Voltage drop and voltage rise

[Jnewell]

Single phase 240v system
I was at a customers house today and they complained of flickering lights, when high amperage loads were switched on and off. After testing I was getting up to a 20v drop one one leg and a rise of 10v on the other at the main and downhill. I checked to see if the panel was grounded and bonded, bonded yes but I wasnt able to verify any grounding. The service was from the original build of the house 1960's and the SE conductors looked as if they were recently spliced in but the last 2' of the powerline werent changed out and looked possibly to be oxidizing and are running through an overgrown tree. I get the voltage drop to high load, but the voltage increase is throwing me, I think its due to lack of grounding but not exactly sure. Thank you

 

[zbang]

Not grounding- bad neutral. If you're seeing that drop/raise at the main, call the power company.

 

[LarryFine]

Agreed: bad neutral. Line-to-neutral voltage drop can occur for any number of issues, but the only way to get a higher-than-normal line-to-neutral voltage is poor neutral conductivity. The high voltage is being "stolen" from the line with low voltage.

You need to find the point on the system where the two line-to-neutral voltages match again while the imbalance is still occurring at the panel, working your way toward the meter. If the issue is still everywhere, you might need to call the power co.

 

[Jnewell]

So I already had the customer call them to come out and look at the SE conductors and looks like we’re going to switch the panel as well due to lack of grounding, many code violations and antiquated equipment.
Awesome thank you.

 

[kwired]

So I already had the customer call them to come out and look at the SE conductors and looks like we’re going to switch the panel as well due to lack of grounding, many code violations and antiquated equipment.
Awesome thank you.

Grounding electrode(s) can connect at any point between service disconnect and the overhead drop conductors, and can be added to older equipment if needed. Now your equipment may still have other reasons to justify changing it.

I'd probably be looking at the overgrown tree section first for the open neutral problem.

 

[Jnewell]

Right, no grounding electrode conductor in the main service disconnect and the power company will not allow it in their meter socket here, mainly we won’t add the grounding due to 4-#6 wires quadruple tapped off the load side of the main 200a disconnect. I’ll know more this coming week of what the power company did or said

 

[ptonsparky]

Our POCO service tech would be asking why we didn’t report this issue sooner.

Open neutral repairs are not something that should be delayed until next week.

 

[kwired]

Right, no grounding electrode conductor in the main service disconnect and the power company will not allow it in their meter socket here, mainly we won’t add the grounding due to 4-#6 wires quadruple tapped off the load side of the main 200a disconnect. I’ll know more this coming week of what the power company did or said

Guessing all stuck into same single port lug, but there is legal ways to make taps plus feeder tap rules for overcurrent protection part of the install.

Maybe still good idea to upgrade though, don't know enough about what you have to say either way.