strange

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

dielectric

Member
Location
virginia
have a strange problem to try and fix. would appreciate any ones input and or advice. went to apartment unit for a service call, the tennant smelt burning and the maintenance guy found 240 volts at the receptacles and heard the fluorescent light buzzing. turned off the light and tried a few different things ( changed main breaker, swopped meter at meter base ) nothing fixed the problem.
I opened panel and removed all the breakers and turned the main breaker back on. everything read correctly from neutral to each leg, from leg to leg, from leg to ground. ( 4 wire panel) started installing each individual branch circuit and some circuits were fine and some caused the voltage on one leg to drop to .4 volts and 240 volts on the other leg. at some point i had the receptacles in the living room working and went back to check them a half later later and they were back up to 240 v.

going back tomorrow to do a more in depth search and analysis but was wondering if anyone has encountered such a scenario before.
 
D

dielectric

Member
Location
virginia
strange

my thoughts as well re the loose neutral. the sloshing i didnt think of. i know from past experience that finding the problem is the tedious job and fixing it usually takes 20 minutes. thanfully its a time and material repair.

thanks for the replay, always appreciate other minds weighing in. find i always learn something new no matter how long u do this for
 
JoeStillman

JoeStillman

Senior Member
Location
West Chester, PA
Since the voltage readings were good in the panel, you have an open neutral in a multi-wire branch circuit somewhere "downstream" (to extend the sloshing metaphore).
 
J

jap

Senior Member
Occupation
Electrician
JoeStillman said:
Since the voltage readings were good in the panel, you have an open neutral in a multi-wire branch circuit somewhere "downstream" (to extend the sloshing metaphore).
Click to expand...

Not exactly.
The loose neutral is causing the voltage to fluctuate when it gets a load on it.
The only reason the voltage was good at the panel was because he had all of the branch circuits off.
My bet is on a loose neutral at the panel or Upstream.
 
R

rt66electric

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma
follow you nose

follow you nose

Remember the customer smelled a burnt wire??

If you can smell it, there is usually physical burn marks> I would not stop untill I found the evidence of where the smell came from? any flourescent ballast or such,or fried appliances??
 
aftershock

aftershock

Senior Member
Location
Memphis, TN
JoeStillman said:
Since the voltage readings were good in the panel, you have an open neutral in a multi-wire branch circuit somewhere "downstream" (to extend the sloshing metaphore).
Click to expand...

My thoughts as well. Was the circuit identified at the panel and if so, is it part of a mwbc? If so, I would look for the hr box. Does tennant have a doorbell with xformer ? If so those things will get smelly when hit with higher voltages.
 
T

TimK

Member
Location
Tacoma, WA
not always the case

not always the case

aftershock said:
My thoughts as well. Was the circuit identified at the panel and if so, is it part of a mwbc? If so, I would look for the hr box. Does tennant have a doorbell with xformer ? If so those things will get smelly when hit with higher voltages.
Click to expand...

once had a cell tower with AL feed to it, same scenario, took a locator who could detect voltage loss along (buried) cable, found 4 places in 700ft run where wire was oxidizing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top