Hello,
first off, I've been searching google all morning for any clues as to what might be causing this problem. I would know how to fix it, I just want to know what I need to be aware of or what might be happening. I know some DC circuitry (mostly PCB boards) and I know about some AC stuff but am totally unaware of what might be happening in my home.
First off, we're dealing with a standard 110v recepticle. I'm in the US and therefore use 60 Hz.
When we first moved in, we had started to get things setup with TVs and such, and with high value electronics equipment, you always use surge protectors with them. When we plugged a surge protector into an outlet at home, it popped, fizzed and then popped the breaker. 'OK....must have been a power strip on its way out...', we thought, as we navigated our way to the distribution box to reset the breaker. Breaker reset, we plugged another surge protector into the outlet. Bam, fizz, pop. Breaker tripped again. 2 in a row? I took one apart and found the varistor inside to be blown out. Very odd.
So, I grabbed a multimeter and started "probing" around. excuse the pun.
meter between hot and com = 110v (ok, good, anything that I plug in wont explode)
meter between com and ground = 110v (wtf? I KNEW this wasn't right.)
meter between hot and ground = 220v (this would be the culprit)
I'm knowledgeable enough to know that com and hot supply the volts, that should be 110v. com and ground typically all go the same place, so they should read 0v. there should be no voltage potential between those. since grd and com are virtually the same, hot and ground should produce 110v, NOT 220v, which is what was popping our surge protectors.
So, my question is, why would this be happening? what is crossed in our home that would produce this on a lot of outlets in our home? We're just about to run around and test all of our outlets for this behaviour, so I'll get a better idea of what rooms this is happening in. so far, the only two rooms I know of that are good is the living room and my room, as I have all my computer equipment up here.
Also, we had tested everything in the distribution box:
hot-hot = 220v
hot-com = 110v
hot-grd = 110v
com-grd = 0v
So, somewhere in the wiring of the house, something is crossed with something, but what?
Thanks for any help you can provide me in my quest to solve this issue once and for all.
first off, I've been searching google all morning for any clues as to what might be causing this problem. I would know how to fix it, I just want to know what I need to be aware of or what might be happening. I know some DC circuitry (mostly PCB boards) and I know about some AC stuff but am totally unaware of what might be happening in my home.
First off, we're dealing with a standard 110v recepticle. I'm in the US and therefore use 60 Hz.
When we first moved in, we had started to get things setup with TVs and such, and with high value electronics equipment, you always use surge protectors with them. When we plugged a surge protector into an outlet at home, it popped, fizzed and then popped the breaker. 'OK....must have been a power strip on its way out...', we thought, as we navigated our way to the distribution box to reset the breaker. Breaker reset, we plugged another surge protector into the outlet. Bam, fizz, pop. Breaker tripped again. 2 in a row? I took one apart and found the varistor inside to be blown out. Very odd.
So, I grabbed a multimeter and started "probing" around. excuse the pun.
meter between hot and com = 110v (ok, good, anything that I plug in wont explode)
meter between com and ground = 110v (wtf? I KNEW this wasn't right.)
meter between hot and ground = 220v (this would be the culprit)
I'm knowledgeable enough to know that com and hot supply the volts, that should be 110v. com and ground typically all go the same place, so they should read 0v. there should be no voltage potential between those. since grd and com are virtually the same, hot and ground should produce 110v, NOT 220v, which is what was popping our surge protectors.
So, my question is, why would this be happening? what is crossed in our home that would produce this on a lot of outlets in our home? We're just about to run around and test all of our outlets for this behaviour, so I'll get a better idea of what rooms this is happening in. so far, the only two rooms I know of that are good is the living room and my room, as I have all my computer equipment up here.
Also, we had tested everything in the distribution box:
hot-hot = 220v
hot-com = 110v
hot-grd = 110v
com-grd = 0v
So, somewhere in the wiring of the house, something is crossed with something, but what?
Thanks for any help you can provide me in my quest to solve this issue once and for all.