The Green Goat
LGBTQ Compliance Officer -Lotta gays in this place
Lifetime Member
Supporting Member
So I have an odd situation with my house that I can't quite figure out. This is going to be a lengthy run-up to my question, but, a little background:
~7 years ago, either my house (built in 2002) or something in my backyard was struck by lightning. It hit hard enough to lift me about a foot off the bed. When that happened, some 'odd' things happened directly after the strike. My living room TV got smoked. My garage door opener got smoked. My house alarm went off (wasn't armed). And I have one of those 9v sump pump alarms sitting next to my sump pit (on a concrete floor) in the basement (not on a circuit) that got fried with the alarm stuck on (it never got wet). So, fixed the TV, replaced the garage door opener, turned off the house alarm, and never could quite figure out where the strike hit exactly. I put it out of mind.
~Fast forward to last year when I was hanging some shelves in my garage. Using a stud finder that senses electrical current, I lag-bolted the shelves into the studs. During this project, for whatever reason, I passed one of those electricity-sensing probes over some drywall, and the whole sheet alarmed that there was live electricity near it; odd. So, I plugged one of those dummy receptacle testers into one of the garage outlets (all on the same circuit) and it showed an 'open neutral'. So, I got a bit paranoid that I ran a lag bolt threw some Romex. I tested all the continuity on that circuit that I could and none of it failed, so I'm 99% this wasn't something I screwed up. During this testing, I shut the breaker off to the garage. I was pulling one of the light switches out that is on that same circuit and while I had my screwdriver in there, I touched both the ground and neutral together and it sparked just a little. So I'm thinking, that's odd, this circuit breaker is off. So I do some further investigating and sure enough, there's still voltage on that ground; ~18ish volts. I talk it over with my father, who's an old retired electrician and he seemed to think the original electrician didn't put in a good enough grounding rod for the house. The house main ground appears to be tied into the tiny telephone grounding rod. I noticed when it rained really hard around here, the circuit had zero volts on it, but if the ground was dry, it would carry some volts. I assumed it was because the wet ground provided a better conductor to dissipate any charge on the ground. I got busy with other projects and never got around to putting in a proper grounding rod but will eventually do so. That being said, putting in a grounding rod seemed like a bandaid solution to me when what really bothered me was that the ground had a charge on it at all. Where was this charge coming from? I never could figure it out.
~Fast forward to last week and I'm installing a new septic aerator timer as the old one broke. Simple enough project. So, I shut off the breaker to this timer and for good measure, probe the wires to make sure it's dead. Turns out, it's not. It's still carrying 18ish volts on this 'dead' circuit. Now that I'm reminded this was a problem I had forgotten about, I'm determined to sort it out because it doesn't sound safe. Since the timer is right next to my breaker panel, I decide to start switching off circuit by circuit to find the culprit. Low and behold, it's the 60A circuit that feeds my pole barn in my backyard (where I think the lightning struck). When the barn circuit is on, the whole house carries ~18v on the ground. When the barn breaker is off, the whole house ground is 0v. So something isn't right with the barn wiring, it appears.
I initially thought that maybe the cable between the house and the barn (buried in plastic conduit) got messed up by the lightning. So, I disconnected the cable from both the house and the barn panel and ran a continuity test on the neutral and ground wires. Neither shows any compromise as far as I can tell.
I don't have anything plugged into the barn that would feed a charge. So at this point, I'm at a loss. Any idea where this mystery charge could be coming from? It's an odd voltage and varies a little bit depending on when and where I check it.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought it needed some background context.
Thoughts?
~7 years ago, either my house (built in 2002) or something in my backyard was struck by lightning. It hit hard enough to lift me about a foot off the bed. When that happened, some 'odd' things happened directly after the strike. My living room TV got smoked. My garage door opener got smoked. My house alarm went off (wasn't armed). And I have one of those 9v sump pump alarms sitting next to my sump pit (on a concrete floor) in the basement (not on a circuit) that got fried with the alarm stuck on (it never got wet). So, fixed the TV, replaced the garage door opener, turned off the house alarm, and never could quite figure out where the strike hit exactly. I put it out of mind.
~Fast forward to last year when I was hanging some shelves in my garage. Using a stud finder that senses electrical current, I lag-bolted the shelves into the studs. During this project, for whatever reason, I passed one of those electricity-sensing probes over some drywall, and the whole sheet alarmed that there was live electricity near it; odd. So, I plugged one of those dummy receptacle testers into one of the garage outlets (all on the same circuit) and it showed an 'open neutral'. So, I got a bit paranoid that I ran a lag bolt threw some Romex. I tested all the continuity on that circuit that I could and none of it failed, so I'm 99% this wasn't something I screwed up. During this testing, I shut the breaker off to the garage. I was pulling one of the light switches out that is on that same circuit and while I had my screwdriver in there, I touched both the ground and neutral together and it sparked just a little. So I'm thinking, that's odd, this circuit breaker is off. So I do some further investigating and sure enough, there's still voltage on that ground; ~18ish volts. I talk it over with my father, who's an old retired electrician and he seemed to think the original electrician didn't put in a good enough grounding rod for the house. The house main ground appears to be tied into the tiny telephone grounding rod. I noticed when it rained really hard around here, the circuit had zero volts on it, but if the ground was dry, it would carry some volts. I assumed it was because the wet ground provided a better conductor to dissipate any charge on the ground. I got busy with other projects and never got around to putting in a proper grounding rod but will eventually do so. That being said, putting in a grounding rod seemed like a bandaid solution to me when what really bothered me was that the ground had a charge on it at all. Where was this charge coming from? I never could figure it out.
~Fast forward to last week and I'm installing a new septic aerator timer as the old one broke. Simple enough project. So, I shut off the breaker to this timer and for good measure, probe the wires to make sure it's dead. Turns out, it's not. It's still carrying 18ish volts on this 'dead' circuit. Now that I'm reminded this was a problem I had forgotten about, I'm determined to sort it out because it doesn't sound safe. Since the timer is right next to my breaker panel, I decide to start switching off circuit by circuit to find the culprit. Low and behold, it's the 60A circuit that feeds my pole barn in my backyard (where I think the lightning struck). When the barn circuit is on, the whole house carries ~18v on the ground. When the barn breaker is off, the whole house ground is 0v. So something isn't right with the barn wiring, it appears.
I initially thought that maybe the cable between the house and the barn (buried in plastic conduit) got messed up by the lightning. So, I disconnected the cable from both the house and the barn panel and ran a continuity test on the neutral and ground wires. Neither shows any compromise as far as I can tell.
I don't have anything plugged into the barn that would feed a charge. So at this point, I'm at a loss. Any idea where this mystery charge could be coming from? It's an odd voltage and varies a little bit depending on when and where I check it.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought it needed some background context.
Thoughts?
