Have you ever checked the voltage between neutral and ground and gotten somethng like 1.7 volts? What could be the cause of this? Could it be perhaps loose or corroded connection where the neutral is bonded to ground, or perhaps the neutral is slightly coming into contact with ground somewhere downstream? Perhaps induced voltage? Or maybe something in equipment?

Where exactaly are you measuring this voltage? If you are at the load end of the circuit, you are really measuring the voltage drop on the grounded conductor.
Don

I should have explained that this was measured at a recepticle. A guy i work with was asking me because he put in a recepticle and was hot checking it and between the neutral and ground on the recepticle he read 1.7 volts. I hadn't considered voltage drop. Thanks for the reply.

Also consider the possibility of phantom voltage as a result of the impedance of your meter.
But I agree with Don, probably voltage drop on the grounded conductor.


[This message has been edited by Ron (edited 05-07-2003).]

Thank you for your replies. I am trying to gain a little understanding about this and since you mention impedance and voltage drop as the likely source of this measurement, I am wondering if the meter is applying a voltage across the wires for measurement purposes or how this occurs. I assume the meter measures voltage thru induction across coils? Is this correct? From what source is the voltage drop reading being supplied since the neutral and grounded conductor should be at the same potential? Or perhaps there is voltage on the neutral because of a load downstream?

The voltage drop would be on the grounded (neutral) conductor caused by other loads that are connected to it. A 10 amp load on 90' of #12 copper would result in about 1.8 volts of drop on the grounded conductor.
don

My apologies.....I actually meant grounding conductor in the previous post and I really do know how to spell voltage.