On Thursday, August 8, 2019 at 2:59:53 PM UTC-4, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Thu, 8 Aug 2019 09:54:54 -0700 (PDT), TimR
wrote:


So this time I put a multimeter to the wires instead of using a voltage tester that just beeps. What I found is the hot (Black) wire from the circuit breaker panel has approximately 12 VAC on it, even when disconnected at both ends.

If I get 120 VAC on my multimeter, I trust it. If I get 12 or 37 or anything else weird, I turn the digital off and go get the Simpson. It's not as convenient but the old analog doesn't seem to get fooled by phantom volts the way the digitals do.

If the analog shows the same reading, then I've got a wiring problem. I've never actually had that happen though.
My old analog high impedence meter used to show "phantom" voltages
too. Holding one probe in each hand cancelled them out - as it does on
a digital meter if it is capacitive or inductive. At 37 volts even if
it is NOT phantom - and is real leakage, it is generally not much more
than slightly unpleasant - - -

And if it's not a phantom voltage, it can cancel you out. A resistor
across the inputs seems like a better idea.