OverLoaded Neutral


  #1  
Old 12-30-00, 01:11 PM
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I plugged in a SurgeProtector and notices a Red warning light. The instuctions say that it is caused by an overloaded circuit or Overloaded Ground. The circuit only has 1 bedroom and a bath so it can't be overloaded.
 
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Old 12-31-00, 06:58 PM
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I have never heard of that one, if the circuit has only 1 bedroom and a bath, I can't see it being overloaded, I wonder if perhaps the ground is not connected properly to the plug in the wall where it is pluged in. Most things plugged into the wall will work even if the ground is not connected, check the plug in the wall where you are plugging in the surge protector. White wire should be connected to the white/silver screw on the plug and the black should be connected to the brass/gold color screw, and of course the ground/bare wire from the house wire should be grounded on a screw in the wall box and the ground screw of the plug. Is the ground wire grounded in the electrical panel for that circuit ? All 3 wires (black, white, bare) must be connected properly or the surge protector will not work. Try the surge protector in another plug/different circuit. You said that the bathroom is on the same circuit, is there a plug in the bathroom with a ground fault interupter on it, if that is on the same circuit then push the test button on it, does it pop the ground fault plug, if it does then just push reset, it means that the ground has to be ok at the electrical panel, if it doesn't then either the ground is not connected at the electrical panel, the plug is not wired properly or the plug is faulty. if the bathroom plug checks out ok, try pluging the surge protector in this plug just for a moment to see if the same thing happens ? If it works ok , then check the problem plug as mentioned above, replace the plug if necessary, there could always be an internal break inside the plug itself.
 
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Old 12-31-00, 07:00 PM
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sorry I forgot to mention not to overlook the obvious, it the reset (if it has one) on the surge protector popped ? Depending on the type of surge protector , some become useless after the first surge that cuts it off, others can be reset.
 
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Old 01-01-01, 02:42 PM
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Open Ground

Thanks for the reply. Here's what I've done since reading your message. I plugged the surge protector into the other outlets in the Bedroom and the bathroom and it works fine. I bought one of those little testers and all the outlets work fine except one in the BR. It indicated the outlet has an open ground. The outlet itself works fine - but I question if the open ground is dangerous for things like my computer etc. I took the outlet out and it has a green ground screwed to it so I can't figure why it's not grounded. All the other outlets are grounded. I then temporarily rana ground wire from the opposite wall to the bad outlet and it was grounded. Too bad I can't get the darn thing to fish through to do a permanent wire job. The box the outlet sits in isn't grounded. So my final two questions are: - Is having one outlet with an Open Ground dangerous? 2) Any tricks to grounding the outlet other than running a new ground wire to the box?
 
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Old 01-01-01, 03:13 PM
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glad you found the problem, it is wise to have a surge protector on computer systems, and the surge protector will only work with a grounded plug. The fact that other plugs om the circuit are grounded (I assume we are talking about the same circuit) I would think that the same kind of house wire would have been used to link to the plug that is not grounded. So in that wire there should be a bare ground wire, perhaps someone had broke off the bare wire near the plug box, check the wires in the box to see if there is not a bare ground wire hidden in the wire insulation. baring that , you would need to gain excess to the wire were it is entering the box to get excess where the bare wire was broken or run a new wire, a ground could be obtained on a water pipe or other grounded source but I am not sure doing that would pass an electrical inspection. Computer systems , don't use this ungrounded outlet unless you do ground it (use another plug that is grounded), if the other plugs are grounded properly use them , if all all plugs on the circuit is grounded , then the only plug it will effect is the one outlet, but remember again a surge protector or gfi will not function or protect if the outlet is not grounded.
 
 

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