Re: OT: voltage on my ground rod

Jeff''s comments, below: I have heard this is also true with respect to wet
leaves in the rain forests nearby powerful broadcast stations. Similar, I
suppose, to the electrolytic detector (coherer) used in early receivers.

Bob Swinney
"Jeff Wisnia" <jwisnia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Don Young wrote:

<Kingfish Stevens> wrote in message
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On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:53:08 GMT, Ignoramus23732
<ignoramus23732@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:55:25 -0400, Kingfish Stevens <> wrote:

I have a new house under construction, almost finished, but with no
outside power source attached to it. My plumber noticed a tingle when
he touched a ground wire and the concrete in the garage. Sure enough,
I measure 6/10 of a volt between the single ground wire from the house
and the ground rod. I guess it's DC since the polarity changes if I
reverse the meter leads. What's causing this?

Um, you are measuring with a multimeter and do not know if you are
measuring AC or DC (it is a setting on the multimeter)?

It has a setting for AC and one for DC. What I meant by my polarity
statement was to say that the voltage I was reading was a DC voltage.
I figured it to be DC because the sign would change if I switched
leads.



If so, I would ask an electrician for help, as you do not know how to
use a multimeter.

I think that the first thing is to ascertain just what is going
on. What voltage is between what objects at what setting of the
multimeter?

How can there be voltage between wire going to ground rod, and ground
rod, if they are connected? Are they, in fact, connected?

I should have made this clearer. Here's the long version. The
plumber was finishing his installation of a tankless, gas hot water
heater. The (three conductor) electrical wire, that operates the
igniter, was roughed in. Since all the pipes are plastic, he would
have felt no voltage between the HW heater itself and the electrical
wire. But for some reason, he touched the ground wire and the
concrete floor (in the garage) and felt this tingle. Now this is not
a "stand your hair up" thing. He even mentioned wetting his finger
when touching the concrete to feel it better. He knew there was on
power hooked to the house, so he was asking me what was causing it.
This is when I decided to put a meter on it. Between the ground wire
(eventually going to the igniter) and the concrete showed 6/10 volts.
Between the ground wire and the other two wires, nothing. The next
day, the electrician finished hooking everything up. He drove his
ground rod beside the (future) meter base and connected the one copper
wire (from the main panel) to it. If I disconnect this wire from the
rod, I can read a voltage of 0.6 - 0.9 between the wire and the rod.

So that's my story. My house is a battery, I guess.

KS


Not only is your house a battery, but so is nearly everything else. A
penny and a nickel on each side of a damp paper towel will generate
easily measured voltage. Likewise, copper, iron, moist dirt, and sweat.
Nothing you have mentioned, other than the tingle, is uncommon. I suspect
the tingle may have been due to a static charge developed on the
disconnected wire, which is also not uncommon. Since so many people now
have high impedance digital voltmeters there are an awful lot of "ghost"
voltages being reported. They have always been present, just not noticed
and of no concern.

Don Young

I agree with everything you say, and given the right moisture conditions
you CAN feel very low DC potentials. I recall, but don't want to repeat
the experiment, getting a littl piece of some kind of foil candy wrapper
in my mouth by accident and when it made contact with a mercury amalgam
filling I felt quite a mini-zap from it inside my mouth.

And, don't let anyone con you into licking the terminals of a 9 volt
"transistor radio" battery either, you can "feel" that REAL well.

I recall hearing that some people had dental appliances which, when
certain parts touched each other, would create rectifying junctions and
turn their mouths into "crystal sets". They could "hear" strong AM
stations through the audio voltages impressed on their aural nerve system.
I have no idea whether those claims were true or bullplop.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?"


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: voltage on my ground rod
    ... I measure 6/10 of a volt between the single ground wire from the house ... statement was to say that the voltage I was reading was a DC voltage. ... concrete floor and felt this tingle. ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: OT: voltage on my ground rod
    ... I measure 6/10 of a volt between the single ground wire from the house ... statement was to say that the voltage I was reading was a DC voltage. ... concrete floor and felt this tingle. ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: OT: voltage on my ground rod
    ... I measure 6/10 of a volt between the single ground wire from the house ... statement was to say that the voltage I was reading was a DC voltage. ... concrete floor and felt this tingle. ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: OT: voltage on my ground rod
    ... I measure 6/10 of a volt between the single ground wire from the house ... you are measuring with a multimeter and do not know if you are ... How can there be voltage between wire going to ground rod, ...
    (rec.crafts.metalworking)
  • Re: Electrical-28 volts through ground
    ... wire and either the white or black wire. ... If the breaker is on you should see 110V between ground and the black wire, and 0 volts between ground and the white wire. ... Trace that ground wire back and see if you still get the voltage at upstream boxes. ... I took a multi meter and measure the voltage from the ground to any other wire in the switch with all wires disconnected from the switch. ...
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