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voltage on gas line in house question

JimVT

JimVT

Bronze Member
To shorten a long story up that spans 40yrs. I had 6 volts in my neutral wire comming from the power company after a sub stationn was built near by. After convincing them it was not my doing They "redirected it" at the pole that they own and it was fine. We had a storm and lost power and lots of work was done so I decided to check things again. I now have 0.2 volts when I check on my gas line. Is this just normal voltage that would be in any object?
Jim
 
I would think that that gas line would be grounded in many many places before it got to your home. And I would also expect the it COULD be plastic as it got to the smaller feed lines. Perhaps the power that you are reading is coming from your place and is using the gas line as a ground. Find the dielectric and check on either side, Should be either side of the meter and may have a jumper around it. If it has a jumper DON"T REMOVE IT, ask them to remove it and check potential on either side. Also check if it goes away with your main feed breaker open to your house. That should tell a big story for you.

It's odd that it moved from your neutral wire to your gasline. Probably unrelated...Tell me, do you or yours "glow" or have an aura about you at night? Could save on halloween costumes.

If they won't help you.....sounds like free power to me.

I am not a electrician, but I have done a little gasline work.
 
If it's a natural gas line, they put a very small wire around the pipe, which may carry very low voltage. It's called a tracer wire and is used by utility companies to locate gas lines to be marked when an excavation is going to be done in the area. This may be grounted to the metal pipe that brings the gas into your house. I'd ask the gas company as well.
 
Most trace lines are dead until they hook a sender to them for locates. It is likely carrying transient voltage from the electric co. Still would be good to have it checked out and maybe go with an extra ground rod on the incoming service. Hard to do in the cold we have been having unless your foundation passes some heat to the ground outside.
 
JimVT said:
I now have 0.2 volts when I check on my gas line. Is this just normal voltage that would be in any object?
Jim
Click to expand...

Jim, Where did you measure from to get this reading? What is your reference point?

It could be coming from a gas valve on an appliance or it could just be in the ground. Is there a "hi power" line near your property?

Reading 0.2 volts may not be a big deal. Even your tester could be at fault by that much. If it's not an True RMS tester you'll get false readings. Don't ask me to get into all of nuances of a True RMS tester, I still don't understand them.
 
I have a half mile of them following the line across my farm. They are required to put them in with plastic line so they can locate them. They roll off 500 ft. and stick in a marker and twist the ends around the marker.
 
The way I measured it is the same way the power company guy had me do. He was on my roof and unhooked the main wires one at a time. I was on both sides of the gas meter. The gas meters here have a plastic bushing so any current will not feed back into the steel main pipe from the home and setup electrolisis.That's what I was told anyway.
Last one he unhooked was the neutral and power stopped. I had power with only the neutral connected.
.The volts i have now doesn't seem like any problem,now that I think about it. So I'm going to let it slide.
The power high tension lines skirt the edge of my place about 1/2 mile away.
Thanks
 
Make sure your electrical service is grounded properly at the house. Any cable TV and phone system should be bonded to the service ground as well.
 
OhioTC18 said:
Make sure your electrical service is grounded properly at the house. Any cable TV and phone system should be bonded to the service ground as well.
Click to expand...
ditto that' what i was going to say sounds like you lost your service ground you need 8 feet of copercoated rod for a good ground frozen earth is a poor conductor so you may need additional surface aera to get a proper ground an electrician should be abe to check your ground and tell you if it's good
 
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