On Sat, 25 May 2013 19:02:17 +0200, tuinkabouter
wrote:

On 25.05.2013 14:16, bilfre wrote:
On 2013-05-18 03:59:39 +0000, Fred McKenzie said:

Billfre-

Also look for evidence of a poor neutral connection. When that happens,
voltage will divide according to the load on each line. If that were
the case, ten volts drop at a high current load could cause a ten volt
rise across the other line-to-neutral circuit.

Five or ten volts doesn't sound like a serious problem, but a poor
neutral connection could get worse with age.

Fred

Fred,

Thanks for that tip, I think it may be the problem here. I went back
and tightened the screws on both leads at the outlet and at the hot side
on the breaker. One screw at the outlet tightened maybe a quarter
turn. This brought the voltage drop down from 10v to 7v. Still over
the 5% specified by code. I also put a voltmeter on another outlet in
the same room that was on a different breaker. When I loaded the outlet
that had the 7v drop, the voltage at the other outlet went up a couple
of volts from 120v to 122v and I wondered, what could cause that?

Then you posted about the poor neutral and I thought about the 2v rise I
had measured at an adjacent circuit. Then remembered that I did not
check tightness of the neutral wire connection in the panel. Think I
will go back again and make sure the neutral wire is good and tight at
the panelboard. Maybe that is why it is still over the 5% drop spec.

Does this make sense?

Measure the drop at the breaker too.

My experience with an open or loose neutral wire, is that the problem
is usually outside of house. The problem is usually with the electric
company's wiring. Call the electric company. They usually don't charge
to check their equipment.