Guy,

I am an electrician that does commercial and utility work. I am not,
however, in the DFW area.

You do need a real electrician there, it seems. If coworkers, friends or
family cannot recommend someone, I'd suggest you find a local electrical
supply house and ask the counter people there who they would recommend.
These people deal with electricians all day long... and they know the
knowledgeable ones and the dummies.

DO NOT open your breaker panel and start poking around, as it sounds like
you don't have the training or tools to be safe. While I usually respect Mr.
Meehan's comments, you should NOT attempt to tighten any "big wires" in the
panel. If they are feed lines, they will be live and touching them could
kill you unless you have properly insulated tools or pull the meter...
usually things only electricians have and do.

Cheap digital multimeters are not known for their accuracy, either. However,
a quick check (at the outlet) is to test the hot leg (the shorter of the two
prongs) and the ground prong to see if you get the same readings.

Please be safe!!!

Jake

wrote in message
oups.com...
Over the past year we've noticed that we have lots of lights that burn
out, and more recently our smoke detectors (wired into house AC with 9V
battery backup) have had several batteries blowup. I just went around
the house and measured the voltage in outlets and found that some were
at 139 VAC, and some were at the normal 124 VAC. The power company
came and checked the voltage outside and said it's 124 VAC, and
suggested I may have a grounding or neutral problem.
How can I find the problem? Anyone know a really good electrician in
the DFW area (near the airport)?
Please email me at
Thanks
Guy