Another stray voltage thread

Paul B

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So with probe installed I stuck my hand in the tank to feed today and got that tingle again in a small cut. This has me a little confused!

My analog multimeter finally arrived, i'm getting a reading between 30-40v with or without the grounding probe plugged in. 0 amps though again with or without the grounding probe installed.
Remember a ground probe is a path to ground just as your finger is. In that parallel circuit, voltage will be the same in your finger and the probe. Again, don't worry about it. All the voltage is going to ground when your finger or a meter probe is not in the water.

If you put ten probes in the water along with your ten fingers the same voltage will show up on your meter. Voltage is the same in all parts of a parallel circuit. There is no current to think about with stray voltage.
 
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Claus84

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You have something interesting going on but I'm not sure what it is. The ground probe should reduce all voltage to zero, induced or fault.
With an analog meter, induced voltage should read some voltage for a fault and zero for an induced voltage regardless of what the ground probe is doing.
Where are you putting the meter probes when you are doing your measurements?
Sorry for the massive delay, I have tested again and the ground probe is reducing the voltage to 0 as would be expected

I'm testing with the red end of the meter in the tank and the black end in the earth hole of a 4 plug extension lead, with ground probe unplugged i'm still getting around 40v with the analogue meter but 0 amps I'm not worried about it as the fish seem happy enough and the ground probe does appear to be doing its job so I guess i'll just chalk it up to one of life's little anomalies that the analogue meter is picking up an induced voltage?!

Thanks
 

Cherie cook

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If it was real voltage, we wouldn't be having this discussion because you would have been thrown across the room into your bicycle.

Lol? This isn’t the correct advice...how as an electrician have you ever experienced “full voltage going through you”? Stray voltage is very difficult to measure. How far apart are the positive and negative probes? You’re an electrician lol?
Do you realize who you’re talking to?;Smuggrin
 

Paul B

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If an electrician ever has experienced “full voltage going through them multiple times and hate the memory” lololol uhhh don’t think I would use that one.
It happens. Remember we handle live circuits constantly but we also don't always work alone. We could kill a circuit and some jiboni could turn it on as we are working on it. Many times we work on a dead circuit in a box with many other live wires in the same box and the wire nut comes off.

Sometimes we are crawling in a large electrical box or manhole in water. Shocks happen and many electricians get killed.

I was a commercial/ industrial electrician so we almost never worked in houses. The wires were half the width of your arm and many times we had to bend them with hydraulic tools. It was very hard and dangerous work. Getting "zapped" with 110 volts was not considered a big deal as we often tested the circuits with our dry fingers.
 

Eagle_Steve

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It happens. Remember we handle live circuits constantly but we also don't always work alone. We could kill a circuit and some jiboni could turn it on as we are working on it. Many times we work on a dead circuit in a box with many other live wires in the same box and the wire nut comes off.

Sometimes we are crawling in a large electrical box or manhole in water. Shocks happen and many electricians get killed.

I was a commercial/ industrial electrician so we almost never worked in houses. The wires were half the width of your arm and many times we had to bend them with hydraulic tools. It was very hard and dangerous work. Getting "zapped" with 110 volts was not considered a big deal as we often tested the circuits with our dry fingers.
I still test 110 and 220 with my hand. Brush the back side of my hand across it. All in a ice sweeping motion. Never your your palm, muscles contract and hands will close.

I even roll my knuckles across 480 distro blocks. The path becomes very short and just tingles a bit. Again quick rolling motion.

Although I have been nailed by 3 phase 480 due to a crap install and the housing was energized. Knocked me back and sat there for quite a bit dazed.

So yea, as @Paul B said, we do fell i from time to time and it’s sucks. We also respect it and know how to work with it.
 

CanuckReefer

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I disagree. There are quite a few “real” electricians on here. I know one of them personally. Seems you may be the novice. Ohh wait, “engineer” that means papers and revisions!!!!!!
One here, 25 years in the trade. I think we all see the word voltage and come running lol! Nice to meet your acquaintance. You are mainly commercial/industrial or no?
Let's turn this thread into something worthwhile again....
Last 15 years or so I've been foreman for a number of waterfront parks projects for City of Toronto. If there is a light on the waterfront I probably had a hand in it lol. Also specialized in Marina power systems.
 

sfin52

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You win the troll.....you trolled me good job. For those of you concerned with reefing....nah this person doesn’t know anything and they have zero training in anything electrical.
Paul is a life time reefer and electrician hardly a troll as you say. Brew and Paul are outstanding members on r2r who know what they are talking about.

