On Sun, 14 Jan 2007 01:22:50 GMT, "Fpbear II"
wrote:

A few days ago I wrote about the problem with 134V at the outlet. I thought
it might be the ground so I added a couple 8' rods, but that was not it. I
looked up at the power pole, and there I could see the neutral conductor was
completely broken off! I called Southern California Edison and they sent a
guy out within an hour. All fixed by the power company! Shared neutral
outlet pairs now read 118V/123V. The neighbor's bamboo trees sway against
the power wires when it gets windy.


I recall reading that post a few days back. It's always nice to see
followups so we know what happened.

You are a lucky guy. You could have lost considerable appliances and
light bulbs. Your grounding system saved your ass. Be sure to thank
it.

I had this exact same thing happen in a garage We had separate feed
and panel in that garage, which came directly off the meter. On the
side of the garage at the service head, the neutral came apart at the
crimp (tree smashing against the wires in wind storm). When I went in
the garage the lights were either real dim or real bright. I plugged
in a small power tool and the lights went out, and the tool ran real
slow. Then I noticed a puff of smoke rise from a portable ac powered
radio. Then my air compressor flipped on, and all hell broke loose.
The compressor ran slow and would not start the motor. At the same
time several compact florescent bulbs literally went up in smoke, my
cordless drill battery charger fried, several other lightbulbs died,
my hand tool went from too slow to too fast and that died too.
I shut off the main breaker and soon found the open neutral and fixed
it (trimmed tree too). When it was over, every light bulb was dead,
some of the compact flor. bulbs were charred, the radio and electric
drill were dead along with the battery charger. The compressor and
one light bulb survived. This could have been much worse in a home
where there are many more appliances and electronics.

I since added more grounding to that garage too.

In the end,