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dedeuce · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Ohio

I have a 3 way circuit that goes to a wall outlet. At the outlet hot or in the red traveler when not carrying 120v, I get a reading of about 24 volts on a digital meter or a dim glow on a lighted circuit tester. I have replaced the entire length of 12-3 both switches the outlet and even tried supplying power from a different circuit. If I plug a lamp in with a bulb and the switch in the on position on the lamp the voltage disappears. If I unscrew the bulb the 24v shows back up. If I have the wall switch in the off position and the 24v are read at the hot side of the outlet and I ground the hot to the metal box there is no spark and the 24v disappears both on the volt meter and/or the lighted circuit tester. I have checked and double checked all my grounds. Please help, i am starting to loose sleep over this strange problem. Thanks, Joe

b · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 2:48 pm Post subject:

hi dedeuce
sounds like you have some stray voltage issues. voltage follows the path of the least resistance... that is why it disappears when you ground it out. is this problem isolated to this circuit or is this a voltage carried throughout your system? it is common to have small amounts of voltage on the system when it is "off" but 24v is high. when you turn off a breaker to a different circuit do you get the same reading on those receptacles? how are you measuring it... between the current carrying conductor and nuetral or ground? is there another circuit that shares the nuetral? what else is on this circuit besides the receptacle and 3-way switches? need more info to try to help.
b

dedeuce · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Ohio

The 24v is isolated to this one circuit, I have another 3 way circuit in the house and it reads fine. I turned every breaker off one at a time and the 24V remained. The 24v is measured between the carrying conductor and/or the nuetral or ground, it made no difference. There is only the two 3-way switches and the one wall outlet on this leg of this circuit, but there is 2 other outlets and two other lights on the entire circuit. Today I ran a new piece of 12-2 from a new breaker to the feed wires of the 3-way switch circuit leg totaly isolating it from any other wiring in the house and the 24v remained present.

Today I did notice that when (leviton installed top up) switch 1 is in the up position and switch 2 is in the down position no voltage is read until I plug the neon circuit tested in the outlet and then the bulb glows dim and the circuit test 24v. However if switch 1 is in the down position and switch 2 is in the up position the neon tester does not glow until the volt meter is touched to the terminals and then the bulb glows very dim and there is only a voltage reading of 8v. Thanks,Joe

b · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:34 am Post subject:

Hi Joe...
With the info you gave I don't know what the problem is without coming out and checking it out. Sorry I am at a loss as to what is causing the induced voltage at your receptacle. You get a voltage there even when the breaker is off and it is different depending on which way the switch sets, and you do not get this voltage anywhere but on this particular leg of this particular circuit. Are you testing the same way on the other circuits you tested? Make certain the conditions are the same on all the devices you check... anything plugged in etc. All I could recommend to you is to start at the point where the voltage appears on the circuit and pinpoint from there... but it sounds like that is what you have tried to do. You may want to call in a professional to check it out for you. Again I apologize for not being any help to you...
b
Vince - any ideas here?

vince knight · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:11 pm Post subject:

Are there any inductive loads on the circuit ? eg. fluresent fittings or transformers for lighting?

Vince