I've been fixing the wiring in this house since I moved in. My last post was about severe voltage drop which seems to be miraculously fixed now: Link
One of the other issues that popped up was very dim lights in my dining room and 1st floor bathroom. With all the POCO issues, I just assumed it was a utility issue. Spent some time looking at other areas of the house and they seemed fine which pointed to the internal wiring. I checked voltage at some outlets- 106v! Good areas were showing 124v.
Further troubleshooting lead to finding 20 volts neutral to ground (at the outlet). Luckily the basement had junction boxes that fed all the areas on the 1st floor. Tracked it all down to the panel and the Neutral was networked between two circuits, which happened to be on the same phase. Someone spliced red onto black at some point, so they appeared to all be phased correctly in the panel, which they obviously weren't. In the same home run was a 20A circuit, solid wire, also many splices and same colors as the 15a circuits. I couldn't tell what was spliced to what and which was which phase since all hot wires were black.
I tore it all out and ran new 15a network, with the correct colors. Ran 20a circuit with stranded wire to easily id the different circuit. Splice it all up and wala, everything was normal and 0 volts on Neutral.
One other deficiency I found was a double tie. JB had a conduit and BX leaving it, which both ended up at another JB. I couldn't tell which was what circuit since everything was black.
My question is- what would cause the 20 volts on the Neutral, along with the low voltage at the outlet? The neutral was obviously undersized since it was shared to 2 circuits on the same phase. The loads on those 2 circuits were very low though, just some receptacles and lights. Even when the lights were off, the voltage was still 106-107 at the outlet. The house does not have a water ground (well pump) or ground rod outside (that I can find). I am wonder if this would have changed anything? When checking voltage at the panel, everything tested fine. The voltage on the Neutral was only downstream at the outlet, same with the low voltage on the hot to neutral.
This also seems to have fixed another issue where the kitchen pendants would flicker with the washing machine running. Both on different circuits which makes no sense to me.
One of the other issues that popped up was very dim lights in my dining room and 1st floor bathroom. With all the POCO issues, I just assumed it was a utility issue. Spent some time looking at other areas of the house and they seemed fine which pointed to the internal wiring. I checked voltage at some outlets- 106v! Good areas were showing 124v.
Further troubleshooting lead to finding 20 volts neutral to ground (at the outlet). Luckily the basement had junction boxes that fed all the areas on the 1st floor. Tracked it all down to the panel and the Neutral was networked between two circuits, which happened to be on the same phase. Someone spliced red onto black at some point, so they appeared to all be phased correctly in the panel, which they obviously weren't. In the same home run was a 20A circuit, solid wire, also many splices and same colors as the 15a circuits. I couldn't tell what was spliced to what and which was which phase since all hot wires were black.
I tore it all out and ran new 15a network, with the correct colors. Ran 20a circuit with stranded wire to easily id the different circuit. Splice it all up and wala, everything was normal and 0 volts on Neutral.
One other deficiency I found was a double tie. JB had a conduit and BX leaving it, which both ended up at another JB. I couldn't tell which was what circuit since everything was black.
My question is- what would cause the 20 volts on the Neutral, along with the low voltage at the outlet? The neutral was obviously undersized since it was shared to 2 circuits on the same phase. The loads on those 2 circuits were very low though, just some receptacles and lights. Even when the lights were off, the voltage was still 106-107 at the outlet. The house does not have a water ground (well pump) or ground rod outside (that I can find). I am wonder if this would have changed anything? When checking voltage at the panel, everything tested fine. The voltage on the Neutral was only downstream at the outlet, same with the low voltage on the hot to neutral.
This also seems to have fixed another issue where the kitchen pendants would flicker with the washing machine running. Both on different circuits which makes no sense to me.
