AboutJeremy Adams Expertise I can answer basically any question pertaining to the field of electricity, its applications and daily uses, theory, calculations, how to for residential, commercial, and light industrial. I am an inside wireman, therefore I can't help much with questions to do with linework, such as powerlines and distribution switchyards. I can however, answer some questions that have to do with power generation.
Experience I have 15 years in the trade and currently I am employed at TVA Cumberland City Fossil Plant where we generate about 10% of the power used in the Southeast. Of those 15 years, I have wired houses, wired many office complexes, banks, hospitals, schools, industrial applications, and can also install fire alarm systems.
Organizations IBEW Local 429 Member
Education/Credentials 4 yrs Calhoun Occupational Trade Center
Expert: Jeremy Adams Date: 6/9/2008 Subject: Ground_Neutral Voltage inPool
Question Jeremy, hopefully you can give me some direction/advice and/or point me in the right direction. This has been a problem for 2 years now. I have a fiberglass inground pool. Other then the hand rail, there is absolutely no metal anywhere around the pool. In addition, there's no rebarb in the surrounding concrete. When the pool was built in early 2006 no grid system of any sort was required by code. Any combination of touching pool water_to concrete and/or pool water to hand rail generates approx 4 volts. All pool bonding and grounding was tested several times and have passed electrical inspections. Jersey Central Power and Light indicated that there is a "Improper Balance" of there Neutral's on my street, and as a result, is contributing to the problem, when there Neutral is disconnected from my home, the voltage drops down to under 1. The engineer from JCPL indicated that because this is an isolated incident, it may be some time before it gets addressed, several phone calls and e-mail to their mgmt have proved that 10 fold! I heard about running a solid piece of copper wire around the perimeter of my concrete may help balance the potentials, ever hear about this theory, and where am I running the cooper wire to? Will this even work? Thanks for your time.
Regards...Bill
Answer Bill,
I am not familiar with your problem, however I can say that you need to ground your handrail and your pump motor casing. This should be a continuos run from handrail to pump to ground rod, probably a #8 bare copper will do. If you look at the service on your house where JCPL connects to you, you should find a rod driven into the ground. This is your ground rod. If it is not feasible to connect to this rod then you can drive one near your pump and connect to it. This should give your 4 volts somewhere to bleed off to. Hope this will help you.
