Porch wrought iron railing gives me a shock.....
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Post a picture of these railing so we can see what your seeing.
Are they attached to the wall?
If so someone may have ran the screw into a wire.
Are they attached to the wall?
If so someone may have ran the screw into a wire.
Just get an electrician out there to handle it ASAP. That's a very dangerous condition. What feels like a small tingle one time may cause a fatal shock the next time you touch it. Some things are good DIY projects to learn troubleshooting skills on. This is not one of those situations. Hire a pro today.
1st pic is from the front of house; 2nd from the back. From the front, got a small shock on the rails that go down along both sides of the steps and not on top porch along the long rail. From the back, got shock from the right side step rail only and not the left. Where there are screws into the wall (3) is on front right side rail. I backed them out and still a shock. Last nite, no shock at all on any rails. Will check today.
Very nice looking porch, or should I just call it hot 
.
Is that Aluminum siding?
You need to get a meter from the problem railing to earth ground which would then show the voltage you are (I assume) feeling. Then turn off breakers until you find the one powering the problem.
Here is the concern you (sorry to be blunt) are ignoring. That railing could be connected directly to 120 volts. You may only feel a tingle because you are not at that moment completing a good ground path, but let it rain a bit to provide better contact and someone could get hurt. We have no idea as to your capabilities but here it is Saturday and no mention of you having called an electrician.
If the siding is metal with the railing attached to it, the source of the problem could be anywhere.
Make us feel better, explain how you are qualified or tell us when the electrician is showing up.
Bud
.Is that Aluminum siding?
You need to get a meter from the problem railing to earth ground which would then show the voltage you are (I assume) feeling. Then turn off breakers until you find the one powering the problem.
Here is the concern you (sorry to be blunt) are ignoring. That railing could be connected directly to 120 volts. You may only feel a tingle because you are not at that moment completing a good ground path, but let it rain a bit to provide better contact and someone could get hurt. We have no idea as to your capabilities but here it is Saturday and no mention of you having called an electrician.
If the siding is metal with the railing attached to it, the source of the problem could be anywhere.
Make us feel better, explain how you are qualified or tell us when the electrician is showing up.
Bud
Vinyl is good,
Do you have a volt meter? A simple analog meter would be better than a digital. They are less than $20 and good to have around.
"Last nite, no shock at all on any rails." Were there lights that were turned off?
Somehow we need to get you to stop using yourself as a volt meter.
In a way, you don't want the problem to just go away before you find a cause as you will then never know when it might come back. Sure would hate to have a child be the victim.
Getting a reading on a meter and turning off breakers until it goes away would at least narrow it down to one circuit.
Bud
Do you have a volt meter? A simple analog meter would be better than a digital. They are less than $20 and good to have around.
"Last nite, no shock at all on any rails." Were there lights that were turned off?
Somehow we need to get you to stop using yourself as a volt meter
.In a way, you don't want the problem to just go away before you find a cause as you will then never know when it might come back. Sure would hate to have a child be the victim.
Getting a reading on a meter and turning off breakers until it goes away would at least narrow it down to one circuit.
Bud
Someone hit a wire with the screw. There is no way of measuring voltage when you have siding, because you are looking for ground fault.
Turn off breakers one by one, until there is no more current flowing.
The common practice for looking for a fault is to run a single piece of wire to a ground on one of the outlets outside, attach to the black meter lead. The Red you will check the railing, until the culprit breaker is found.
Make sure you are using a good meter, not some cheap one that will give you false readings.
Turn off breakers one by one, until there is no more current flowing.
The common practice for looking for a fault is to run a single piece of wire to a ground on one of the outlets outside, attach to the black meter lead. The Red you will check the railing, until the culprit breaker is found.
Make sure you are using a good meter, not some cheap one that will give you false readings.
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Where is your electrical service and meter in relation to the railing? Is it an overhead service or underground?
Were there any electrical lines buried in the ground before the porch was built?
Have the lights in the house been flickering?
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I'm not an electrician but I have a good understanding of how it works, I've done HVAC work for the last 40 years or so and have seen a lot. This issue reminds me of a customer that was having issues in their place of business. I remember the secretary actually got shocked when she touched the commode handle. I don't remember but suspect they had light flickering issues as well. Turns out they had a problem with the neutral wire coming into the building. Seems the electricity was searching for a ground. I would be really worried about getting this fixed quickly. I think it's much more dangerous than the original poster realizes
Only if there are other problems that are much more significant. How did you fix the receptacles? Were the wires mislabeled, or just connected to the wrong terminals? Was it only H-N reversed, or was ground involved?
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A bootleg neutral some where as well as reverse polarity could
explain the whole scenario !
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Arrow, please explain in detail. A reverse polarity ground will feed current through a neutral? Why is that hard to detect? And why a non contact tester?
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