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.

 

[Darkwood]

They can give false reading for so many reasons including static, any metal work where electrical noise travels, induction etc and are hard to prove they are working correctly before testing as it may be picking up something other than what your trying to prove test it with so as the general jist of this thread goes... even when you work out its bad points you end up becoming complacent to it giving false readings then one day it wont be a false reading where normally it does thus been actually live metalwork etc and EEEK!

 

[JD6400]

Said it before and will say it again !
There the devils work and need treating as such , or they will probably one day kill you !:frown2:

 

[Darkwood]

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.........

Only brought the situe up through coincidence as ex gf was stripping wall paper at new home with steamer last night and got a shock off wall, told her to pull fuse and went round this morning, found drill hole vertical to hidden socket behind radiator which obviously made the wall live, and yes have to say on this occasion it wasnt easy to foresee and just one off them things but a real hazard that a volt stick would have given wrong impression that it was false reading.True rms- Multi-meter gave 187volts from wall to earth.
To answer your question NO! of course not but if wall damp or moldy then yes would double check well if i ever used a volts stick that is but that aint likely.:yesnod:

 

[SimpleSimon]

You should check the bonding. Could be a floating earth your picking up because its not bonded properly.
Volt sticks are not guaranteed but just to make a quick check. Like turning off the switch you know is the light but double checking.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Darkwood]

You should check the bonding. Could be a floating earth your picking up because its not bonded properly.
Volt sticks are not guaranteed but just to make a quick check. Like turning off the switch you know is the light but double checking.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

25yrs on tools here so confidence high and all second nature to me, as dug out faulty cable after doing ring main tests and finding low insulation readings, looks like been like that for years but only showed its nasty head when she soaked the wall to strip paper.... sods law as i was due to weigh up an test for fitting 17th edit' board on friday.