electrified siding ?

1966corvair · 08-15-2010, 04:01 PM

The siding on my house has 72.5 volts running in it . I was outside with bare feet and touched the siding and got a little tingle so i got out the multimeter and it reads 72.5 . What or how do i locate and fix this problem ?

Proby · 08-15-2010, 04:06 PM

What was the second point of measurement?

nap · 08-15-2010, 04:07 PM

the first thing I would do is turn off the main breaker and check for voltage. If it goes away, there is likely to be a nail or whatever was used to attach the siding piercing a wire. If it goes away, it is likely from the service entrance cable losing it's insulation and shorting to the siding.

Most likely it is the prior. Then, you can go through all of your breakers, one at a time, turning them off and checking for voltage. Once you isolate the circuit with the problem, you can try to narrow it down by tracking the circuit and opening joints in the wire attempting to find out about where there short is.

If you can narrow it down to a relatively small section, your most likely fix would be to abandon that section of the circuit and refeed a wire between the two points the damage is between.

Your siding should also be bonded to the grounding electrode system once this is repaired.

Yoyizit · 08-15-2010, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1966corvair

The siding on my house has 72.5 volts running in it . I was outside with bare feet and touched the siding and got a little tingle so i got out the multimeter and it reads 72.5 . What or how do i locate and fix this problem ?

A little tingle at 72v? You must have very dry skin, 72 kiloohms worth.

Put an incand. bulb across your voltmeter leads and measure again.
If the voltage stays up it is not a phantom voltage and you need to fix this immediately. Especially keep women and children away from this; they are more sensitive to current.

nap · 08-15-2010, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoyizit

A tingle at 72v? You must have very dry skin.
Put an incand. bulb across your voltmeter leads and measure again. If the voltage stays up you need to fix this immediately.

No. he needs to fix this immediately regardless what the light bulb results are. He felt a tingle i.e. he got shocked. That in itself qualifies as it needing to be addressed.

Yoyizit · 08-15-2010, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nap

No. he needs to fix this immediately regardless what the light bulb results are. He felt a tingle i.e. he got shocked. That in itself qualifies as it needing to be addressed.

Phantom voltages are incapable of delivering dangerous current but they can startle people. The danger level is less than a hot wire shorted to the siding.

If the bulb lights dimly the OP should use max. caution.

Jim Port · 08-15-2010, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoyizit

Put an incand. bulb across your voltmeter leads and measure again.
If the voltage stays up it is not a phantom voltage and you need to fix this immediately. Especially keep women and children away from this; they are more sensitive to current.

To suggest that anyone do anything other than getting this fixed immediately is totally irresponsible.

Tom Struble · 08-15-2010, 06:22 PM

most likely there is an old recessed outlet the siding is probably touching a terminal screw

joed · 08-15-2010, 10:18 PM

Turn off the circuits one at a time until you find the one that is energizing the siding. Then look for a nail or screw puncturing a cable somewhere.

Red Squirrel · 08-15-2010, 10:22 PM

I say keep it, great way to stop thieves. :P

hayewe farm · 08-16-2010, 12:59 AM

First turn off your electricity and see if you do have a short. My guess is you are getting a false reading from a floating source to what ever you used as ground. You no doubt have aluminum or steel siding which is a very large antenna and needs to be grounded.

mpoulton · 08-16-2010, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoyizit

Phantom voltages are incapable of delivering dangerous current but they can startle people. The danger level is less than a hot wire shorted to the siding.

If the bulb lights dimly the OP should use max. caution.

The OP should use max caution period. This is NOT a phantom voltage! I can't imagine why you would even think it could be. I have NEVER heard of phantom voltage delivering enough current to be felt, nor is there a plausible explanation for why the siding on a house would have a phantom voltage on it. On the other hand, metal siding becomes accidentally electrified rather frequently and it's an extremely dangerous condition.

To achieve 1mA current flow to be felt, a source impedance of 120K is needed (neglecting the person's skin resistance, which is NOT negligible). That's 22nF at 60Hz. To achieve this level of capacitive coupling between a conductor in romex and an adjacent metal surface would require something on the order of 5000 feet of direct contact! Not plausible.

busman · 08-16-2010, 08:26 AM

Agree. This is not a "phantom" voltage. Needs to be corrected. Period.

Mark

frenchelectrican · 08-16-2010, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yoyizit

A little tingle at 72v? You must have very dry skin, 72 kiloohms worth.

Put an incand. bulb across your voltmeter leads and measure again.
If the voltage stays up it is not a phantom voltage and you need to fix this immediately. Especially keep women and children away from this; they are more sensitive to current.

I will highlighted in bold this is not what we are trained to do that and I will not give out that kind of advise here in the diy forum and the OP have to addressed this rightaway this is not the time for anything silly test.

The simple way is turn off the main breaker to see if that go away if that the case then turn off branch circuit one at time until that disappair sound like either the outdoor receptale is touching it or a nail or screw is touching the conductor this is crictal and if you feel not confortable to do this then just call the Electrician to come out and they can deal with it.

That is direct and simple.

Merci.
Marc

1966corvair · 08-16-2010, 07:42 PM

I found the breaker it is the one for the garage so i kicked it off .
THANKS FOR THE HELP !!!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by nap

the first thing I would do is turn off the main breaker and check for voltage. If it goes away, there is likely to be a nail or whatever was used to attach the siding piercing a wire. If it goes away, it is likely from the service entrance cable losing it's insulation and shorting to the siding.

Most likely it is the prior. Then, you can go through all of your breakers, one at a time, turning them off and checking for voltage. Once you isolate the circuit with the problem, you can try to narrow it down by tracking the circuit and opening joints in the wire attempting to find out about where there short is.

If you can narrow it down to a relatively small section, your most likely fix would be to abandon that section of the circuit and refeed a wire between the two points the damage is between.

Your siding should also be bonded to the grounding electrode system once this is repaired.