Here is the situation:
A new installation of a generator. the generator is installed on the 34th floor (roof) of a large building. There are control conductors in a conduit run down to the basement - 34 floors- with 8 junction boxes between. The control conductors are 14 THHN with a 1-2 amp load. The conductors are run from the fuel location in the basement to the control panel inside the housing of the generator on the roof.
They ran 6 conductors for the controls, and 14 spare conductors. The spares conductors were not terminated at either end.
In the junction boxes, there is a metallic barrier the same gauge as the box. One side has the control conductors, the other side has the 480v conductors from the generator to the load locations.
Without any load connected/or the generator actually running we have an unusual situation.
NOTE: the control conductors are for alarms to notify when the fuel source is low, or out - to shut down the generator.
when the control circuit is tested, all the unused (spare) conductors develop 54 volts. This is creating havoc with the alarms.
If a spare conductor is bonded to the enclosure at one end, 2 volts are shaved off of the 54 volts. Bonding the other end of the same conductor shaves off another 2 volts. Continuing to do this with the other spare conductors reduces the "Phathom" voltage until the alarms are not affected anymore. This is a temporary solution, until we can find the reason this is occurring.
Remember the 480v wiring has not been energized yet.
What could be the reason this is occurring?
Has anybody run across this before?
Thanks for the help, I appreciate any answer, as it may lead to solving this situation - even the generator techs have not come up with a solution, as they are protecting themselves and are saying this is a wiring mistake. Maybe they are correct, I am not sure.
