Question About Electrical Problem in My House

Please describe the neutral-to-earth connection upstream of the distribution board.

<subscribes>

The source coming from electricity company to kWh meter Then from kWh meter , there is three phase cable 16mm2 copper wire To distribution board.

GA.

The house is locating in rural area No earth connection in the house In the kWh meter , the neutral is connected directly To earth wire which in turn connected to earth rod

Question the adequacy of the neutral. It is either poor or open-circuit somewhere between the local distribution transformer and the house.

The fix is the responsibility of the local utility supply organisation.

Thank you very much for your interaction

Such things are the essence of CR4. Good luck in chasing out the fault.

<unsubscribes>

check the terminal connection of neutral either at service entry side or inside the distribution board. Either case, there is neutral lose. Some time this may spoil your equipment because of over voltage also.

Or a bad connection somewhere in the circuit - Neutral or active. If you have a multimeter & know what you are doing, check the voltage from the board to the outlets, while vac or other load running. / with & without load.

Another possibility is that your total load is greater than the supply system is able to support and the voltage drop observed is line losses from the network.

As previosly suggested, find a competant local electrician.

Hi Abu,

The most likely problem as most other said, is your own in house neutral is bad and this is the first place you need to look. This can be at the panel or in any of the connections between the panel and the outlets,

What will happen is under real light loads you will get normal voltage to your outlets, but when you plug in a vacuum cleaner or other high draw device the neutral is too weak and you will back feed from one of the other phases.

How to do it yourself if capable, you need a multimeter or voltage tester capable of mesuring up to 600v ,or if not have your electrician test this : first unplug and disconnect everything!!!

Next; Get a resistance load, ideally a cheap electric heater

Plug it in and then test the voltage at your various outlets and at your panel, phase to phase, and phase to neutral.

The other cause is the same but on the utility side which is caused by a bad transformer or not grounding the neutral on a Y set up-- you will get normal voltage under light loads then with a motor or other resistance loads you can spike hundreds of volts.

Luck too you

Expat07

Measure the voltages as close to the supply as you can get. If they are incorrect there, then the supply is the problem. If they are correct there, the wiring in the house is the problem and you can trace it to where it is bad.

One thing that hits me is that you said rural. I assume that means overhead lines. Look at the transformer that feeds your home with a pair of binoculars. Does it have one or two high voltage wires coming to it? If it only has one, it is a system using a single high voltage conductor and an earth return. The problems you describe are common with these systems when the ground connection is poor. If you have this type of system, and the supply side is bad, contact your utility right away to correct the problem. I have heard of farmers who go out and poor salt water on the ground, but I wouldn't recommend it. Personally, I feel these type of systems are somewhat dangerous, but if you drive around on remote country roads, and look, you will see them.

Dear sir, the comments about a loose neutral are probably correct. That poor connection can be anywhere from the utility supply to your home wiring.

If you are not a certified electrician or competent in these measurements and repairs, please contact a licensed electrician.

The power levels involved are lethal, and work on the system is not to be taken lightly.

Working on your own electrical system if you are not licensed may also void your home insurance policy.

Work safe, and have a good day.

Abu Omar-

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING! Under some circumstances you have a potentially lethal situation!

First thing to do is call an Electrician. They will able to do a quick diagnosis of your problem and the repair started much quicker than almost anyone else could. Your problem could be a bad neutral but it could be many other possibilities.

Sticking the probes of a volt meter into the slots of an outlet is much different than opening up the breaker box and using the probes there, many more opportunities to discover a lethal way to use them. Likewise, it is more dangerous to use the volt meter in the panel box than it is to use a clamp-on amp meter.

When reading the answers you have gotten remember one very important thing, it is up to you the OP to determine what is very good answers and what ridiculous and dangerous answers are. As with any segment of people CR4 has the super intelligent ones on the field that you submitted this on to those that you wouldn't trust to correctly turn on a light switch. Most other members will agree on that. Fortunately the bad ones are only a very small minority. Most are here to help someone who we might be able to help in an area that they need assistance in.

