In article ,
E Z Peaces wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
In article .com,
"Pete C." wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:
So the g.f. and I are chipping in on a newly remodeled investment house
in her city, 300 miles from me. Home inspector sent a report that
included a notation that the outlet intended for the refrigerator is
giving an odd indication on the 3-LED tester: All three lights
illuminate.

Any speculation on what could cause this unlisted and presumably
improbable test result?
If it were somehow wired as a 240V outlet you would get all three lights
(usually neon, not LED). Some fault that would put the opposite phase on
the neutral for that circuit could cause that. Presumably if it's for a
refrigerator, it's the only outlet on the circuit. If the wire got mixed
up with a 240V feed for a window A/C outlet, they could have connected
the white to the other phase instead of to the neutral buss.

All right, I've studied this some, now. Here's a pic of a similar tester
I found online.

http://www.professionalequipment.com/enlargeproduct.asp?productid=7918

By my reasoning, based on the chart shown:

The left neon bulb indicates voltage between ground and neutral.

The middle bulb indicates voltage between hot and neutral.

The right bulb indicates voltage between hot and ground.

Anyone care to confirm my reasoning?

I do not understand how all three could be true simultaneously.

Now I see. If instead of being grounded at the breaker box, the white
wire were hooked to the other side of 240, the three terminals of the
outlet would be at different voltages and the three neon bulbs would
light. If nobody has plugged a refrigerator in since the outlet was
wired, that seems likely.

There is a kind of tester that can show three lights from a 120V outlet,
but if the inspector owned one of those, he could probably interpret the
lights.

I was having some trouble visualizing this when Pete brought it up, but
now that I understand how the tester works, and since you concur with
his logic, I'm giving my brain another opportunity to work on it. So
according to my back of the envelope sketch of what I believe you're
both postulating, that would put 240 across the hot and neutral, correct?