open breaker. To me that suggests phantom voltage on the ungrounded conductor, not an offset between neutral and ground.
Other than in the title the OP never refers to ground (EGC?) at all.

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GoldDigger said:
But the OP reports 17 volts between the neutral and the line downstream of the open breaker. To me that suggests phantom voltage on the ungrounded conductor, not an offset between neutral and ground.
Other than in the title the OP never refers to ground (EGC?) at all.

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Click to expand...
I don't know what I was looking at before, I think the title was throwing me off, for some reason I thought he was reading 17 volts between neutral and ground. I don't see it that way now and do suspect phantom voltage is what he has.
 
i am checking all the possibilities on site that are highlighted by forum member, and will come back to the forum with the exact solution of the problem when rectified.
 
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