changed my mates light the other day, isolated circuit, checked with multimeter, light cost 25 quid, when opened got a cheap little choc box in it, which not happy but i duly connected to, when i joined the two earth wires together, to put them in the chocbox,the test screwdriver i was using lit up, not fully just barely showed power, could this be earth leakage, must say, ex council property, wiring looks like a dogs dinner, all done in plastic surface conduit. but i wasnt happy, from what i can see, the lighting circuit, is split downstairs upstairs which is fine, where could this power be coming from.
er why is earth lighting up
- Thread starter jumbo55
- Start date
Could be, as you say, earth leakage or more likely inductive/capactive coupling especially if any of the cable run along side higher current circuits.
good shout ricicle, every wire in the house is squashed into this plastic trunking, just a sea of black and red and g/y. just a simple job, if i turned of all other circuits, and touched the g/y in light again with tester, would that prove it... john.
B
breezer
throw that "tester" in the bin, they are very unreliable (as you have found out)
your right breezer, you will see i used a multimeter to prove the circuit, the tester was only being used to screw the wires into chocbox, and not to test, however in this case, it did light up and proved an anomaly, but i am 100% with you that this type of tester should never be used to prove a circuit.
It is a bit worrying, as any induced voltage should leak to earth via the main earth termination... If there is enough to cause one of those nasty neon screwdrivers to light it may well be spurious, but for my own peace of mind I would want to prove continuity of the CPC after seeing it.
If the earth wire is good ( ie goes to ground ) and you are standing close to live cables then it can be you that is at a voltage above ground ( coupled capacitive from the cables near you ) and that is what is lighting the neon as the charge from you goes via the neon to earth.
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