Again, contact an electrician and have him/her do the diagnosis and fix. You have been a member for 1-1/2 months; you have made 4 postings and all about this problem. Your question does not lead to the conclusion that you are qualified to do this in-depth and potentially fatal type of electrical work (my viewpoint only). Electricians are cheap compared to funeral costs. Besides that everything you have worked hard for in your live will go to your family including that dumb, arrogant, stupid, rotten jerk of a son-in-law that your daughter married and deserves better than him.

Again, contact an electrician! The best advice you can get.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Old Salt ,

I really like your reply . We should not advice a non competent person to do an Electrical job . With our advice if he venture in to a repair work and get electrocuted and if it happen to be fatal, will it not be a crime, though non intentional. We should always caution them about the dangers of a lay man carrying out electrical repair/new work with out the help/ presence of a competent technical person. I think there are rules in every country regarding permission to do Electrical work . But in reality many people do it in every country . But as members of a responsible Engineers Forum we should not recommend any advice to non professionals and hobbyists.

V. I. Abraham-

Correct me if I am wrong, but in reviewing my reply I do not see any place where I suggested in any way that the OP does the work himself. "But as members of a responsible Engineers Forum we should not recommend any advice to non professionals and hobbyists" Apparently I was not clear when I told him several times to get an electrician.

Although I am retired now, when I was a working engineer primarily in the chemical industry, my titles were not Electrical Engineer, Electrician or licensed electrician. Does that still mean I can't solve the problems that those personnel could not figure out? Needless to say, I was the most proficient person at each plant site in the electrical field. Schools are not the only place where these things can be learned. I learned much of what I know through being side by side with those who were doing the work. I refer to this as "in the trenches". Books were also a very good source of learning.

Your words of advice are very true. But I try to give the minimum information on any subject that the OP seems to be lacking in knowledge and skills. Several weeks ago I replied to an OP that was asking a question. Throughout my reply I repeatedly stated to get an electrician. I also stated that he should tell the electrician what the problem might be but not to do the work himself. Since I had described a procedure to him that he should talk to the electrician to do, many and I mean many, others misconstrued that to mean that I was telling the OP to do the work as I had described the work. Because of this wrath of misunderstandings I clearly state what the OP should do and not do so others can clearly understand.

Perhaps of interest, for my home and other endeavors I hire the best electrician I and many others know me. Never had any unplanned electrical incidents and extremely safe.

Thank you for taking the time to discuss with me the answer to the OP.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Hi Old Salt I have only stated that I liked your advice as you correctly advised about the dangers of carrying out electrical job with out competent knowledge. That is why I gave you GA It is not about you that I mentioned but about many others in the forum. With your experience, qualification is not a bar for knowing the subject. I had a college of mine a Mechanical engineer who was much competent in Electrical job than many Electrical engineers who worked with me.He even helped me to assemble a Radio( way back in 1966, there was no TV transmission existing at that time in India) I stated a fact that even though most of the countries in the world has rules prohibiting non licenced persons doing electrical job but most of the people ignore it .My Son in law a US citizen called called me from US and told his washing machine has gone bad and I should help him so that he can repair it. I asked him why he cannot call an Electrician and get it repaired.His reply was really news to me" Dad better I will buy a new one that may be cheaper than calling one for repair". So I asked him to remove the equipment from the plug and open the panel and show it to me on Skype. With my direction he cold locate the faulty component and replaced it and put back in to operation. So you can really make a MBA qualified person to do electrical job with proper advice. But as an experienced Electrical engineer I will always advise a person to call an Electrician to repair the fault if one is not confident.

If the lamps shares the same power lines with those that supply the power outlets, and the wires (AWG) used are not properly sized, then it is likely and normal to see that every time you add more load like a vacuum cleaner, the lights will dim and/or flicker! The vacuum cleaner alone can draw as much as 15 amperes of current sometimes more and will typically pull down your house voltage if the inside wires used are undersized! This scenario is true specially if the house wiring used are all shared aside from being undersized, coming from the distribution box and feeding the rest of the house!

Depending on the total electrical loads and power demand in your house, the incoming copper wire size of (AWG #5) may not also big enough?