Electrical – Low voltage on homerun

electricalelectrical-panellow-voltagereceptacle

I have a homerun that goes directly to GFCI that is only getting 88 volts. From hot to ground is 122v, from neutral to ground is 23v. In the panel I am getting 122v also. I have 3 outlets past the GFCI and they are all reading the same.


Best Answer

It sounds like the 23V is “phantom voltage” from capacitive coupling (read: picking it up like radio waves) from the adjacent hot wire. Sort of the way a crystal AM radio can make an earphone sound solely off power picked up from the airwaves, except instead of an earphone it’s a highly sensitive meter (most cheap DVMs are highly sensitive). That only happens if the neutral is disconnected at both ends.

It’s disconnected at the load end because all loads are turned off.

Go look for the reason it is disconnected at the service panel end. Either the connection at the breaker isn’t very good, or at the first receptacle, or (rather unlikely) the wire is broken enroute.