> I'm trying to help sort out an electrical problem for a fellow
> with a small
> mobile home. The thing is parked and is plugged into a stationary 110v
> standing outlet via an umbilical cord.
>
> The problem he has is that the 3 outlets in the kitchen area are fed by a
> GFI in the bathroom. I thought maybe the GFI was bad, but that's not it.
> The main problem I found is that I get 110 volts when checking between the
> ground and either the hot or neutral. This is EVEN with the main fuse
> breaker OFF.
This would indicate to me that either the standing outlet or the umbilical
cord is mis-wired; such that the main circuit breaker (which would only
break one side, this being a 110v installation) is breaking the neutral side
rather than the hot side. He is likely using a high-impedance voltmeter,
which is responding to leakage currents taking the open wire to ground. I
would be tempted to just switch the hot & neutral where the umbilical is
attached to the fuse box and retest, but of course that raises all sorts of
liability questions if the problem is the outlet and someone comes along and
'fixes' it.
> I checked the standing outlet and it is NOT the case at the
> source, but is when I check the connections at the fuse panel. The wiring
> at the fuse panel appears correct, so I'm thinking the problem is between
> the fuse panel and the umbilical cord.
> The other weird thing is that while the
> bathroom GFI reads 110 volts between hot and neutral, the kitchen
> ones read
> about 55 to 60 volts. What do you think is going on here?
I believe that is a separate problem, most likely an open somewhere between
the GFI and the kitchen outlets. Might possibly be a bad or mis-wired GFI.
Randall
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