Home electrical help please.

[Fawken]

Without being there it is just guessing. Element on water heater could be open and you'd still get leakage to ground with copper pipes.

 

[Carhartt Cowboy]

...When I rest my 220v 20a water heater breaker,I all of a sudden have power to that side of the elec panel.This breaker is above four of the 120v breakers.When the water heater breaker is tripped,they all loose poser on that side.The thing is,my water heater has it's own circuit.Now I am completely stumped.

You installed the main breaker wrong. One leg does not have continuity from the feeder wire to the bus bar, when you turn on the 220 breaker to the water heater you are back feeding the other half of the panel (the other bus bar).

 

[ben2go]

You installed the main breaker wrong. One leg does not have continuity from the feeder wire to the bus bar, when you turn on the 220 breaker to the water heater you are back feeding the other half of the panel (the other bus bar).

The main breaker can only go in one way.I also did a voltage check at the main breaker.One side is gettin 120v and the other is 98v on the line coming from the main shut off outside.It's been wired like this since the place was set up.Then all sudden,nothing is working properly.

 

[Carhartt Cowboy]

The main breaker can only go in one way.I also did a voltage check at the main breaker.One side is gettin 120v and the other is 98v on the line coming from the main shut off outside.It's been wired like this since the place was set up.Then all sudden,nothing is working properly.

Sorry I was not clear. There is a bad connection between the incoming power wires and the bus bar, if one bus bar is dead. Make sure your connections are tight. Also, you need to measure between the phases, measure those two screws under the breaker, should be 220V same as between the red and black incoming wires

 

[ben2go]

With all the breakers off and measuring the red and black on the incoming power feed to the main breaker.I get 0 volts.If I measure directly to ground,I get 118v on the red and 0v on the black.I get the same on the buss bars.

 

[s219]

So if you turn the main breaker off (thus isolating any potentially screwy circuits in the house or messed up breakers) and then measure each incoming leg and don't see 110V on each to neutral, or 220V across both, then I'd say the problem is upstream of your main breaker! If I am reading things right, that is what it sounds like.

 

[Carhartt Cowboy]

With all the breakers off and measuring the red and black on the incoming power feed to the main breaker.I get 0 volts.If I measure directly to ground,I get 118v on the red and 0v on the black.I get the same on the buss bars.

Go to the other end of the black and red incoming wire, where they are feed from. Probably a 100 amp breaker in your main panel, at the house? See what voltage you have at that end, sounds like there is something wrong at the upstream breaker.

 

[ben2go]

So if you turn the main breaker off (thus isolating any potentially screwy circuits in the house or messed up breakers) and then measure each incoming leg and don't see 110V on each to neutral, or 220V across both, then I'd say the problem is upstream of your main breaker! If I am reading things right, that is what it sounds like.

Correct.With the main breaker off.Red to ground gives me 118v and black to ground gives me 0v.Across black and red gives me 0v.I checked my meter outside.It is giving a level 0 er9 error code.Even at the main shut off, below the meter box,I am getting the same thing.It looks like my problem is two fold.One being my service, and the other being a back feed from the hot water heater.I'll deal with that,once I get stable electrical service.I should know better than to start in the middle.I have a cert in industrial maintenance.Never used it tho.

 

[Carhartt Cowboy]

the other being a back feed from the hot water heater.

Get the incoming power right. You do not have a problem with the back feeding water heater. It was back feeding, feeding through the element, because one of your phases was dead. Once the incoming power is right all should be well.

 

[CobyRupert]

So if you turn the main breaker off (thus isolating any potentially screwy circuits in the house or messed up breakers) and then measure each incoming leg and don't see 110V on each to neutral, or 220V across both, then I'd say the problem is upstream of your main breaker! If I am reading things right, that is what it sounds like.

:thumbsup: The utilities transformer may have a few windings shorted and is only giving you 98V on the one leg. It's also worth double checking the neutral and ground connections, and bonding of the two, in your main disconnect.

^^^^ Lets state a few of ohm's laws. 1. current is same measured anywhere in the circuit. 2. Voltage is different at each spot in a circuit, all voltage drop in a circuit equals the total voltage applied to the circuit i.e. 120V.

He is measuring voltage (pressure) not current (flow). You can have pressure and no flow.

The bad connection has resistance, the balance of the 120V is being dropped (used up) at the bad connection. This is why he is reading low at the places that should be a solid ~120.
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Don't mean to go on a tangent unrelated to OP's issues, but....When there's no current flowing (i.e. all loads unplugged or off) there is no voltage drop across any resistance (be it a load or bad connection). To use your analogy, you can have great pressure at your faucet until you open the faucet. Try this (actually don't): Lift the white wire on a lighting circuit, turn the light switch on, light will not shine but you can measure 120V from the white wire to ground, because there is no current flowing and no voltage drop across the lamp or anywhere in the circuit. If you now touch the white wire (which some electricians will do/have done because they think White=0 volts /grounded conductor) they will be touching a live conductor. The 120 volts is now split across the resistance of the light bulb and the resistance of their body which completes/ forms 2 loads in series to ground. This is why all multiwire branch circuits that share a common neutral have to be feed from a multipole breaker or breakers with their handles tied together, so that you turn off all breakers associated with that common neutral.