rogue eletrical voltage

[andy jervis]

volt stick picking up voltage on pipes,radiators and walls. there is an rccb on the installtion and it is tripping when you test it but not in the normal conditions with this volt stick situation.any ideas please.

 

[Deleted member 19807]

I think you need to put a proper test on it.

 

[Marvo]

Two things you can do;
Throw the voltstick in the bin
Visually check the services earth bonding to the water pipes, gas pipes etc.

 

[Darkwood]

Yes agree with others here... Throw the waste of money in the bin as they tend to pick up a fart in fairyland leaving you scratching your bonce... use calibrated proper test equipment.

 

[Engineer54]

When i was training, my company banned the use of neon's and any other device that didn't indicate an actual voltage level. It was as i remember a disciplinary thing too!! But then they issued every electrician with a voltage indicating Square D solenoid plunger type voltage tester!! I've still got mine, and still works perfectly...

 

[MarkieSparkie]

volt stick picking up voltage on pipes,radiators and walls. there is an rccb on the installtion and it is tripping when you test it but not in the normal conditions with this volt stick situation.any ideas please.

Hi Andy, Welcome to the forum. Heed the advice of the others and make some quantifiable bipolar measurements to see whether you have a real problem. I suspect you are experiencing a phantom phenomena due the quiescent electromagnetic fields or charge being sensed by your volt-stick rather than a real event.

 

[Guest112]

my old fluke stick picked up on everything wasnt bothered when i lost it in the end

 

[andy jervis]

Two things you can do;Throw the voltstick in the binVisually check the services earth bonding to the water pipes, gas pipes etc.

thanks

 

[andy jervis]

thanks everyone most helpful.
I dont have a volt stick, the problem came about when gas board came to change the meter and put their volt stick on the boiler,radiators and pipework which showed up live ,they then put warning signs on the boiler do no use
so to this the house holder borrowed a stick the same as the gas boards from a heating engineer he knows,
then he phoned me up and the head scratching began.
3 days later we have found out that the type of blow in isulation is building up a magnetic field round the cabling of the installation which inturn is inducing into the heating system.
hope no one else gets this situation its been driving me mad because normal test proceedures were fine.

 

[tony mc]

Andy what was the results of the tests after the head scratching!

I mean the tests with the correct test equipment to establish what voltage was actually being introduced into the heating system.

Out of interest what were the normal test procedures that were fine?

 

[needasparks]

Many people have had problems with a voltstick, me included when i first had one. The trick is understanding what its doing and how to use it as the intructions dont help you. I had this little tip given me and it really works.
It will become much less sensitive and more acurate if you earth yourself out by placing your spare hand on the wall next to where your testing with it (loose term that, lol) and you will be amazed how much better it is.
As most have said it should never be used to replace correct testing but is still great as a quick check for identifying cables/circuits.

 

[JamesBrownLive]

I'm totally confused...

Your initial post implied you had no idea what was causing said volt stick to glow, but now your saying that you know the cause of the problem is 'blow in insulation' (whatever that might be).

 

[Darkwood]

Many people have had problems with a voltstick, me included when i first had one. The trick is understanding what its doing and how to use it as the intructions dont help you. I had this little tip given me and it really works.
It will become much less sensitive and more acurate if you earth yourself out by placing your spare hand on the wall next to where your testing with it (loose term that, lol) and you will be amazed how much better it is.
As most have said it should never be used to replace correct testing but is still great as a quick check for identifying cables/circuits.

What if the wall was damp and really live EEEK! bad advice lol :death:

 

[jeremy]

this is my volt stick c.3m away from the perimeter fence at a MW transmitter in NI suggesting that there is a lot of electrical radiation going on, maybe indicated by the size of the spiders we find on these sites. IMO nothing wrong with volt sticks AS AN INDICATOR, its always interpretation of the signs that gives the story, one way or the other.

 

[needasparks]

What if the wall was damp and really live EEEK! bad advice lol :death:

If anyone is stupid enough to do that then they should take it back to the shop as their to stupid to own one.
Do you test every wall before you touch it then.........

 

[Darkwood]

They can give false reading for so many reasons including static, any metal work where electrical noise travels, induction etc and are hard to prove they are working correctly before testing as it may be picking up something other than what your trying to prove test it with so as the general jist of this thread goes... even when you work out its bad points you end up becoming complacent to it giving false readings then one day it wont be a false reading where normally it does thus been actually live metalwork etc and EEEK!

 

[JD6400]

Said it before and will say it again !
There the devils work and need treating as such , or they will probably one day kill you !:frown2:

 

[Darkwood]

If anyone is stupid enough to do that then they should take it back to the shop as their to stupid to own one.
Do you test every wall before you touch it then.........

Only brought the situe up through coincidence as ex gf was stripping wall paper at new home with steamer last night and got a shock off wall, told her to pull fuse and went round this morning, found drill hole vertical to hidden socket behind radiator which obviously made the wall live, and yes have to say on this occasion it wasnt easy to foresee and just one off them things but a real hazard that a volt stick would have given wrong impression that it was false reading.True rms- Multi-meter gave 187volts from wall to earth.
To answer your question NO! of course not but if wall damp or moldy then yes would double check well if i ever used a volts stick that is but that aint likely.:yesnod:

 

[SimpleSimon]

You should check the bonding. Could be a floating earth your picking up because its not bonded properly.
Volt sticks are not guaranteed but just to make a quick check. Like turning off the switch you know is the light but double checking.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Darkwood]

You should check the bonding. Could be a floating earth your picking up because its not bonded properly.
Volt sticks are not guaranteed but just to make a quick check. Like turning off the switch you know is the light but double checking.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

25yrs on tools here so confidence high and all second nature to me, as dug out faulty cable after doing ring main tests and finding low insulation readings, looks like been like that for years but only showed its nasty head when she soaked the wall to strip paper.... sods law as i was due to weigh up an test for fitting 17th edit' board on friday.