Voltage Imbalance - Residential

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sparky_pdx

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Hey everyone,
I'm at a client's house right this second.
When they turn on, say the microwave, or
garbage disposal, the lights dim somewhat.
I went to the panel, measured the voltage
& it was 130 to neutral on 1 leg & 110 on
the other. when i shut off the device, it returned
to 120 on each leg, to neutral. i shut off all the
breakers one by one, until just 1 breaker was on feeding
the disposal or microwave (0r whatever) & voltage
still was imbalanced. any ideas on how to trouble shoot
this?? is it a problem with the power company?
thanks so much
sparky in portland or
 
It's an open neutral someplace... meterpan... weatherhead taps, underground lateral, padmount flags, polemount taps, etc, triplex neutral rubbed through on a tree, etc.... get to looking..
 
will do, i thought it was something upstream of the
panel, affects everything, everywhere inside.
will call the poco too
thanks again, i appreciate it
 
hum

hum

is that the only ckt that is affected
When you took ur readings, were they from the line side of the main or at the branch ckt breaker feeding the kitchen,,,or @ the outlet????

what was the initial Call on your service call, what was the complaint???

:cool:
 
Its an overhead service, to utility pole on street, transformer on
that pole. i wiggled the poco's wires up near the weatherhead
& it fixed the problem temporarily. called portland general electric
& their going to fix it tomorrow...
thanks for the head's up...
 
Thanks for the update. A lot of times answers and suggestions are given with no response from the OP as to the outcome.
 
sparky_pdx said:
Its an overhead service, to utility pole on street, transformer on
that pole. i wiggled the poco's wires up near the weatherhead
& it fixed the problem temporarily. called portland general electric
& their going to fix it tomorrow...
thanks for the head's up...
Click to expand...

Sounds like the "old loose H-tap" that haunts the area where I live. Loose H-taps cost the poco lots of money due to voltage imbalances affecting equipment/appliances within the many households in their serving areas. :smile:
 
Portland General Electric came out real fast. Brand
spanking new transformer, sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet...
Thanks again everyone...
Sparky
 
sparky_pdx said:
let's try that again, here's a link to the photo.
guess my file size was too big for here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nopantselectric/1852393344/

PS: Does anyone know if the PoCo's neutral just runs everywhere??
Seems like it, tranformer, to xformer, pole to pole to pole...
Click to expand...

Sparky, I like to help people out. PM me and I'll send you some pants. You will be amazed what they will do for your business.
 
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