Sesh
Member
- Location
- United States
- Occupation
- agriculture
Hi all, this is going to be long so bear with me. I figured I should bring this here having tried many tech related forums with little success. So I have a power problem of some sorts that I believe is related to currents on my grounding conductors.
Essentially I have some non destructive interference problems with all the devices in my home (3 desktop PCs, laptops, phones, TVs, game consoles etc). All of these devices display issues with input drops and delays (mouse, keyboard etc), degraded display quality (blurry, occasional graphical errors etc), degraded sound, and really poor network performance (both wired Ethernet and Wifi cutting out intermittently or acting very strange). I have adequately ruled out all the devices in my home and all hardware many times over. I have replaced virtually every cable, component and peripheral multiple times over.
Other appliances in the home act strange: Oven randomly takes an hour to preheat sometimes (usually when it rains). Brand new printer up and crapped out. Turning on lights somewhere in the house will cause others to dim or brighten. Same with using other devices such as washer/dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal etc.
I have killed every breaker but one and tried my devices on one circuit at a time testing each one throughout the home. I have double checked many times over my outlets with a multi meter. My laptop on battery still displays all of the issues (intermittently throughout the day) so I believe it is to some degree radiated interference. I have tried a true sine, Online Double Conversion UPS and power conditioners for my desktops.
Have had POCO out 4 times to double check all of their connections. Even checked everything at the pole as well.
I hired a pretty good electrician (after trying with 2 that could not assist me) to come check it out and after checking everything over multiple times, suspecting that there was a loose or intermittent neutral. Instead all he found was that I had 6-7 amps of current across my metallic waterlines. He speculated that the EMF from this net current was the cause of much of my issues- particularly the Wifi problems. He said the amperage was a result of multiple factors: neighbors corroded/rusted neutral feeder, and our corroded neutral feeder, and the fact that the bonded utility service offered a parallel neutral return path. We had him replace the entire thing (meter base and mast connections) and worked with our neighbors to tighten up their connection. The amperage went down to about 3-4amps. While some of the symptoms of my device problems lessened, it is all still there. I now own a clamp meter and at times the amperage drops very low (.2-.6amps) and while my laptop on battery works fairly well, the problems are still entirely there for my desktops. I feel that there is some correlation between the objectionable current across my waterline and the interference screwing with my electronics.
Now I know multiple people out there with this same issue. Here is a post detailing the issue in a bit more depth and explaining some of the symptoms, which I can go into far more depth on as to my own observations and tests.
Input Lag thread
In this post many people tell the OP that it must be a grounding problem. Now what I am hoping people here can clarify for me:
What is the role of EGC for computers? Is it for a voltage reference or merely for safety? Can problems arise from a bad ground?
What would you suspect could potentially be the issue here? I would think the interference (RFI or EMI) would want to travel on the grounded conductors back to the transformer. But it is clearly not doing that and me and my electrician are out of ideas.
What are some measurements I could take that would help me diagnose this issue? I have a multi meter, a clamp meter, a Tri Field TF2, and an AM radio.
Is there a better place I can post this to hopefully find someone knowledgeable enough to assist me?
I can provide much, much more info but wanted to end it here as it is probably already too long. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Essentially I have some non destructive interference problems with all the devices in my home (3 desktop PCs, laptops, phones, TVs, game consoles etc). All of these devices display issues with input drops and delays (mouse, keyboard etc), degraded display quality (blurry, occasional graphical errors etc), degraded sound, and really poor network performance (both wired Ethernet and Wifi cutting out intermittently or acting very strange). I have adequately ruled out all the devices in my home and all hardware many times over. I have replaced virtually every cable, component and peripheral multiple times over.
Other appliances in the home act strange: Oven randomly takes an hour to preheat sometimes (usually when it rains). Brand new printer up and crapped out. Turning on lights somewhere in the house will cause others to dim or brighten. Same with using other devices such as washer/dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal etc.
I have killed every breaker but one and tried my devices on one circuit at a time testing each one throughout the home. I have double checked many times over my outlets with a multi meter. My laptop on battery still displays all of the issues (intermittently throughout the day) so I believe it is to some degree radiated interference. I have tried a true sine, Online Double Conversion UPS and power conditioners for my desktops.
Have had POCO out 4 times to double check all of their connections. Even checked everything at the pole as well.
I hired a pretty good electrician (after trying with 2 that could not assist me) to come check it out and after checking everything over multiple times, suspecting that there was a loose or intermittent neutral. Instead all he found was that I had 6-7 amps of current across my metallic waterlines. He speculated that the EMF from this net current was the cause of much of my issues- particularly the Wifi problems. He said the amperage was a result of multiple factors: neighbors corroded/rusted neutral feeder, and our corroded neutral feeder, and the fact that the bonded utility service offered a parallel neutral return path. We had him replace the entire thing (meter base and mast connections) and worked with our neighbors to tighten up their connection. The amperage went down to about 3-4amps. While some of the symptoms of my device problems lessened, it is all still there. I now own a clamp meter and at times the amperage drops very low (.2-.6amps) and while my laptop on battery works fairly well, the problems are still entirely there for my desktops. I feel that there is some correlation between the objectionable current across my waterline and the interference screwing with my electronics.
Now I know multiple people out there with this same issue. Here is a post detailing the issue in a bit more depth and explaining some of the symptoms, which I can go into far more depth on as to my own observations and tests.
Input Lag thread
In this post many people tell the OP that it must be a grounding problem. Now what I am hoping people here can clarify for me:
What is the role of EGC for computers? Is it for a voltage reference or merely for safety? Can problems arise from a bad ground?
What would you suspect could potentially be the issue here? I would think the interference (RFI or EMI) would want to travel on the grounded conductors back to the transformer. But it is clearly not doing that and me and my electrician are out of ideas.
What are some measurements I could take that would help me diagnose this issue? I have a multi meter, a clamp meter, a Tri Field TF2, and an AM radio.
Is there a better place I can post this to hopefully find someone knowledgeable enough to assist me?
I can provide much, much more info but wanted to end it here as it is probably already too long. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
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