Free electricity !

[k0ua]

I used to be able to light a 2 foot bare florescent tube with my long wire antenna (135 feet at 25 feet above the earth) by placing a clip lead on the antenna and another on my station ground. This was during windy dry days when dust particles were blown across the antenna and the wire would accrue a net charge, or snowy days with the same results. I notices it when touching the antenna on these days and could pull some pretty nice fat blue arcs from the antenna, and thought it would be fun to hook it to the florescent tube and see if it would light.. It did.

I don't think this has anything to do with these problems as posted above.. I think this is a leaking well cable, or hot water heater element or something even more serious on the power grid..it needs to be found and remedied.

 

[Ken]

The power company killed my power last year from both the transformer and then further up line to where it originates. Even with no power feed to the house, I can still get poked as I described earlier and there is no drop in voltage either.

As a former power co.employee and have traveled to areas where there is report of electrical problems. Hard to tell if "Boston is in city or distance to a farm.
If the local power shut off the power to transformer and still had the voltage Next is to look for transmission towers in the area. High voltage lines can have 500,000 volts and the voltage will jump 12' to ground. a broken insulator can go to the steel tower. In this area theves cut the ground at every pole to as high as they can reach for copper. same for steel towers grounding conductors.
Or do you have one of those dangerous pipelines discussed in another thread. These lines have a power feed to counter the cathodic pontential to ground and same for rail road tracks are grounded .

Mass. may not have mines using d.c. voltage to ground .
All this it is best some one locates the source. because it is eating up your under ground metal water pipes conduit and metal posts poles or casing to water wells.
Some where in the goverment of City or State of Mass. will be very interested if called.
Call some gov. agency and start the ball rolling.
ken

 

[farmeratheart]

No radio towers nearby, not for miles anyway. I can't remember if it was AC/DC and I have not brought out a lamp, I'm not a electrical guru so I don't know how exactly to make it work. It would be nice to find a way to get low voltage lights to glow on my 1500 foot driveway though

You can bet that if you rigged some system to use this "ground "power" that your utility would suddenly begin searching for the "leak". They would also probably sue you for stealing their power! Sounds like a (pardon the pun) potentially dangerous situation.

Good Luck.

Frank

 

[japody]

Call a local TV station. I bet you'll see action once that hits the airwaves!

 

[buickanddeere]

Well I guess it's sort of free.. If I can figure out how to harness it. We built our house about 4 years ago and I will try to explain this as good as I can, but we have power coming out of the ground. If you stand outside barefoot and touch something metal.. You get a tingle. For example, we were planting some trees and the root ball had the metal cage around it. The cage was in contact with the ground, and when I knelt down with a bare knee to the ground and touched the cage...zaaaaap ! My A/C guy was pressurizing the condenser last summer and was getting hit when his bare knee was on the ground and he touched the copper on the unit. In the basement, if you ground a meter, you can pick up voltage from the foundation ties ! After finding this last year I notified the electric utility and they came out and drove grounding rods tied to all our outside mechanicals, then I checked all the other houses on our road and they are all hot as well. I think I could stick some low voltage lighting into the ground and they may work. ..

This what happens when either a neutral conductor fails. Or when some jackleg electrical tinker thinks that the ground and neutral are the same.
Running neutral current through the ground system raises the ground system's potential above true earth potential.
Odds are the utility has an open neutral on the primary. Or an open secondary neutral on a single transformer that supplies several homes.

 

[Tomtint]

This what happens when either a neutral conductor fails. Or when some jackleg electrical tinker thinks that the ground and neutral are the same.
Running neutral current through the ground system raises the ground system's potential above true earth potential.
Odds are the utility has an open neutral on the primary. Or an open secondary neutral on a single transformer that supplies several homes.

They ( NSTAR ) had no less than 10 "experts" out here looking at it. They traced our line all the way back to the power lines and the grounding rods was the solution they came up with. .. A bandaid at best

 

[Depmandog]

From Wiki: In Boston, NSTAR Electric (formerly Boston Edison) has also had problems with hazardous stray voltages, which have killed several dogs during the 1990s.[19] As a result, the City of Boston government started a program to detect, report on, and repair stray voltage hazards.[20]

The link is the reference #20

Electrical Safety | City of Boston

 

[Tomtint]

From Wiki: In Boston, NSTAR Electric (formerly Boston Edison) has also had problems with hazardous stray voltages, which have killed several dogs during the 1990s.[19] As a result, the City of Boston government started a program to detect, report on, and repair stray voltage hazards.[20]

The link is the reference #20

Electrical Safety | City of Boston

I remember that very well. Pets were being electrocuted when they stepped on manhole covers. That article is 9 years old.

