I got called to a customers island house on the 4th because they were getting shocked off the outside water spigots.
Customer was barefoot, standing in a puddle, showing me where he feels a shock. I used a meter instead.
Two outside water spigots, both had voltage to ground, 7 volts on one, 14 on the other. The spigot with 7 volts was 5 feet from the 2 ground rods at the service entrance. I shut off power to the house(meter/disconnect) and nothing changed.
I told customer I would contact utility about a possible neutral issue and suggested he stay away from tie spigots until the power company checked it out.
I called the power company the next day and spoke with the head lineman. After explaining the situation he started giving me grief for grounding the water pipes and if I hadn't this problem wouldn't happen!
So, I had to explain to the head lineman why we bond water lines along with other things, then explain why this voltage is happening, why I felt it was a power company issue and he needed to go and check things out.
He finally agreed to go look, but I don't have high hopes for a solution from them.
While in the shower last night and thinking about this an idea came to me. If I were to purchase a couple of 4x8 sheets of stainless steel expanded metal grill and bury one under each spigot, attach a #6 solid bond wire from the metal grill to the water spigot above, I think my shock potential would go away. There would be no way to contact the water spigot with out standing on the metal grid ( which would only be a couple of inches below grade).
Just throwing this problem/solution out there for feed back before I pitch it to the home owner. Has anybody had a similar problem and what did you do? I don't have high hopes for a power company solution and want to be sure my customer and the army of kids around stay safe. While the 7 to 14 volts may not be lethal, my opinion is it shouldn't be there at all and could it all of a sudden get worse.
Thanks for any input
Dave
