bad power

[delaware74b]

Re: bad power

Skystorm - it sounds like you've been having issues with the wiring in your apt since joining this forum.

My advice is this: get the landlord to have the ENTIRE service and electrical system in your apt completely inspected. By code, you're allowed to have +/- 10% of voltage (98 to 132 volts on a 120 line, etc). If you still have that Zinsco panel, it's trouble. Your service is at least 30 years old. Service cables and meter pans don't last much more than 35 years, especially those made of aluminum.

I have seen the damage caused by bad neutrals in service equipment. It gets ugly fast and electronics and motors are the first victims.

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

Oil from tx, or creosote seeping out at the pole base?

Is your apt a multi-unit building? Or just your one apt in that building?

*Don't do the following unless you unplug any electronic equipment first!*
Find two circuits, each on opposite sides of the service. Get two small lamps or nightlights. Plug them in, one into an L1 circuit, the other into an L2. Now get a hair dryer or space heater. While watching the bulb on L1, run the heater on L2. All that should happen is the bulb on L2 may dim -very- slightly, unless the heater is on the same ckt as the bulb. Now reverse things and put the heater on L1 and watch the bulb on L2.

If the bulb on L2 gets brighter with the heater on L1 or the bulb on L1 gets brighter with the heater on L2, look at the neutral! If, however, there's only dimming, check the stabs on the bkrs, backstabbed receps, buried splices, etc.

And trash the Zinsco!

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

Skystorm - it sounds like you've been having issues with the wiring in your apt since joining this forum.

My advice is this: get the landlord to have the ENTIRE service and electrical system in your apt completely inspected. By code, you're allowed to have +/- 10% of voltage (98 to 132 volts on a 120 line, etc). If you still have that Zinsco panel, it's trouble. Your service is at least 30 years old. Service cables and meter pans don't last much more than 35 years, especially those made of aluminum.

I have seen the damage caused by bad neutrals in service equipment. It gets ugly fast and electronics and motors are the first victims.

Thanks for contributing (again). I hope it doesn't end with the noodle flapping in the breeze or the termination in the panel falling apart and burning everything up. And if there's no cold water GEC to 'mask' the neutral problem, some people 'put up with' replacing bulbs every 3 weeks. And a plumber could get electrocuted during a water meter change if the GEC is landed on the house side of the meter instead of the street side.

No one 'suggest' that he needs 'more ground rods.'

skystorm, your CATV and phone drops will burn up when the noodle completely lets go. But that will be the least of your troubles...

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

Slightly OT...

skystorm, I just saw that furnace video.

What the hell is up with the landlord!? Renting out a firetrap like that! Inducer starts, ignitor heats up, you close ckt to open gas valve, ignition. Then rollout because IDM stops and restarts. You won't be ready with your '50 pound dry chem' at 2 in the morning...

(Criminal) negligence!

The two pix are from hvac-talk. Can anyone tell me what's missing in that 'vestibule compartment?'

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

well i did that for the video defrint wires

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

oh and i just hit 75hz

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

Don't brush something like that off casually.

You better hope that thing has rollout switches on the burner box.

Don't be ignorant and blow it off like, "Well it rolls out, but eventually the IDM stays on and the blower comes on."

'Eventually,' all the wrongs will piss Murphy off and you'll have a fire or worse.

For the sake of everyone in the place, FIX THE DAMN THING.

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

oh and i just hit 75hz

Lights getting brighter with increasing freq?

You could even have bad connections in that Zinsco "making and breaking" and sending extra pulses into the meter. If it's filtered enough, shouldn't happen though.

PS- You shouldn't have the computer on if the neutral's going bad, UPS or otherwise. If something goes boom and the UPS bypasses, your computer will be connected right to the line.

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

and it has had a compleat over hull
t-former
t-stat
control bord
igniter

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

i smell sumthing burning

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

control board

All it needed to resolve the starting & stopping IDM.

What about cleaning the blower wheel, oiling the blower motor, cleaning condensing unit & evap coil if you have A/C, replacing the filter, and checking the temperature rise? If the filter's horribly clogged, ducts too small or blower speed too low, your rise will be too high and you'll end up with a cracked HX.

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

surge strip 15in lcd smart meter allup in smoke
40in plasma still alive

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

i smell sumthing burning

Throw the main breaker. You DO have one, I hope???

WHY are you posting here?? If you got a fire someplace, call 911 already!

FYI- if the pole transformer shorts primary to secondary, there will be step potential around the pole ground- this is a shock hazard. Don't go near it!

Please be careful.

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

fires allredy out and both v and hz have gone back to normal

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

40in plasma still alive

Not for long! UNPLUG IT! NOW!

The neutral's letting go.

As the neutral path gets more and more compromised, the neutral point is floating to some high voltage. The MOVs in the surge strip vainly tried to clamp this voltage, but the fault energy is too much for them. So they burned up.

Keep waiting. More stuff will burn clear and the remaining items plugged in will get higher and higher voltages impressed upon them, until they too fail.

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

pop and out gos the pole t-former
i am on a lap top

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

fires allredy out and both v and hz have gone back to normal

Maybe the fridge came on if it wasn't damaged (yet), balancing the service. You'll be back in half an hour when your loads change again and the service once again become severely unbalanced w/o the neutral.

Three words: Moores Mill Road

Look outside at some other building serviced by this same transformer. Are they having problems too?

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

no i just watch the pole t-former go bang

[kaboom]

Re: bad power

pop and out gos the pole t-former
i am on a lap top

Sounded like a shotgun blast, right? Cutout hanging in the breeze? The two in the pix are closed

Go around the house and unplug everything. For equipment fastened in place, dump breaker. If the POCO refuses that cutout and the transformer goes pri to sec, you'll bbq your appliances and electronics, so unplug 'em now.

Get a camera ready for when the POCO comes. If the tx blows its top when/if they refuse it first, you'll have a good one for youtube. Provided you dump your loads first...

[skystormfarms]

Re: bad power

alredy done but the top of the t-former is 5 miles away now cus you can see the HV cabe hanging and sparking on the pole