 

[Tomtint]

From Wiki: In Boston, NSTAR Electric (formerly Boston Edison) has also had problems with hazardous stray voltages, which have killed several dogs during the 1990s.[19] As a result, the City of Boston government started a program to detect, report on, and repair stray voltage hazards.[20]

The link is the reference #20

Electrical Safety | City of Boston

I remember that very well. Pets were being electrocuted when they stepped on manhole covers. That article is 9 years old.

 

[CobyRupert]

The more I think about it, the more it seems like there's a big utility ground fault occuring nearby. Don't happen to have a infrared imager do you? I bet that nearby line is very high voltage line, if you're getting a 50V touch voltage 700' away.
Bad situation.

 

[Tomtint]

The more I think about it, the more it seems like there's a big utility ground fault occuring nearby. Don't happen to have a infrared imager do you? I bet that nearby line is very high voltage line, if you're getting a 50V touch voltage 700' away.
Bad situation.

Actually,...I do have a IR camera.. What do I look for?

 

[Tomtint]

The more I think about it, the more it seems like there's a big utility ground fault occuring nearby. Don't happen to have a infrared imager do you? I bet that nearby line is very high voltage line, if you're getting a 50V touch voltage 700' away.
Bad situation.

Actually,...I do have a IR camera.. What do I look for?

 

[aczlan]

Actually,...I do have a IR camera.. What do I look for?

Hot legs on the high voltage power line towers. Hot ground on the ground coming off of the transformer up on the pole.

Aaron Z

 

[Tomtint]

Hot legs on the high voltage power line towers. Hot ground on the ground coming off of the transformer up on the pole.

Aaron Z

I will go out there this weekend and try to get a shot of it. Idk what the distance my camera will work to. Those lines are 60-70 feet tall. I have a Flir I5

 

[k0ua]

I will go out there this weekend and try to get a shot of it. Idk what the distance my camera will work to. Those lines are 60-70 feet tall. I have a Flir I5

I would think around one or more of those towers, if a lot of energy is going into the ground at that location it would have to raise the ground temperature relative to other nearby areas.

 

[k0ua]

Oh, and it goes without saying, be as careful as you can be... don't go grabbing on things.. and some rubber boots if you have them might be a good idea.

 

[Tomtint]

I remember one of gone NSTAR guys saying the voltage would be more , the further it got from the source

 

[aczlan]

I would think around one or more of those towers, if a lot of energy is going into the ground at that location it would have to raise the ground temperature relative to other nearby areas.

Yep. A cool evening/morning might be the ticket to have good contrast for a IR camera.

Oh, and it goes without saying, be as careful as you can be... don't go grabbing on things.. and some rubber boots if you have them might be a good idea.

Good point.

I remember one of gone NSTAR guys saying the voltage would be more , the further it got from the source

Should be the opposite, voltage should decrease as you move away from the pole.

Aaron Z

 

[SPIKER]

Will be interesting to find out,

I would agree that there seems to be a stray neutral someplace that is disconnected from the ground system. I have been able to measure 50vac from the EMF field off the High Voltage lines but directly under then and using a 10'stick of EMT held horizontally with the ground and meter at one end to earth. THAT was as said straight under the lines and I think those were 44K for main cross country transmission lines. I also have these lines across my property some 700 feet away. I have not tried to repeat the test at HOME (maybe I will try it tomorrow for kicks and giggles.)

The set on my place is of the metal VHT style lines but I can't think of what voltage that is on my place, remember being told it by one of the power transmission right of way maintenance workers.

Mark

 

[LD1]

with things happening over such a broad area as you describe, I am inclined to think its a power co. issue also. There has to be a significant amount of power going into the ground. I would think alot more than a single water heater in someones house could do.

How far away do you have to go before voltage in the ground starts to drop down below 50? and how far do you have to go to get it down to 0?

Not sure what the cable companies use, but isnt the phone DC? Would be nice to know for sure if that 50v you are seeing is AC or DC?