I am having problems with the breaker box in my house. One side of it when the main is kicked off still has 120 volts running thru it. When this started both sides had voltage running thru them only the left side only has about 52 volts. The right side has always had 120 volts. Is there anything any of you can suggest? Even the electrician I have here right now is confused.
In need of help as soon as you can reply.
If you could please answer to my email address listed.
At the risk of being flippant you might need another electrician. :-]
With the information provided I would guess that either the main breaker of the panel in question is defective (not all that uncommon), or a single pole branch circuit is double fed. Once from the panel in question, and again from a different panel.
Have the electrician shut off the main breaker, and all the branch circuit breakers. Then check the panel buses for voltage. If it's there - bad main breaker. If it's gone turn the branch circuit breakers on one at a time checking for bus voltage each time until you find the double fed circuit.
I suspect the lower voltage on the other phase bus is a result of voltage drop through the main breaker when it's off, or voltage drop between the one phase with 120 volts, through a two pole branch circuit device, and the other panel phase bus.
Yes, and if the electrician is using one of those sensitive LCD readout meters, he's liable to get all kinds of leakage readings from equipment along the line, possibly from discharging capacitors, neutral/ground potential differences, and etc.
I agree with most replys. I never use less than an VOM meter to test electricity. Anything with electonics can be fooled. A simple wiggy, which I do not have any more would work. to be sure that your doing this right I offer Force the main off and on 3 times, then check voltages line and load. Line should be ~220-240vac line to line and ~115-125vac line to ground/neutral. load voltage should be ZERO on both phases and to ground If these conditions do not exist then your main breaker is bad Turn on the main breaker repeat test if you do not get the same readings doing the same thing on the line and load sides of the breaker then it is bad. Replace it. They do go bad some times I have replaced 3 in 35 years. You will need to pull the meter and that could result in an inspection or permit requirement. I hope this is clear
If you are still getting voltage readings on any of your branch circuits, you either have a defective main breaker (which is easily replaced after pulling the meter) or you have a defective/ultra-sensitive DMM in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to interpret its reading.
Recheck everything using a 15-Watt, incandescent light bulb as your sensing instrument, and even if you get the slightest glow from that bulb, you'll know that your main breaker (which at this time you have opened) is faulty (and maybe supplying a small amount of current via leakage).
The problem with DMMs, in contrast to inexpensive analog VOMs, is that in order to be of value to the electronics applications, they often have extremely high input impedances that can often cause them to respond to capacitively coupled voltages at very high imedances, just the same as if they were low impedance voltages. To demonstrate this, just stand in a room and graps the probe of a digital meter...it will likely register somewhere between 10 and 50 Volts, depending on the input impedance of the meter and how close you are standing to a power line. Don't blame the meter, because it's doing exactly what it was designed to do. It was simply not designed for the application in which your are now using it.
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