Appreciate any input or advice as this is out of my wheelhouse of knowledge.

For several months my heater has been turning off at random points. We finally figured out that it was being tripped by a voltage alarm. The A/C tech tried to help a little and pointed that our oven and dryer circuits were off on voltage to what they should be 110/130 instead of 120/120. This made us realize the oven and dryer had tripped off in the past as well but never put pieces together as they never tripped breakers, appliances just turned off. Electrician originally found that our main meter a the street was poorly weathered and could be the reason we are having voltage issues. Replaced the meter and added surge protector. It didn't help. The surge protector tripped and fried a little. They came back out and I was getting 110/140 volt readings on different breakers and so they said the issue most likely was on Center Point's side. As we were about to take pictures the voltage dropped back down to 120 / 125 ish but was inconsistent, fluctuating 2-3 volts.

Center Point called me up and stated they are pretty sure the issue is not on their end since the other 3 houses on my rack haven't called to complain and talking to neighbor he hasn't had same issues I have had. He suggested it is a neutral issue and most likely in my ground wire between meter and my house.

Before I call the electrician again, does anyone have any ideas I should look at before I potentially have to have someone dig up the ground wire to see if that is damaged?

Weird, I am no expert but it sounds like an issue with the neutral or ground bonding. I would shut off the main breaker and check the power coming in and then work my way back from there. Turn off all the breakers and check everything inside the box while turning on one breaker at a time.

I just put in a sub-panel in my garage, my main box was a Siemens brand and my sub-panel was Square-D. I noticed in the Siemens box there is a large bonding wire that runs from one neutral bar to the one on the other side while in the Square-D box both neutral bars are physically bonded together with a metal bar that runs from one side to the other.

It would seem to me that, if you had a Siemens box like my main and there was a problem bonding those two neutral bars together that you could have a problem like you describe. You should pay attention to which breakers are causing you problems in regards to which neutral bar they are connected to.

Other than that, it would have to be an issue with the ground bonding but that seems fairly easy to check.

Good luck!

You don't have a ground wire running to your house. The utility company brings you two hots and a neutral. A grounding electrode is installed at your house (ground rod, ring, water pipe, etc.) and bonded to the neutral.

Voltage fluctuations like that are almost always a "floating" neutral. When you measure voltage, think of measuring height, it's always from one spot to some reference point. If that reference point moves, your numbers are all over the place. Floating neutrals mean loose connections someplace, and would mean starting at your panel and working upstream to the meter, service lateral, utility transformer, etc. The other neighbors could be fine because it may only be your service that has a loose connection someplace.

Your dryer, oven, and heater run on 240 volts, which uses the two hots. If those appliances are having issues, then it's not just the neutral that is floating. It sounds like there are issues with the other conductors.

How old is your house? How is your service set up?

Agree, sounds like loose or floating neutral.

do you have a multimeter?
if so, what do you see from line to line at a 240V outlet?
and from neutral to ground under load at various other outlets in the house?

I agree with the last 2 posters before bmc13 as I've had and seen this problem in the past. One incident was with my house and my next door neighbor's house another issue was with one of my neighbor's house.

In the first case, the symptom was voltage fluctuations with both of our houses noticable by the lights domming and flickering. Oncor discovered their splitter box located in the ground in the ROW between my house and my next door neighbor's house was filled with water when they pulled the cover off. Due to the water log situation, the neutral wire splitter connector was badly corroded and needed to be replaced. Once the connector replacement was done all was back to normal. They actually replaced all 3 of the connectors while in there.

In the second case, Oncor discovered a similar situation, sans the water log, and replaced the neutral connector for the feed to my neighbor's house and all was well after that. In this case, I was not experiencing any voltage fluctuations at my house but it was quite evident at my neighbor's house.

My house was built in 2012 and is a 3 story townhouse style home.

So the loose or floating neutral would be between the house breaker box and out to the transformer? Just want to make sure nothing in the house like a bad connection / switch / plug would cause this.



I'll try to take a picture when I get home to post if that would help but will most likely call a different electrician to try to get a 2nd opinion as the first one didn't seem as knowledgeable as I'd hope on this kind of thing.

BMC - I do not have a multimeter but the electrician did and thats where he got those readings. It was mainly the 240V outlets like the dyer and oven that were pulling the higher 140V as opposed to the other breakers.

Gary79Ag, wow! Multi talented as I thought you only monitored the f'd up people on ut forums.
Thanks for all you do as I would need counseling after visiting their sites...

6.5 Swede said:

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Gary79Ag, wow! Multi talented as I thought you only monitored the f'd up people on ut forums.
Thanks for all you do as I would need counseling after visiting their sites...

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LOL...Yeah, at times, I've got to take a long hot shower after some of the visits on the OB site!

Well, when it comes to multi-talented...you can just call me a Jack of all trades, Master of none!

I've learned at lot over the years, thanks to my grandfather, my dad, and just 63 years of experience. Oh yeah, Google, don't forget Google!

And I like to do what I call, Pass It Forward...I love helping people whenever I can! That's why I also spend a bunch of time on the HI board.

I also believe you have a nuetral bonding issue. Even though you are having issues with your 240 vac appliances, they monitor the 120 side for the internal power supplies. I would NOT call back your electrician. Sounds like he was thowing your money at the problem.

1. How old is the panel?
2. Who makes it?
3. Do you have a temp gun? When your heater or dryer is on, carefully, (as you need to be about 6" away) scan the lugs and breakers looking for hot spots. Anything much over ambient is bad.
4. Do you have a meter AND know how to use it? Check the voltage across the lugs, anything over zero is a problem.
5. You can throw the main breaker, then after verifing loss of voltage, tighten the main bus and neutral lugs.

All of these tests are easily done and should of been done first.

PLEASE be careful! If you are NOT totally sure of what you are doing ask a pro.

Are you in the houston area and is aggiebrewer someone that makes craft beer? With the right "beer"avation I would be willing to assist

No ring but free craft beer gets you an industrial electrician thats troubleshooted for 25yrs on upto 138kv...

6.5 Swede said:

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No ring but free craft beer gets you an industrial electrician thats troubleshooted for 25yrs on upto 138kv...

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He's got a cracked insulator on the 795 ACSR into the house. Turn up the AM radio and thump the poles with a sledgehammer til you find it. Gear up, powder the eels, and de-energize with the hotstick. Thump the cable and have a beer.

https://goo.gl/images/jkc7R7