electric line shows 100 volts instead of 122volts PLEASE HELP !

[alfedo]

Hello everyone,
one of the electric lines in my house suddenly began losing power, it shows only 100 volts instead of 122 like in other lines, as a result I can't use it and it's one of the main lines in my house. Can someone please give me an advise what I should do to fix it?
How can I find what causing power loss? I greatly appreciate any help
thank you in advance
Al

 

[Dan the spark]

What are you on about you numpty, in England we use 230v!!!!!

 

[alfedo]

I'm in USA :83:

 

[Rockingit]

Hi Alfredo, 99% of us here on this forum are UK based, but the principles remain the same so I'm sure we can give you some pointers.

So, are you saying that from most of the outlets in your house you've got 110+, but on certain other outlets in the same building they are much lower? Fed from the same switch board but on different circuits?

 

[Dan the spark]

Lost neutral or earth?

 

[Rockingit]

Lost neutral or earth?

Either that or I was thinking an appliance gone faulty and dragging the line down (water heater or something else chunky)

Assuming of course that it's not a 3ph install!

 

[alfedo]

yes that's correct, and this (faulty) line was fine until a few days ago, I have tv connected to that outlet and also wall light went off along with tv so I guess they all feed from the same line

 

[Rockingit]

Have you done any work around the house? Drilled anything into the walls or like that?

 

[alfedo]

no work has been done around the house, and no other appliances connected to this line

 

[Knobhead]

Are there two or three lines plus neutral to your house? If outlets fed off one of the other lines are OK it’s unlikely to be a neutral fault. are you getting the same problems with 240V outlets?
Sorry for the questions but fault finding over the net isn’t the easiest.

 

[ian.settle1]

Are there two or three lines plus neutral to your house? If outlets fed off one of the other lines are OK it’s unlikely to be a neutral fault. are you getting the same problems with 240V outlets?
Sorry for the questions but fault finding over the net isn’t the easiest.

A spark I worked with spent some time in Canada which is the same as the US all lights and low powered equipment is normally of 110v but when it comes to high powered equipment eg washing machines etc it is 230v with a shared neutral (weird way of wiring in my view)

 

[Spazz]

First of all - you clearly not an electrician so call one out!

How are you messaging this? - if your using a multimeter - STOP and get the electrician to visit!

2nd - Have you done any building work recently?

3rd - what is the voltage between neutral and Earth

4th - what kind of earth do you have over there?

 

[Knobhead]

A spark I worked with spent some time in Canada which is the same as the US all lights and low powered equipment is normally of 110v but when it comes to high powered equipment eg washing machines etc it is 230v with a shared neutral (weird way of wiring in my view)

The reason why I asked the questions.
I've worded on a lot of 240V three phase systems.

 

[Rockingit]

I've gotten UK 230V kit to work in the States on more than one occasion (when someone's forgotten to order the transformers...) Just take two phases and use them as L & N, ignore the 3rd leg. Not perfect by a long way, but gets you out of a hole for a day! (And confuses the heck out of US sparkies!!!)

 

[Knobhead]

Dual voltage household installations are quite common in the states.
This was sent to me by a friend in NYS. He was quite proud of it, he’d just tidied it up! God knows what it was like before.
View attachment 12572

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I've gotten UK 230V kit to work in the States on more than one occasion (when someone's forgotten to order the transformers...) Just take two phases and use them as L & N, ignore the 3rd leg. Not perfect by a long way, but gets you out of a hole for a day! (And confuses the heck out of US sparkies!!!)

I was under the impression, that is how accessories intended for such equipment are intended to be wired.
The 110V accessories use one line and neutral, the 220V accessories use two lines and no neutral.
Very similar to our 110V transformers, which use two 55V lines to produce the 110V.

 

[Knobhead]

The plants I served my time on used 550V as the normal supply voltage. All the offices had to have transformers for 115-0-115V to give 230V for the office equipment.

Eventually on some new plants we went on to this new weird voltage of 433V. Some of the old boys were lost with it, just couldn’t get their heads around using the main neutral as part of the 240V supply.

 

[Engineer54]

Check the wire nuts on this circuit, and you'll probably find the problem ...lol!!!

Depending in where you are in the States, the supply voltage can be 240/120, 230/115, 220/110 single phase 3 wire system.... Not many of the 220/110 systems, i'm told now!!!

 

[Knobhead]

The UK version of wire nuts had the right name, "Screwits". Nothing but trouble.

 

[Engineer54]

A spark I worked with spent some time in Canada which is the same as the US all lights and low powered equipment is normally of 110v but when it comes to high powered equipment eg washing machines etc it is 230v with a shared neutral (weird way of wiring in my view)

The neutral isn't used in 220/230/240V domestic equipment, just the L1-L2 lines. Normally connected via 3 pin socket outlet and plug, on single point radial circuits...

At least the Canadians use metric cables and not the AWG as in the States!! lol!!

 

[mayfair]

Wondeful reply, not realy what the forum is all about !

What are you on about you numpty, in England we use 230v!!!!!

 

[Rockingit]

Just goes to show how a little knowledge goes a long way.......and that Volt is just the unit of PD!

I didn't know about 220v accessories in the US as I've only really done industrial there. Can't think that I've ever come across any 220v domestic stuff though in my travels, and I've been in a lot of kitchens! (something about parties.......)

 

[Engineer54]

Just goes to show how a little knowledge goes a long way.......and that Volt is just the unit of PD!

I didn't know about 220v accessories in the US as I've only really done industrial there. Can't think that I've ever come across any 220v domestic stuff though in my travels, and I've been in a lot of kitchens! (something about parties.......)

Rockingit, The States is a mis-mash of different supply systems and voltages from State to State!! lol!! Anything from delta connected distribution (some with high leg) TX's to the standard Star variety, ...and anything 220V to 240V for domestic distribution.... And that's before we consider the commercial and industrial systems and voltages available!! lol!!! The NEC describes about 5 or 6 of them, but there are more than that...lol!!!

 

[Knobhead]

E54 you didn’t mention two phase.

It’s very rare now, but some back woods places still have it. I wouldn’t like to come across it. L1-N / N-L2 but the neutrals aren’t normally connected. They can be but L1-L2 voltage is 141% of the L-N voltage, not a lot of use to anyone. So 120V L-N would give 170V L1-L2. The phases are at 90° so the vector sum gives 141%.

Americans are weird!