On Dec 10, 8:04*am, Bill wrote:
Hi guys,

* Many of you hit the nail right on the head: *The ground is, for some
reason, floating. *I will hire an electrical contractor to look into
this dangerous situation (I have found other wiring idiocies in this
house, so I'll have him check everything for safety).

Thanks again!

-Bill

well, you can fix this yourself if it is just a loose connection.
Find the circuit affected at the breaker panel. Identify the cable
connected to that circuit and check to make sure that both the neutral
and ground wires are securely connected to the neutral/ground bus in
the panel and that the screws are tight. (cut the breaker off before
you mess with the neutral; if there's a load on there you may get a
spark, and you don't want to flinch and hit something hot.) If you're
not 100% confident in your skills skip this step and call an
electrician because there is stuff in that panel that is always hot
and I don't want to read about you electrocuting yourself.

What you can also do is cut the breaker off and find out what lights
and receptacles are on that circuit (no longer work.) Then after you
have those all identified and tagged, start testing each one with an
incandescent test light, H-N and H-G. Should light both ways, as you
already know. If it does not at ALL devices your problem is likely at
the panel. If it does on some but not others, check in the area of
where it stops working (last device that works/first device that does
not) you may not know exactly how the circuit is run so you may have
to open up a couple boxes. Make sure that at every box all grounds
that enter and leave the box are spliced together, bonded to the box,
and connected to the green ground screw on the device (if present.)
If you think you've found the problem, fix what you've found, cut the
power back on, test again. Hopefully this will help.

good luck,

Nate