What can cause an intermittently high resistance ground?
When I moved in to this… slum, I tested the outlets, had to repair several that were reversed, but got a decent ground on all of them. Twice now, the wire fault on my computer’s UPS has lit. Both times, I’d test the voltage across hot and ground, and got something 80 volts or lower. The fault lights went out, the voltages across hot and ground were over 120, it seemed to have fixed itself. Now the fault lights just came back on, and, no surprise, the hot to ground voltage is below 80.
What can cause this, and how can I fix it?! I’d appreciate an answer from an electrician. I know enough about electricity that I should be able to safely carry out your instructions, and I know where the power shut offs are.
Since somebody asked, I’ll type it again. 80 is hot to ground.
Everything here does suffer voltage irregularities, hence the UPS. However, hot to neutral is always over 100. Hot to ground is sometimes below 80, sometimes as low as 50.
Tagged with: Slum • Surprise • Ups
Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs
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sussex electrical
To trouble shoot, find the circuit breaker that feeds this circuit. Then next time it happens, see if the same fault exists when you measure between the breaker and ground. Alternately you could check several outlets in the home to see if the problem is general. This will divide the problem to before or after the breaker. Before the breaker (likely cause) can be poor connections in your main panel and can extend to outside connections on the power line . After the breaker would be connections between the breaker and the computer outlet. The first may require an electrician. If you are brave and somewhat knowledgeable, you can tighten all the large connections at the top of your power panel. The second requires some internal wire tracing and checking all connections.
brighton electrics
Are you reading 80 volts hot to neutral or hot to ground. If reading to neutral you probably have a loose connection in your neutral circut, probably in the recep. your UPS is plugged into. If to ground you might have a bonding problem neutral to ground in your main panel. The ground circut is for safety, not for circut operation. You also may be having incoming line voltage drop which will require the power company. Do lights and other loads dim or lose power or just the computer? If other items are having the same problem get a reputable electrician.