Static electricity in wiring?

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Rburt5

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I changed a ceiling light fixture today. Had the power shut off at the breaker. As I was putting the new fixture in place I saw it spark 3-4 different times a tiny little zap like static electricity. I didn’t feel any shock it was so small and there wasn’t any power to the fixture. What would cause this? Is it something to worry about?
 

Jadnashua

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Do you remember which wire or wires produced the spark? I'd take a meter and see what I could see, but that can be confusing if you aren't well versed in its use. When cables are run in parallel and touching (I'm not saying shorted together, but the cable bundle touching for some distance, i.e., stacked), you can get an induced voltage in a cable, but normally, it can't support much current. It could be an unbalanced shared neutral, but that should have had a dual breaker to shut off both sides.

If it was on a ground lead, you may have a ground fault situation, and if you had a GFCI on that circuit, it might trip. It doesn't take much current (0.005A or more) to trip a GFCI, and if it was just on the edge, you may or may not have seen much effect...then, it may be okay.

Sorry to not be able to give you a definitive answer...sometimes, you have to be there or at least have a bit more information.
 

Fitter30

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Wires running in conduct can pick up electro motor force from the other wires can pick up voltage but really don't have much energy/ amperage.
 
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