Voltage backfeeding from CPE

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I showed my sup the info and the pics from the link.  Needless to say I think he pretty much just blew me off.  Not that is surprises me, he's blown a lot of stuff over the years around here from what I have heard.  I'm sure it's still sitting on his desk.  Either way I know better than to mess with it now.

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Going back to the link for the open neutral, in my security/audit position now, i end up walking a LOT of plant, so I now wear a V-Watch which has saved my ass a few times.  You would be amazed how many homes are out there with open neutrals.  Around here the local POCO will come out and splice the neutral back together if its aerial. 

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One of our node splits created a nice open neutral scenario a few years ago. The contractors just started removing the old node, were working and suddenly the home nearby started smoking. Sure enough all her eletronics/etc were melting/on fire and the fire dept. had to come, etc. Good times. Her drop was basically acting as her neutral and they broke that bond

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..... says her brother in-law was an electrician ....

Some of the best cable storys ever start or end with the above statement.

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Whoa! Kick ass link!!!

yes very good link. I wanted to share.
 I have ran into this many times and first on  2prong electrical cords the neutral is the ground as in most electrical panels the ground and neutrals are on the same block. now the most blatant issue like getting a reading close to 100V look up at the power line to the house (if aerial of course.) you will more than likely see that the neutral is broken (bare steel braided line also used for the powers drop support).

As for the ground the easiest way to test it is take the VOM set it to ohms/continuity touch one lead to the ground block and the other to the power meter box or the power ground that the cable is grounded to!!!!!! You should get a solid tone and (0) readout, if not then your ground is not really a ground and it is grounding at the strand or the tap. I always unhook the drop after this first test then check with a voltage probe this eliminates the ground from the drop to the strand tap.
 Next perform the same steps as before, if you get  beeping sounds then you have voltage on the ground that is not sufficiently grounded or a poor ground potential.  This can mean a couple things, the ground wire from the meter isn't grounding or attached to the ground rod properly, if there is not wire-to-rod and the cable is grounded to the snorkel then look at the neutral on the power line (never touch it and always use your voltage probe before doing any of these tests).  it may be broken but it could also be a loose neutral connection on the power Co. side  and the excess voltage that is not being used is coming through the cable because it has the best ground to the strand. The only way you should get sufficient V back on the cable like over 29V is 98% of the time going to be a poor electrical ground in or on the house in the electrical system and in most cases will either require the power Co. to check outside which is free to the customer or they need an electrician.

A easy indoor test is hook up a electrical circuit tester to the plug that feeds the cable EQ that has the voltage on it and it should give you a idea if the plug is grounded or maybe the hot and neutral is reversed.

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Just a FYI, 90% of service panels have the neutral and ground in the same bus-bar.  Matter of fact, if you have a bus bar for ground wires, and a bus bar for neutral wires on the branch circuits, you are required to bond those two bus bars together as one unless its a sub-panel downstream from the main panel.

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I bought one of those little outlet testers with 3 ligjts that you plug in to the outlet.  If the lights show wrong setup in wiring I inform the sub and leave.  usually shows ground and neutral reversed when its not right.

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I bought one of those little outlet testers with 3 ligjts that you plug in to the outlet.  If the lights show wrong setup in wiring I inform the sub and leave.  usually shows ground and neutral reversed when its not right.

they should be standard issue at most companies now.....we have them here...a must have....especially on repeats...