checking 220 voltage question

[jnrwood]

Well, Central Hudson, our power company says the breaker out there needs replacing.+ let 'em know and they'll shut the power off.
hopefully they don't have any rules about having a licensed guy do it.. Anyway, i'm told they said one side of the breaker circuit was dead or open.

 

[wwhitney]

Between top lugs-122 vac., after turning breaker off , still 120. Thought this would isolate the test to the supply.

Well, Central Hudson, our power company says the breaker out there needs replacing.+ let 'em know and they'll shut the power off.
hopefully they don't have any rules about having a licensed guy do it.. Anyway, i'm told they said one side of the breaker circuit was dead or open.

These two statements are only reconcilable if you checked voltage on the load side of the service breaker. The suggestion was to check voltage on the line side of the service breaker. If you did that and got 120V, then something isn't adding up.

Cheers, Wayne

 

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[jnrwood]

I wasn't there when they checked it. and didn't get to speak to them directly.i have to assume they know what they're doing. the only thing i can think of is that even though i turned the breaker off to check supply, there may have been a short in the breaker that affected the volt reading, since wires were still attached. just guessing...if i put in a new breaker and box and everything works i'll be real happy.

 

[Fitter30]

More than likely the meter will have to be pulled to change the main breaker. Wires run underground from pole to house?
A short is a is a wire going to directly to ground or to the other power wire.
TIME FOR A ELECTRICIAN!! Without meggering the wires, pump and stove someone could get hurt.

 

[jnrwood]

Wires run underground to house. What's "meggering" the wires? Fairly confident i can do the job, i'm not totally inexperienced. although most of the work i've done has been inside the house, i've installed subpanels outside, to code.

 

[Fitter30]

Wires run underground to house. What's "meggering" the wires? Fairly confident i can do the job, i'm not totally inexperienced. although most of the work i've done has been inside the house, i've installed subpanels outside, to code.

Using meg ohm meter. A multi meter uses 3vdc or 9 vdc for ohm reading. Meg ohm meter puts out 500 to 1000vdc for reading. Provides a quick and easy way to determine the condition of the insulation on wire, generators, and motor windings.

 

[jnrwood]

Oh, ok i get what your saying. Thats a lot of volts! probably not gonna happen soon. they can't afford an electrician and at this point can't even afford me, just charging a pittance of what licensed guys would. 40 days w/o water, 5 people living there, landlord won't fix anything, looking for a new place but need water in the meantime...just trying to help them out...may be passing on the job, but so far its been a learning experience.

 

[JohnCT]

40 days w/o water, 5 people living there, landlord won't fix anything,

LOL. I had a tenant who was a year behind in rent (I don't need the lecture fellas!), and she called because there was a problem with the kitchen sink. I told her to call a plumber and we'll call this month a wash. Well, she didn't call the plumber but she did call the health department - and I got a nasty call from them..

The best day of my life and my best night's sleep I had in 30 years was the day I closed on my last income property.

John

 

[addisonjerry79]

Hello- I was helping out a neighbor whose well pump stopped working. So, originally, the owner backed up his electric stove to the wall too far and mashed the metal cover over the terminals and shorted the thing out. plastic was melted, wires seemed ok. At this point, the well pump stopped working and the stove would only work on warm and some of the lights.
Checked for voltage at pump and stove outlet, which should be 220, and i'm getting like 9 volts or 13 volts..ac. If i test between one or the other hot terminal and ground, i get 120 volts or so each. I thought that was weird. I checked my meter at home on my water heater, one test probe on each hot terminal and i get 243 volts. Plan to go over w/ another test meter to see what it says, but in the meantime i'm wondering what's going on.?
I also checked the breakers, which seemed and tested fine, and the wiring behind the stove outlet 5172 long lake circle apt 102 resident name, no burning or anything. any ideas?

Use a multimeter set to the appropriate voltage range to measure across the two hot terminals, which should read approximately 220V to 240V.

 

[wwhitney]

How to check if my home already has 220v coming in without opening the circuit breaker box?

Almost certainly you do.

But if you want to check, and are comfortable with a voltmeter around regular receptacles, you can do the following: go to your electrical panel, and find two adjacent breakers, each of which supplies receptacles. Plug a long extension cord into one receptacle supplied by one breaker (when you turn off the breaker, the receptacle goes dead), and carry the female end over to a receptacle supplied by the adjacent breaker. If you measure the voltage between the two short slots (hot), one on the extension cord and one on the other receptacle, you should get 240V (or there abouts).

If you do this for two random receptacles, you'll either get 0V or 240V. Receptacles in the same room are likely on the same breaker, in which case you would get 0V. But if you can't find two breakers for receptacles adjacent to each other, or don't want to shut off breakers and your panel isn't labeled well enough so you can't figure out which breaker controls which receptacles, you can just try various pairs of receptacles in different rooms until you find 240V.

Note also that my description about "adjacent" breakers assumes full size single pole breakers. If you have tandem breakers, where two breakers take up the space of a normal sized single pole breakers, the two sides of such a tandem would be on the same leg and so 0V apart. You'd need to use just one side of the tandem and a breaker in an adjacent slot. Or actually any odd number of slots away on the same side.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Fitter30]

With an extension cord plug into one outlet small blade opening at the reciprocal is hot. Just put your meter in a outlet and extension cord. 0 vac is the same side of the breaker . Move cord try again. Somethings meter probes have a hard time picking up the metal tabs are on the sides of the slots.