The problem is more likely in the house wiring itself. You said there were
other switches in the box, suggesting that there is possibly more than one
circuit in the box. If there is a circuit connected to the opposite leg of
the 220, and if the neutral wires are tied together for both these circuits
in the box (they should not be, but I found some pretty ugly wiring errors
in my old house), then a weak connection for one of the neutral wires back
in the circuit panel would let that neutral float to some extent. I imagine
the electrician will inspect the inside of the box that is involved and
trace all the wires in that box--he should, at any rate.


"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