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I'm troubleshooting an issue at a house and came across the following rather odd circumstances. I pulled in an electrical contractor with 33 years of experience and even he was dumbfounded and had no answers (said he'd consult other electricians). Just seeking ideas from where ever I have access.
-House is a regular ranch home in the US Midwest with a 100AMP service. Off the bat, we measured the power supply as 244V not 240V (I know it fluctuates as you measure it, but in my 10 years of working on houses I've never seen it go outside the 239-241V range).
-The power supply is not balanced for some reason: One leg on this house has 130V and the other 114V. The current on the neutral is much less than the difference between the currents on the two legs. Specific example: leg 1 had 28A and leg 2 had 4A yet the neutral was not 24A (28-4) it was 18A. Then I checked for current on the ground and baam - the ground was carrying about 6A. Yet I can touch the ground and not get shocked! I measure the voltage on the ground and it is 0V. I verified this to be a good earth ground.
-Initial suspicion was that one of the outlets in the house is wired incorrectly with the neutral going to the ground and vice versa but I checked all the ground wires coming to the panel and none were hot.
Anyone ever experienced anything like this? Any ideas? I'm really confused by how the meter was showing 6A on the ground for the service yet no volts?!? How can there be current without voltage? Or is the voltage so low (less than 0.01V) that my meter could not show it?
-House is a regular ranch home in the US Midwest with a 100AMP service. Off the bat, we measured the power supply as 244V not 240V (I know it fluctuates as you measure it, but in my 10 years of working on houses I've never seen it go outside the 239-241V range).
-The power supply is not balanced for some reason: One leg on this house has 130V and the other 114V. The current on the neutral is much less than the difference between the currents on the two legs. Specific example: leg 1 had 28A and leg 2 had 4A yet the neutral was not 24A (28-4) it was 18A. Then I checked for current on the ground and baam - the ground was carrying about 6A. Yet I can touch the ground and not get shocked! I measure the voltage on the ground and it is 0V. I verified this to be a good earth ground.
-Initial suspicion was that one of the outlets in the house is wired incorrectly with the neutral going to the ground and vice versa but I checked all the ground wires coming to the panel and none were hot.
Anyone ever experienced anything like this? Any ideas? I'm really confused by how the meter was showing 6A on the ground for the service yet no volts?!? How can there be current without voltage? Or is the voltage so low (less than 0.01V) that my meter could not show it?