Voltage neutral to ground at pool pump?

[ritelec]

OK. So I happened to be in the area, and for some reason the inspector butt dialed me, so I met him at the house.

He had the ct cab cover off and noted the rust on the cabinet where the neutral lugs are bonded to (which I mentioned I couldn't see or get to because the cabinet was locked)(and all the lugs are intact and touching).
He also mentioned the gec at the water meter may be rusty (which it may be but I've seen worse and all is tight).
He also noted that the service has no ground rod (ok, there is non.).
His thought is that there is or may be a loss of ground. (??? if there was a loss of ground at the premises, shouldn't I have still read 240v, especially when I turned off the panels??)

He also took the meter and measured 120/240 in the ct cabinet. I took the meter and measured 120/240 at the cabinet and one of the panels. I also measured 120v hot to water pipe.
He said he didn't touch anything.

I mentioned this is the first time I saw the 240v.
I held the tester and he banged connections with his pliers. 240v stayed.

So at this point he suggested to continue with the work order and have engineering monitor the voltage, that it couldn't hurt.

I tested my meter and it works. I know what I saw.

I guess I will stand down till/if/when I hear something.


argh, feel like the boy who cried wolf.

 

[growler]

He should have put an ammeter on the line to see how much current draw. Depending on the time of day it could have been almost nothing. Later that day when the AC units kick on and there is a larger current draw a bad connection will heat up and the voltage will drop.

They should notice the problem when they monitor power.

Kwired is probably right, bad connection at the transformer.

 

[ritelec]

He should have put an ammeter on the line to see how much current draw. Depending on the time of day it could have been almost nothing. Later that day when the AC units kick on and there is a larger current draw a bad connection will heat up and the voltage will drop.

yes. but interestingly, this past tuesday it was "hot". cooler in the am about 9:30 was the ~197v. About 2:30 in the afternoon (hot) I read the 220v.


As mentioned, today was 240v.
We'll see. Maybe I imagined it all ?

Survey Say's..........
Cap'n Crunch !

 

[kwired]

He should have put an ammeter on the line to see how much current draw. Depending on the time of day it could have been almost nothing. Later that day when the AC units kick on and there is a larger current draw a bad connection will heat up and the voltage will drop.

They should notice the problem when they monitor power.

Kwired is probably right, bad connection at the transformer.

And not on the secondary side either. They need to check things when it is/has been loaded harder. At least they will have a monitor on it now and will hopefully catch something.

 

[growler]

And not on the secondary side either.

Here I would be dealing with a lineman for a problem like this.

Be simple enough for them to check. If it's a pad mount they at least have the keys. If it's a pole mount they have that nice bucket truck. Once the problem was explained they should have brought the beast and loaded that circuit a bit.

Once I prove it's on the poco side that's all I need. Bill for time and leave.

 

[growler]

We'll see. Maybe I imagined it all ?

It's possible but I doubt it. You have to trust youself and trust your equipment.

Things like this do happen. For a pole mount tansformer even the wind blowing and make or break a bad connection.

 

[kwired]

Here I would be dealing with a lineman for a problem like this.

Be simple enough for them to check. If it's a pad mount they at least have the keys. If it's a pole mount they have that nice bucket truck. Once the problem was explained they should have brought the beast and loaded that circuit a bit.

Once I prove it's on the poco side that's all I need. Bill for time and leave.

And when POCO sends out an incompetent troubleshooter, which is likely what happened to the OP, it puts the ball back into your court and you need to either find out what you did wrong or stand firm behind your diagnosis that the problem is not on the customer side of the service. Adding load to make it fail is one option, poor connections will fail when loaded heavily enough, they can be disguised by light loading.