The Mystery of Lost Neutrals REVEALED 

Wow! So you didn’t lose any electrical equipment in your home? If not, you were very lucky!!😊😊

Yes, it can be very destructive to electronic equipment. Good thing you knew enough to recognize what was happening and shut off the power as quickly as possible.

I am glad the video was helpful. Thanks for watching and thanks for the feedback.

Thank you

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I’m glad it was helpful.

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Thanks for watching!

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You are correct. Thank you for clarifying that.

Great info/example. Thanks.

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.

"When one bulb is turned off, the Resistance goes up and the Current goes down (in that leg) " - i understand that resistance goes up if we swich off 1 light in the circuit because its parallel so it is as if we closed 1 of the 3 roads for the current - so more resistance. More resistance means less current in that leg but both legs are in series so the current is the same. So if the same current is flowing while the voltage is much higher means that a lot more energy is on the side when 1 light is off. Does it make sense the way i rephrased it?

Great info. I guess when I said upstream of the panel, I actually intended prior to any of the branch circuits, so yes the neutral lug on the panel would certainly qualify. Thanks for the clarification.

@@morganinspectionservices3840 You are correct though. Probably 90 percent of my trouble calls were due to homeowners allowing trees to grow up into the service wire and either breaking the neutral, or rubbing it in two midspan on the drop. People don't understand that the power company isn't responsible for their negligence.

No. When your service loses a neutral, nothing done at the panel that I can think of will change the fact that you will have the two legs in series on a 240-volt service.

How do you test for loss of neutral?

It is a SureTest circuit analyzer. It’s made to plug into a receptacle and measure voltage, voltage drop, and to tell if the circuit is wired properly.

This is a test that I would do in my house, but I will caution you that you must be very careful. I don’t want anyone getting electrocuted. If it were my house, I would remove the cover from the electric panel and measure the voltages at each main lug. Test between one lug and the neutral, and between the other lug and the neutral. See if you have 120 V on both legs of your electrical system. And make sure you have 240 V between the two lugs. If those tests are good, but you do not have 120 V at the outlets in your house, then I would say the problem is inside your house. If you do not have 120 V when measured as described above, then the problem is likely with the power company.

Typically, the homeowner is responsible for everything after where the wires connect to the weather head just before the electric meter. The electric company is responsible for everything just before the connection at or near your electric meter.

@@morganinspectionservices3840 what about the meter box itself? And the wires that run up the pole from the meter? Ty.

I totally agree with you. I was not necessarily trying to show the actual direction of current flow with these animations. I was more trying to show that current flows from the transformer, through the loads, and back to the transformer via the neutral. You are 100% correct that the direction of the electricity does not change when the neutral is lost, but for illustration/animation/explanation purposes, that was the easiest way to animate and explain it. I certainly appreciate you watching and appreciate the feedback.

This demonstration shows exactly how it works on a 120 V residential. Essentially all residentials have two phases of 120V, so what you see in the video is how it works on a typical residential electrical system.

That is crazy that you’re having to pay a service call each time. It’s also crazy that it “keeps” happening. It does not make sense that it would happen multiple times.

@@morganinspectionservices3840 They came out to me last week because their equipment made my earth rod live and everything in my house including water pipes! The box on the pole was replaced and the cable down the pole to my boundary. The supervisors came next day only to tell me the lineman had left me with a live neutral! I am quite literally waiting to be electrocuted! They said the neutral is also reading too high.

Sue them. They should be responsible for anything they demand you to do if it is their fault.

I will make a second video showing that. Thanks for the suggestion.

I’m not fully following you.

@@morganinspectionservices3840 I have a main panel, and then a double pole breaker as the "main" for a subpanel, and a duplicate subpanel is in another location (in the barn/shop) and I have a 20 amp 120v single pole breaker outlet there and have backfed power from generator from that outlet after disconnecting the true MAIN breaker and on outlets and lights on one side of the main panel in the home I only get ~90 volt, while the other side is a full 120 volt. It is odd to me, the more I think about it I don't think it is from a lost neutral now as it should change/have same affect on both sides of panel. You got any ideas on it? I know its despised and most of the time illegal, but it just makes me wonder the cause. I no longer use it that way anyhow as I am in process of making a legit transfer circuit.

In the UK, they use 230 volt, single-phase electricity in residential wiring. In this case a lost neutral results in an open circuit where no electricity can flow, so in that sense, you could say that UK wiring is safer than US wiring. However, in another sense US wiring is safer because in the US most circuits are only 120-volt circuits, while all circuits in a home in the UK are 230 volts. 120 volts (which can certainly electrocute someone) should be only about half as likely as 230 volts is to cause an electrocution. This is because current (amps) is what causes the electrocution, and current flow is proportional to the voltage. Current = Voltage/Resistance. This equation shows that for a given resistance of a human body, you will have about twice the current flow with 230 volts as you will with 120 volts.

@@morganinspectionservices3840 thanks for your kind reply and videos

@@morganinspectionservices3840 can i say that uk system if it fails it fails safely why us lost of neutral does not fail safely because instead of 120 v suddently 240 appears which could burn or damage something?

And white is normally the neutral, but white would not have shown up, so I chose green. Yes, I understand that green wire is the non-current carrying ground. How often have you seen blue current flowing through a wire? It’s just an animation, and I hope it serves its purpose.

Got it! An alternate solution might be to use a different color background so white would stand out, or larger wire size. Good video, though!

I simplified it as much as I could, and used the simulations to help explain things.

@@morganinspectionservices3840 you did good bud