[sdiy] Home Wiring question?

[Ray Wilson]

Good Lord. Its a wonder you didn't get killed! Good thing you don't play the 
guitar in the bathtub or anything.

:-)

Ray


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Magnuson" <resfreq at hoohahrecords.com>
To: "Synth-DiY" <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>; "jeff brown" 
<guitaricon at comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Home Wiring question?


>> Try testing both outlets with one of those little plug-in testers ($10 at 
>> Home Depot). That'll tell you if there's anything really wrong.
>
>
> WARNING!!!!!  I own one of these  outlet testers, and they CAN BE 
> WRONG!!!!
>
> My former landlord had an electrician update my old apartment from a fuse 
> panel to circuit breakers.  When connecting 2 pieces of equipment I got a 
> big fat blue spark (which killed my receiver).
>
> So I got my Hubble brand outlet tester... the outlet tested fine. ... but 
> if I touched the cable-TV coax and the case of the equipment I could feel 
> voltage.
>
> So I got out the voltmeter...
>
> - Outlet neutral to outlet ground: 0V
> - Outlet neutral to outlet hot: 120V
>
> Everything seemed ok so far
>
> - Coax shield to water pipe: 0 volts
> - Coax shield to outlet ground/neutral: 120V
> - Coax shield to outlet hot: 0V
> - Outlet ground or Neutral to water pipe: 120V
>
> So.. my outlet was wired with hot at 0V, neutral and ground at 120V... and 
> the Hubbel outlet tester read "Outlet OK"
>
> Upon further investigation, my house was 2 wire AC (no ground) but someone 
> installed 3 prong outlets.   They decided to jumper neutral and ground at 
> the outlet rather than leave the third terminal disconnected.   Everything 
> was great until the new electric servic was installed and the electrician 
> hooked up the two wires backwards.... instant hot chassis on all my studio 
> gear.  Admittedly my house was wired in "knob and tube" wiring, so all 
> conductors are sheathed in black insulation... but he should have checked 
> his work when he was done....
>
> Anyways, the moral of the story is... just use your volt meter and find a 
> reliable ground source as a reference :)
>
> Dave Magnuson
>
>