rogue eletrical voltage

[andy jervis]

volt stick picking up voltage on pipes,radiators and walls. there is an rccb on the installtion and it is tripping when you test it but not in the normal conditions with this volt stick situation.any ideas please.

 

[Deleted member 19807]

I think you need to put a proper test on it.

 

[Marvo]

Two things you can do;
Throw the voltstick in the bin
Visually check the services earth bonding to the water pipes, gas pipes etc.

 

[Darkwood]

Yes agree with others here... Throw the waste of money in the bin as they tend to pick up a fart in fairyland leaving you scratching your bonce... use calibrated proper test equipment.

 

[Engineer54]

When i was training, my company banned the use of neon's and any other device that didn't indicate an actual voltage level. It was as i remember a disciplinary thing too!! But then they issued every electrician with a voltage indicating Square D solenoid plunger type voltage tester!! I've still got mine, and still works perfectly...

 

[MarkieSparkie]

volt stick picking up voltage on pipes,radiators and walls. there is an rccb on the installtion and it is tripping when you test it but not in the normal conditions with this volt stick situation.any ideas please.

Hi Andy, Welcome to the forum. Heed the advice of the others and make some quantifiable bipolar measurements to see whether you have a real problem. I suspect you are experiencing a phantom phenomena due the quiescent electromagnetic fields or charge being sensed by your volt-stick rather than a real event.

 

[Guest112]

my old fluke stick picked up on everything wasnt bothered when i lost it in the end

 

[andy jervis]

Two things you can do;Throw the voltstick in the binVisually check the services earth bonding to the water pipes, gas pipes etc.

thanks

 

[andy jervis]

thanks everyone most helpful.
I dont have a volt stick, the problem came about when gas board came to change the meter and put their volt stick on the boiler,radiators and pipework which showed up live ,they then put warning signs on the boiler do no use
so to this the house holder borrowed a stick the same as the gas boards from a heating engineer he knows,
then he phoned me up and the head scratching began.
3 days later we have found out that the type of blow in isulation is building up a magnetic field round the cabling of the installation which inturn is inducing into the heating system.
hope no one else gets this situation its been driving me mad because normal test proceedures were fine.

 

[tony mc]

Andy what was the results of the tests after the head scratching!

I mean the tests with the correct test equipment to establish what voltage was actually being introduced into the heating system.

Out of interest what were the normal test procedures that were fine?

 

[needasparks]

Many people have had problems with a voltstick, me included when i first had one. The trick is understanding what its doing and how to use it as the intructions dont help you. I had this little tip given me and it really works.
It will become much less sensitive and more acurate if you earth yourself out by placing your spare hand on the wall next to where your testing with it (loose term that, lol) and you will be amazed how much better it is.
As most have said it should never be used to replace correct testing but is still great as a quick check for identifying cables/circuits.

 

[JamesBrownLive]

I'm totally confused...

Your initial post implied you had no idea what was causing said volt stick to glow, but now your saying that you know the cause of the problem is 'blow in insulation' (whatever that might be).

 

[Darkwood]

Many people have had problems with a voltstick, me included when i first had one. The trick is understanding what its doing and how to use it as the intructions dont help you. I had this little tip given me and it really works.
It will become much less sensitive and more acurate if you earth yourself out by placing your spare hand on the wall next to where your testing with it (loose term that, lol) and you will be amazed how much better it is.
As most have said it should never be used to replace correct testing but is still great as a quick check for identifying cables/circuits.

What if the wall was damp and really live EEEK! bad advice lol :death:

 

[jeremy]

this is my volt stick c.3m away from the perimeter fence at a MW transmitter in NI suggesting that there is a lot of electrical radiation going on, maybe indicated by the size of the spiders we find on these sites. IMO nothing wrong with volt sticks AS AN INDICATOR, its always interpretation of the signs that gives the story, one way or the other.

 

[needasparks]

What if the wall was damp and really live EEEK! bad advice lol :death:

If anyone is stupid enough to do that then they should take it back to the shop as their to stupid to own one.
Do you test every wall before you touch it then.........