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4 volts to ground.why?

1439 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  kbsparky
hello.i wired my own house and everything works and no breakers trip but when im under the house i can take my meter and stick one probe in the ground and touch anything metal and read 4 volts. of course all metal things have a ground wire in common.if im sweaty there is a tingle.ive notified the power company.they said there side was correct.i can turn off my main breakers and still read 4 volts.the only way it goes away is if the power company disconnect their neutral.im confused.any input would be appreciated.
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i can take my meter and stick one probe in the ground and touch anything metal and read 4 volts.
if im sweaty there is a tingle.
Put a 100w incand. lamp across the 4v and measure it again. If the voltage drops to 2v there is about 10 Ω (resistivity of the soil?) in series with this voltage.
With this load you may see different voltages depending on what metal you touch, with lower voltages being farther from the source, if there is a single source.

Using your body as an ammeter:
"Tingle" = ~4mA, give or take.
4v/4mA = 1k skin resistance; pretty low for a small contact area, but you have damp, salty, skin.
No tingle = <1 mA means > 4kΩ.

See table 1 in this link.
http://www.easternvoltageresearch.com/datasheets/safety.pdf
just the way it is?
All kinds of currents at all kinds of frequencies are flowing in the ground, some of which kills livestock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_earth_return

Ground resistance testers have provisions for finding a quiet place on the freq. band to make their tests.
If you have a battery operated oscilloscope or spectrum analyzer you can look in on all this.

Soares has written a classic book on this subject.
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