Electrical Question

Posted by Metspitzer on October 22, 2009, 8:45 pm

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:29:55 +0000 (UTC), Wayne Whitney

>> Is it normal to have some residual voltage, under 5 volts, between
>> the neutral and the ground? Voltage between hot and neutral and hot
>> and ground is 120v.

>The neutral and ground are tied together at the service entrance, and
>should not be tied together anywhere else. So if you measure the
>neutral to ground voltage at some point distant from the service
>entrance, and there is any current on the neutral conductor anywhere
>between your measurement point and the service entrance, you will see
>a voltage difference. This is due to the voltage drop from the
>resistance of the neutral wire carrying that current.
>Cheers, Wayne

Yeah. What he said.
You most likely have a clock or a lamp down the line from the outlets

you are measuring > 0.

Posted by Michael Dobony on October 22, 2009, 11:33 pm

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:29:55 +0000 (UTC), Wayne Whitney wrote:

>> Is it normal to have some residual voltage, under 5 volts, between
>> the neutral and the ground? Voltage between hot and neutral and hot
>> and ground is 120v.

>
> The neutral and ground are tied together at the service entrance, and
> should not be tied together anywhere else. So if you measure the
> neutral to ground voltage at some point distant from the service
> entrance, and there is any current on the neutral conductor anywhere
> between your measurement point and the service entrance, you will see
> a voltage difference. This is due to the voltage drop from the
> resistance of the neutral wire carrying that current.
>
> Cheers, Wayne

No, ground is separate from neutral, per code.

Posted by Wayne Whitney on October 23, 2009, 12:21 am

> No, ground is separate from neutral, per code.

If your grounding system has no connection to the neutral anywhere,
then it is not very useful. The grounding system should have exactly
one connection to the neutral, at the service entrance. The primary
point of the grounding system is to complete a short circuit should a
live wire accidentally contact the grounding system, thereby opening
the breaker for the circuit. For that to happen, you need to have the
ground bonded to the neutral at the service entrance.

Yours,
Wayne

Posted by Tony Hwang on October 22, 2009, 8:49 pm

Michael Dobony wrote:

> Is it normal to have some residual voltage, under 5 volts, between the
> neutral and the ground? Voltage between hot and neutral and hot and ground
> is 120v.

Hi,
Essentially neutral and ground is tied together.
Ideally it should read 0 volt but 5V seems too high.
If you can light a small low voltage bulb, that is bad.

Posted by Michael Dobony on October 22, 2009, 11:35 pm

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:49:05 -0600, Tony Hwang wrote:

> Michael Dobony wrote:

>> Is it normal to have some residual voltage, under 5 volts, between the
>> neutral and the ground? Voltage between hot and neutral and hot and ground
>> is 120v.

> Hi,
> Essentially neutral and ground is tied together.
> Ideally it should read 0 volt but 5V seems too high.
> If you can light a small low voltage bulb, that is bad.

No, code is now neutral and ground need to be separate. Ground is connected
only to the grounding rod.

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Electrical Question - Page 3