Found two Volts in the spicket

[woodchuckie]

Maybe you've seen this but talking about high tension wires and working around electricity reminded me of this I received recently.
YouTube - High Voltage Cable Inspection

 

[czechsonofagun]

Maybe you've seen this but talking about high tension wires and working around electricity reminded me of this I received recently.
YouTube - High Voltage Cable Inspection

Thats pretty cool! Thanks.

 

[LBrown59]

In some old houses people would ground electical devices to the water pipes. This worked fine since the pipe from the well was iron or steel. Then the dug well was replace with a drilled well with plastic pipe and the ground no longer works. I lived in an old farm house with this setup. It wasn't until the kitchen was redone and the old dishwasher pulled out that we found the source of the "tingle".
Greg

My water line froze up in Feb.
The plumber who repaired it had to remove the ground wire from the water pipe.
After he was done he said there was no use in hooking the ground wire back up to the water pope because the under ground pipe was plastic water line so it was never grounded in the first place.
I find out after 36 years the electric here has been ungrounded all this time

How did you fix it?

 

[czechsonofagun]

I shut down the house and it was still there. Called the distribution company and the NOVEC guy showed up and said he does not understand why it has the voltage. He suggested to check the panel if there is anything corroded in it.

I think I will ask NOVEC to shut down the power for our house and check again.

 

[Skyco]

True story- about 35 years ago living in a very old dormitory at college, Woodrow at U of South Carolina- I noticed one day in the communal shower I would get a tingle in a cut on my hand when I reached up to adjust the shower head. Well one of the other students, who happened to be an electrical engineering major, claimed this was impossible since both the floor drain and the shower head were grounded.
So one evening after quite a few beers he was gonna prove it couldn't happen, stood in water on the shower floor with one bare foot on the metal drain and with a coathanger in his mouth touched it to the shower head

When he got up we called maintenance and were lucky we weren't calling the EMTs..... Looking back it is amazing what a little beer and youthful inexperience can make happen...

 

[hockeypuck]

I shut down the house and it was still there. Called the distribution company and the NOVEC guy showed up and said he does not understand why it has the voltage. He suggested to check the panel if there is anything corroded in it.

I think I will ask NOVEC to shut down the power for our house and check again.

This sounds like the power company has a bad grounded conductor. Do you have a metal water pipe? Better yet if you have a well pump, shut all the power off and disconnect the ground wire going to the pump at the panel, and see if you get a small arc. Use gloves if you are not experienced and make sure you shut the main off. If you get an arc on the ground wire, call an electrician, make sure your service is properly grounded then call the power company and make them fix their problem.