On Dec 30 2008, 10:18*pm, " wrote:
Hi!

I have a quick question and wondered if somebody can explain this to
me. *While working on some wiring today, I got a bit of a jolt from
the neutral wire. *When I tested it with my voltmeter, it read zero (I
had the breaker off). *But then, when I grabbed the neutral, I got a
tingle.

I took my voltmeter and tested it, and it peaked up around 1 to 2
volts, then dropped back to zero. *Did it again a few minutes later
and the same thing.

Upon further investigation, I found that there was one neutral that
was going to the furnace (on one circuit) and then up to the sockets
on the other circuit. *One circuit (the furnace one) was live while
the other was dead.

Just so I understand, is the reason why I got a tingle was because
electricity was flowing through the live circuit? *If I turned off the
circuit for the furnace along with the other one, would this have
prevented me from getting a little shock? *I read one posting that
said to use the clamp to check for amps. *Should I have done this
along with checking out how many volts are running through it?

Thanks!

IMO working with neutrals is far more dangerous than working with hot
leads. For these reasons:

Hot leads are logical, they terminate at specific devices and they
have specific breakers that you can trun off, they are easily
identified. To put your body in series with a hot requires that you
hold the hot and a neutral or ground, very obvious, breakers are
specific also very obvious.

Neutrals on the other hand travel througout the house, they are
frequently bundled across multiple live branches. When you undo a
neutral bundle in a box and you have shut off the breaker you think is
correct. That neutral may still be carrying a load on a different
breaker. When you undo the bundle then happen to grab two neutrals
you could very easily put your body in series with a load carrier.
Instant death if you gripped them hard.

I have gotten more inadvertent shocks and sparks from neutrals than
hots over the years by undoing bundles to get in another neutral in
the wire cap, then discovering that I opened a live crcuit on a
different branch where I did not trip the breaker.