40 volts reading on entire 120 v system

[14jtracy]

Hello, I have a concern about the reading I'm getting from every outlet in my house. Its an older...circa 1890's...but from what I understand, has added wiring in 2 major renovations. The first time to add ceiling lights with wall switches; and the second time (1987ish) to install baseboard outlets.

Well every outlet in the house is reading at 40 volts...shouldn't it be 120?....

I've built 1200 watt battery packs and can read a multimeter for further diagnosing....

 

[Megawatt]

Hello, I have a concern about the reading I'm getting from every outlet in my house. Its an older...circa 1890's...but from what I understand, has added wiring in 2 major renovations. The first time to add ceiling lights with wall switches; and the second time (1987ish) to install baseboard outlets.

Well every outlet in the house is reading at 40 volts...shouldn't it be 120?....

I've built 1200 watt battery packs and can read a multimeter for further diagnosing....

You. Have a serious neutral problem and the first thing that you need to do is go to the panel, since everything in your house is doing the same thing. Something in your panel has to be loose. Make sure you check that you have a bare wire going from your ground bar in your panel to at least one ground rod. That’s an old house, does it have knob and tubing wiring and what size service do you have ?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Take and post three measurements one after another at an affected outlet: Hot to ground, hot to neutral, neutral to ground. The relationship of the three tells us a lot about the problem.

If there is genuinely 40 volts between hot and neutral, nothing connected to those outlets will function normally, many devices will not function at all. If you are seeing readings of 40V hot to neutral and yet appliances seem to function correctly, suspect your multimeter! Test it on a known good supply in a different location.

If you are seeing 40V hot to ground but 120V hot to neutral, the main ground connection in your panel is likely open-circuit as per @Megawatt. A disconnected main ground will cause all the ground conductors and metal housings of grounded appliances to float up to something below midway between 0 and 120V, with 40V being plausible. This needs to be rectified to prevent risk of electric shock if an appliance develops a ground fault.

 

[14jtracy]

Take and post three measurements one after another at an affected outlet: Hot to ground, hot to neutral, neutral to ground. The relationship of the three tells us a lot about the problem.

If there is genuinely 40 volts between hot and neutral, nothing connected to those outlets will function normally, many devices will not function at all. If you are seeing readings of 40V hot to neutral and yet appliances seem to function correctly, suspect your multimeter! Test it on a known good supply in a different location.

If you are seeing 40V hot to ground but 120V hot to neutral, the main ground connection in your panel is likely open-circuit as per @Megawatt. A disconnected main ground will cause all the ground conductors and metal housings of grounded appliances to float up to something below midway between 0 and 120V, with 40V being plausible. This needs to be rectified to prevent

It was a loose grounding wire, I have since connected it and the house is reading 120 again. Thanks again

You. Have a serious neutral problem and the first thing that you need to do is go to the panel, since everything in your house is doing the same thing. Something in your panel has to be loose. Make sure you check that you have a bare wire going from your ground bar in your panel to at least one ground rod. That’s an old house, does it have knob and tubing wiring and what size service do you have ?

It was a loose grounding wire, I have since connected it and the house is reading 120 again; oh it does have knob wiring in a downstairs room, we kept if for the looks. Thanks again