Found two Volts in the spicket

[woodchuckie]

Maybe you've seen this but talking about high tension wires and working around electricity reminded me of this I received recently.
YouTube - High Voltage Cable Inspection

 

[czechsonofagun]

Maybe you've seen this but talking about high tension wires and working around electricity reminded me of this I received recently.
YouTube - High Voltage Cable Inspection

Thats pretty cool! Thanks.

 

[LBrown59]

In some old houses people would ground electical devices to the water pipes. This worked fine since the pipe from the well was iron or steel. Then the dug well was replace with a drilled well with plastic pipe and the ground no longer works. I lived in an old farm house with this setup. It wasn't until the kitchen was redone and the old dishwasher pulled out that we found the source of the "tingle".
Greg

My water line froze up in Feb.
The plumber who repaired it had to remove the ground wire from the water pipe.
After he was done he said there was no use in hooking the ground wire back up to the water pope because the under ground pipe was plastic water line so it was never grounded in the first place.
I find out after 36 years the electric here has been ungrounded all this time

How did you fix it?

 

[coffeeman]

Thanks everybody for suggestions and stories - I will put it in good use and let you know what was the problem when I find it.

As always, if nobody on TBN has a solution to a problem - the problem either does not exist or is not worth solving. Amazing knowledge base we got here, truly amazing

My home of 30 yr also had one of these problems. It's not just "old farm houses". My house was only 10 yrs old when this stray voltage came up. Of course we tried the breaker thing; turn off one at a time. The pool would shock us as we leave water. Don't touch that outside faucet in bare feet. It's always in the back of your mind; will this suddenly surge to 100 volts or more and hurt or kill someone?

As mentioned by others, power company was no help. Everytime I talked with an electrician; I'd ask "the question" and no answers.

1. In rain soaked times the voltage on the pipes was less. If earth was soaked at the ground rod I could stick my hand in earth around rod and feel the tingling of the power. So we sunk more grounding rodsaway from the first one. When house built only one ground rod was required. I have 4 now and also some pipe grounds (ground to water pipe). Didn't really help.

2. The pool problem we solved by installing a small sub breaker box just for the pool and some outside lighting etc. It has it's own GFIs and grounded at the pool house. No shocks and works fine.

3. For house one electric guy said we need a new breaker panel for house. Actually replaced whole breaker panel. The fix that would be sure to work! Didn't help.

4. Then the shock thing quit. You don't really notice it because we have trained ourselves to stay away from the pipes in bare feet. Then one day, you realize you just turned the outside spigot and you didn't get shocked. Then you get brave do this more often till you discover the problem has gone away; I never knew why. As I read the posts I suspect the voltage in the pipes went away a few years ago about the time I had a transformer struck by lightening. The transformer was the one on the pole in front of my house.

If it was the power companys fault all along all I can say is, "Ain't that a bear?"

As I post here I remember; about the time the transformer was replaced I also had a new meter socket installed and the electric meter was replaced. I don't have any idea if this would have anything to do with this problem.

Good luck and good hunting. You do have a lot of ideas to check out.

Cheers....Coffeeman

 

[czechsonofagun]

I shut down the house and it was still there. Called the distribution company and the NOVEC guy showed up and said he does not understand why it has the voltage. He suggested to check the panel if there is anything corroded in it.

I think I will ask NOVEC to shut down the power for our house and check again.

 

[Skyco]

True story- about 35 years ago living in a very old dormitory at college, Woodrow at U of South Carolina- I noticed one day in the communal shower I would get a tingle in a cut on my hand when I reached up to adjust the shower head. Well one of the other students, who happened to be an electrical engineering major, claimed this was impossible since both the floor drain and the shower head were grounded.
So one evening after quite a few beers he was gonna prove it couldn't happen, stood in water on the shower floor with one bare foot on the metal drain and with a coathanger in his mouth touched it to the shower head

When he got up we called maintenance and were lucky we weren't calling the EMTs..... Looking back it is amazing what a little beer and youthful inexperience can make happen...

 

[hockeypuck]

I shut down the house and it was still there. Called the distribution company and the NOVEC guy showed up and said he does not understand why it has the voltage. He suggested to check the panel if there is anything corroded in it.

I think I will ask NOVEC to shut down the power for our house and check again.

This sounds like the power company has a bad grounded conductor. Do you have a metal water pipe? Better yet if you have a well pump, shut all the power off and disconnect the ground wire going to the pump at the panel, and see if you get a small arc. Use gloves if you are not experienced and make sure you shut the main off. If you get an arc on the ground wire, call an electrician, make sure your service is properly grounded then call the power company and make them fix their problem.