Both are lifetime electricians.
@fishguy242 and @Eagle_Steve are smart individuals. You should go insulating people with out knowing them.

You had to be that guy
Face Palm GIF
 

Eagle_Steve

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One here, 25 years in the trade. I think we all see the word voltage and come running lol! Nice to meet your acquaintance. You are mainly commercial/industrial or no?
Let's turn this thread into something worthwhile again....
Last 15 years or so I've been foreman for a number of waterfront parks projects for City of Toronto. If there is a light on the waterfront I probably had a hand in it lol. Also specialized in Marina power systems.
Used to be industrial. Went helmets to hard hats after my time in the Corp. I worked at a GM plant for a good while as I was also going to school for telecom and fiber optics at night. Fast forward and I am now I am a director for large company doing large scale network upgrades, sdwan deployments, etc. glass pays more than copper lol.
 

CanuckReefer

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Used to be industrial. Went helmets to hard hats after my time in the Corp. I worked at a GM plant for a good while as I was also going to school for telecom and fiber optics at night. Fast forward and I am now I am a director for large company doing large scale network upgrades, sdwan deployments, etc. glass pays more than copper lol.
Awesome. You've done rather well for yourself it seems. The trade can be so varied... I also periodically make an appearance for Verizon at several locations here in their data centres.
 

Eagle_Steve

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Awesome. You've done rather well for yourself it seems. The trade can be so varied... I also periodically make an appearance for Verizon at several locations here in their data centres.
Hard work and determination. Hard to tell a marine you can’t do that. We always find a way and may even to tell you to hold out beer while doing it lol.
 

Crabby48

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Hard work and determination. Hard to tell a marine you can’t do that. We always find a way and may even to tell you to hold out beer while doing it lol.
The hold my beer I thought was only a southern thing.
Thanks for your dedication to r2r and our country
 

thewire

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It happens. Remember we handle live circuits constantly but we also don't always work alone. We could kill a circuit and some jiboni could turn it on as we are working on it. Many times we work on a dead circuit in a box with many other live wires in the same box and the wire nut comes off.

Sometimes we are crawling in a large electrical box or manhole in water. Shocks happen and many electricians get killed.

I was a commercial/ industrial electrician so we almost never worked in houses. The wires were half the width of your arm and many times we had to bend them with hydraulic tools. It was very hard and dangerous work. Getting "zapped" with 110 volts was not considered a big deal as we often tested the circuits with our dry fingers.
Not mean to continue this. But if you are working on the commercial/industrial side of thing, there is a reason we have loto so we can prevent stupid stuff like accidentally reset the breaker. Stuff like will get written up or even fired if no proper safety precaution to follow. If management push you, you should file a complaint with OSHA.
 
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Paul B

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Not mean to continue this. But if you are working on the commercial/industrial side of thing, there is a reason we have loto so we can prevent stupid stuff like some ******* accidentally reset the breaker. Stuff like will get written up or even fired if no proper safety precaution to follow. If management push you, you should file a complaint with OSHA.
LOL, I know all about OSHA and we do have ways to lock out circuits and on large jobs we always do. We have to attend safety courses all the time but that was not always the case and I have been an electrician since 1973 when we worked on most circuits live. Now electricians are not allowed to but since they invented electricity, we worked live.

There are many times when you just have to go into a building maybe after a fire to kill live circuits or most smaller jobs as well. Live wires are sometimes hanging all over the place and it is not a safe place to be. OSHA is not always welcome on jobs because if it is a large construction job they may come and their "inspections" could be so stringent that you just can't do the job.

Construction is dangerous work, it is just the nature of the beast and people will always get hurt.
We try very hard for that not to happen, but it does just like people's fish tank crashes even after they read fish forums.
I helped build many buildings in Manhattan I remember on 9 West 57th street we lost 7 men working on that very safe building. It happens.

I fought in a war and we had flack jackets, sand bags and helmets, but we still got killed, some things just can't be helped 100%. But we try.
 
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