ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area 50 VOLTS ON GROUND

I RECENTLY LOST MY COMPUTOR SERVER WHICH IS ON COMCAST WHEN COMCAST CAME OUT THEY SAID THERE WAS 45 TO 50 VOLTS ON THE GROUND WHAT WOULD CAUSE THIS, THE SERVICE HAS A WATER PIPE AND GROUND ROD GROUND AT THE MAIN AND COMCAST TAPPED OFF THE WATER PIPE.

Call an electrician....

Sounds like trouble in your panel.

WHAT WOULD CAUSE THIS

Check the equipment ground on your caps lock. Otherwise call an electrician quickly.... And pay them to make repairs. You may have a dangerous situation that can destroy electrical items, cause shocks, or worse.


Tom

A very common problem. It is life threatening and you should seek professional help ASAP. Sounds like you are not in the trade, so fixing it yourself is not an option.

Failure to get the issue resolved will likely cause immediate equipment failure, and possible fatal shock under the right conditions.

I am curious as to what point they measured this voltage from, i.e., the reference.

Larry good point. If it was between the service and coax shield guess which pot is calling the kettle black.

I'm not clear as the two points between which the measurement was made. I assume one was at the ground on the outlet powering the server, but when you say Comcast "tapped off the water pipe" do you mean that was the reference point used?

If the water pipe is properly bonded and at ground potential, then it might just be a bad equipment ground to the receptacle in question. Or maybe it's a replacement for an older 2-wire outlet which never had a ground in the first place?

A defect.

Call a qualified service electrician asap.

Another psooibility is that the problem is on the incoming cable shield, and not the house ground.

Cable systems have, if I'm not mistaken, 50 volts imposed on them for powering in-line equipment.

It is very possible that this damage was caused by a defect in cable-company equipment, and they are liable.