Whole house weirdness...this is crazy!

GunsOfNavarone said:
There was a lot of aluminum line BTW.
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If there is aluminum wire going to the branch circuits, you should check the outlets switches and light fixture connections and bring them up to code if necessary. Aluminum wire can be a fire hazard if not properly installed. See attached pdf for more info.
 

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  • Repairing Aluminum Wiring.pdf
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Go back and check to see if there is Grease in the connections with aluminum.

If dry they need to be pulled out, made shiny and correct Grease added.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
The loose ground that you found was the culprit. I've seen it happen before. If the neutral isn't solidly grounded, it will float and the 240V incoming won't split evenly between the 2 hot buses and the neutral because of imbalanced loads on each leg. The greater the current imbalance is on each leg, the greater the voltage imbalance will be. Hence, your 98-144 volt readings when your new espresso maker was plugged in. Do the math. 98 to neutral on one leg + 144 to neutral on the other leg = 242 volts, close enough to 240 volts. ;)

Tom
 
I don’t claim to be a NEC expert, and ground vs. neutral nomenclature can be confusing. But interestingly, NEC seems to allow 25 ohms to ground, although 5 ohms is considered good by some standards. Even at 5 ohms, a 10 amp current imbalance would mean 50 volts from zero on the neutral if the ground rod is used as the sole way of keeping the neutral bus stable. For this reason, the neutral connection to the transformer is the critical link in keeping the two legs at 120V.
 
rabler said:
I don’t claim to be a NEC expert, and ground vs. neutral nomenclature can be confusing. But interestingly, NEC seems to allow 25 ohms to ground, although 5 ohms is considered good by some standards. Even at 5 ohms, a 10 amp current imbalance would mean 50 volts from zero on the neutral if the ground rod is used as the sole way of keeping the neutral bus stable. For this reason, the neutral connection to the transformer is the critical link in keeping the two legs at 120V.
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Good point on the neutral link being critical
A friend had a tree break the neutral support cable and the ground rods didnt take the unbalanced load the fridge fan melted when it caught fire
When voltage shifts like that happens power should be turned off until the problem is corrected
I am surprised no damage to appliances happened in this instance
 
Squirrels ate ours and made things go odd.

Power Co fixed it fast.

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A loose neutral is behind many, nay most, "weird" occurances in a residental system. You seem to have found the source for your's but I would suggest that with aluminium involved, every connection be checked. Including the entrance ahead of the meter. The power company handles everything above the meter, they must recrimp the splices. There is a "grease" that is used between alum and copper. (or brass) It is important that such grease be applied to every connection where this occurs.

.
 
Nigel123 said:
Good point on the neutral link being critical
A friend had a tree break the neutral support cable and the ground rods didnt take the unbalanced load the fridge fan melted when it caught fire
When voltage shifts like that happens power should be turned off until the problem is corrected
I am surprised no damage to appliances happened in this instance
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Well, being therer was new siding/windows and gutters...we had our 6' sliding door removed and an 8' one put in. Popper $550 for motorized blinds as they were so tall.....3 days later the motor blew. I'm guessing this is why. My AC stopped working...I found the capacitor blew. Pretty much everything in the garage is on a UPS or voltage regulator....forgot what it's called, smooths out the highs/lows. Only time will tell all that took a hit.
 
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