As Randall said, this is not good. Maybe the NEW tester is the faulty item.
Did the inspector rely on your new tester or did he use a meter to verify that
all is now well ?
If you mean 27 and 87 volts to ground, you do indeed have a floating ground.
Add 27 and 87 and what do you get ? 114 volts total difference between hot
and neutral, meaning that the ground is partway between them. Should be about
115 hot to ground, and close to zero neutral to ground.
And while I know that some places do not bond neutral, in most localities with
which I'm familiar, neutral in the main panel is "bonded" (connected) to
ground. In fact most breaker panels include jumpers to do this bonding (you
just don't install the jumper for non-bonded applications). If your barn
panel is a subpanel off a main somewhere else, the specific situation will
determine whether or not you should bond the neutral to ground in that panel.
Even though you're signed off, PLEASE check this out for your own safety.
As Doug said, those testers are a crude measure. Use a decent digital
voltmeter - but even a crappy Horrible Freight $2.99 model will be better than
a neon light.
Once again - if neutral isn't bonded, maybe a few volts from neutral to ground
but NOT 27 volts. Should be close to 115 volts from hot to neutral and also
from hot to ground.
Be safe !
Karl
Thank you for the feed back. I have 87vac on the small slot and 27vac
on the large slot. I bought a brand new circuit tester made by Sperry, it also
verifies GFI receptacles, it shows the receptacles are OK.
My original posting was a result of my new barn not passing the final
inspection due to an open ground. I have since learned that two different
testers were faulty, my new tester proved everything is OK and my barn was
signed off. Yay!
Thanks again for the feedback!
Frank V.
rustymetal@sbcglobal.net
--- On Tue, 12/9/08, Karl Vacek <kvacek@ameritech.net> wrote:
From: Karl Vacek <kvacek@ameritech.net>
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] 110vac outlet question
To: "Randall" <tr3driver@ca.rr.com>, "'Shop Talk'"
<shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 9:33 AM
Don't know that this is the actual reason, but think about the danger of
little kids sticking things into receptacles. The hot is smaller and thus
harder to stick something in and get a shock.
Elegant reasoning, huh ?? ;-)
> In fact I can never remember which blade is which
> Randall
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