"Dolchas" wrote in message
om...
Greetings all!

I recently posted a question about a problem I encountered in which a
bulb was burning suspiciously brightly for a while, and then when it
blew out, it seemed to blow out not only its own switch, but also the
two other light switches that shared that box. The circuit breaker
for this area was not tripped, and my question sought advice on how
next to proceed.

Someone mentioned that I could have a 'floating neutral.' I call our
electric company right away, but could not get home from work in time
to meet with the technician who came out to the house. I PRESUME the
dispatcher gave the technician an accurate account of the problem, but
of course this may not be the case. The technician tested the voltage
where it comes into out house, and (in a note he left, and a phone
message) declared it to be fine (he left a box to monitor it further).

My question is: If the voltage was reading "fine" where the power
enters the house, does this mean we do not have a floating neutral?
Or does it sound like this guy didn't really test for a floating
neutral (since, as I said, we didn't get a chance to directly describe
the problem for him)? Or is it the case that the voltage may read
fine where the power enters the house, but perhaps the floating neutal
problem is an 'inside the house' problem?

We will have an electrician come out on Monday, but I'd like to know
as much as possible about this scenario before then.

Thanks!

Chuck


The term "floating neutral" can have different meanings depending on who
you're talking to. Suffice to say, that in your case, what is being
referred to is that there is a _loose_or bad neutral connection somewhere in
your electric system. Understand that a true neutral does _not_ exist in 2
wire circuits (single cables with black, white and bare wires). So.....the
most likely places to have a loose or bad neutral connection is in the
service equipment or in a true multi-wire circuit (for residential wiring,
usually a single cable with black, red, white, and bare wires). There can
be a loose or bad neutral connection in the meter housing or at the neutral
connection in the main panel. Once those connections are checked (best to
de-energize the entire panel first), start looking in the main panel for
cables that contain black, red, white, and bare wires (these are true
multi-wire circuits)......if you have any multi-wire circuits, first check
for a loose or bad connection where the white wire is connected to the
busbar.......then check the neutral connections on that multi-wire circuit.