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Mains wiring picking up stray inductive currents ?

I had a similar one when I moved into my new house - there was a wire
sticking up out of the floor with bare wires at the end - I tested with a
meter and it showed 127v AC although in the UK we are on 220-240v.

I did the brave thing and shorted the wires together - nothing happened, no
fuses blew and I'm still here (and its still buried under concrete 10 years
later with no ill effects).

One of those wonderful mysteries in house wiring :-P

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Lindy Mayfield
Sent: 03 January 2006 19:01
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: [EE]: Checking home wiring with a multimeter

I was installing ceiling lights in the new house and wanted to be "smart"
and double check to see if the exposed wires were hot or not.  So I
connected my multimeter first just in case.  I grew up in the US so I am not
very familiar with connecting things here in Europe and I wanted to be
careful.  

I was a little surprised when my meter showed first around 118 or so volts
AC and then when the switch was flipped it jumped up to about 230.  This
kind of made me nervous, so of course I made the shorts test with what I
thought was the off position before proceeding.  (The shorts test is when I
touch the wires together and then check my shorts for signs of
electrocution.)

Needless to say I survived, but I was wondering why I was getting a ~120
volt reading when the light switch was off?

Thanks,
Lindy


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