Ended up being a huge electrical issue in my home. Others might want to check.

[MarkEkberg]

Have had dimming lights since January. Thought it was a bad ground, had psnh come out and check everything was good.





Recently a couple CF bulbs quit. Only had them a couple years, dehumidifier quit, remote functions quit on a tv.



Yesterday morning I ran the compactor and it shut the house off. Barley started and barley changed directions with the house going dark again.



Then I noticed lights everywhere were not working. Found three tripped breakers. Tried to reset them, and two of them buzzed when reset. Tried a couple times and left them off. They would not pop once set, but made lots of noise.



Go upstairs and smell burning electrical smoke. Now I am freaking out a bit. I have been through a couple fires.



Smell starts to go away. So wife and kids get off to work and I start hunting after calling out for work.



Found two power strips, 1 for tv and stereo equipment, and 1 for computer and equipment that had a dead short to them!



Unplug everything from them, plug into a outlet and the lights in the house goes out. Smoke rolls out of the strips.



Call PSNH and they come out to inspect. Everything to the meter looks and tests fine. They test from the meter to the panel and the neutral is failing. They don't normally go into house, but they wanted to help find trouble.



I asked about the evidence of water inside the panel and that it has to be from the meter box. They say nope, sealed the top of the meter box and away they go. Glad I took pictures of the top of the meter box before they got there. And thankfully they left my meter unlocked.



Call electrician. No one can get there today, so off I go to buy new feed wire. Little scary getting meter disconnected, and wires out of the box. Pulled out of house, and new wire in. Little scary getting new wires back in the meter box, but got it done and house is back on line and running.



I cut the wire open just below the meter box and found neutral completely corroded and destroyed 8" below the meter box. I will post pic later. Looks like I fried a few things in the house.



It was suggested we get a electrician in to test all equipment to make sure no damage was done. The cost of this could sky rocket.



How in the world can some water do this to aluminum wire? How long does it take? And how can PSNH dispute the fact that it came in through their box?

 

[JJPage]

Good job on the repair, depending where you live you may need to apply for an electrical permit and inspection, even after the fact, otherwise you will leave yourself vulnerable should it fail again and cause a fire or worse. Your Homeowners may absorb some of the cost and damage of other equipment.

I find it hard to believe water was the culprit... more likely a loose connection, happens with aluminum conductors all the time.

 

[Slow Six]

I worked for many years as a power lineman. Over the years I have seen problems with aluminum conductors. A small amount of water will begin deterioration of aluminum turning into a white powder and eventually no current flow. The neutral wire is very important and a poor neutral is the root cause of many problems. When the neutral is lost you can get hazardous voltages with high voltage on one leg and low voltage on the other. There was a lot of time spent on this when I was in lineman school and as I got more experience in the trade a poor or broken neutral was the first clue I would look for. A line of thought I have always used is a short will blow a fuse or breaker, all other problems will be caused by a poor or no ground/neutral. Also I would have your home checked out and if I had any aluminum wiring I would replace it with copper. The only good of aluminum is price. A lot of jurisdictions do not allow aluminum for inside use. When we use aluminum outside special compression fittings filled with anti oxidant are used. Also you never put aluminum and copper together in a connection. As for your meter box I do not who owns it but where I worked the meter box was customer owned and the customer was responsible for it. I reread your post and I think your problems stemmed from the bad neutral. I would say you are fortunate there was not more serious damage.

 

[B.G. Smith]

Wow, you did a heck of a job. Just as an added, a non contact pyrometer is sometimes useful in locating a bad connection in the meter box. bg

 

[seafish]

Mark,

It is SUPER imporant to use dielectric grease on any aluminum wire to lug connection... properly applied, the grease seals out moisture and helps prevent corrosion.

If for some reason you did NOT use it, you really MUST go back in and do so.

 

[MarkEkberg]

It had to be water. The oxidized material was stacking up and made the insulation look blistered from the outside. All connections were tight, because I checked them when PSNH checked things in the winter.

I used the grease. Can't remember the name, but was given stuff to use from friend that works for psnh. He tried to get me to call electrician, but none were available.

I have no options for other wire? PSNH even uses the same wire with the AL neutral. Inside of meter box is sealed, as is the top of it.

While I don't need a electrician here in NH I am sure PSNH will not be happy I did what I did, but hey I needed electric.

 

[JJPage]

Mark,

It is SUPER imporant to use dielectric grease on any aluminum wire to lug connection... properly applied, the grease seals out moisture and helps prevent corrosion.

If for some reason you did NOT use it, you really MUST go back in and do so.

seafish, did you mean No Ox? Dielectric grease is non conductive...

Slow six, that's good to know about water and aluminum conductors, didn't realize.

 

[seafish]

seafish, did you mean No Ox? Dielectric grease is non conductive...

Slow six, that's good to know about water and aluminum conductors, didn't realize.

Yes, you are right... No-Ox or GB Ox-Guard is the better product to use as they prevent corrosion and encourage conductivity, versus dielectric grease which prevents corrosion but inhibits conductivity.

 

[MarkEkberg]

seafish, did you mean No Ox? Dielectric grease is non conductive... .

Thats what he gave me. Could not remember the name.

 

[MarkEkberg]

Here is a picture of the wire and the neutral. It was about 10" below the exit of the meter box.

I never had any signs of problems except for whole house dimming when large appliance turned on.

I have to assume many many people could potentially have this problem? It is my public service warning for the day.

 

[Flying_gage]

That is an ugly pic! I might have missed it but did you pull your box with hot feeds?

 

[MarkEkberg]

I continued to cut it open today. It looks like that the entire way.

Not sure how to answer your question... ... ... . I didn't pull the panel or the meter box. Replaced whole feed from meter to panel. About 10' worth.

 

[JJPage]

That is an ugly pic! I might have missed it but did you pull your box with hot feeds?

The OP stated the utility left the meter unlocked, I assume that means the seal was left off/open. I am fairly certain the OP unplugged the meter from the meter box before removing and replacing the conductors.

 

[MarkEkberg]

The OP stated the utility left the meter unlocked, I assume that means the seal was left off/open. I am fairly certain the OP unplugged the meter from the meter box before removing and replacing the conductors.

Yes, only because I watched psnh do it. I would have never known it did that so easily without watching it happen.

 

[Flying_gage]

Well... Glad all worked out for you.

You describe a nightmare of a homeowner troubleshooting scenario. Thankfully your damages were limited to the individual items.

 

[Wayne M.]

I relayed this story to an electrician on my job who was doing work in my building. He was real surprised but backed up the scenario with the outlet strip burning up. Said you were real lucky- Aluminum conductor is high maintenance and going into the load box to check the tightness of all nuts should be regular maintenance. Agreed with the grease, and that there's special wire nuts for AL that have the grease in them.

 

[mwilson]

It had to be water. The oxidized material was stacking up and made the insulation look blistered from the outside. All connections were tight, because I checked them when PSNH checked things in the winter.



I used the grease. Can't remember the name, but was given stuff to use from friend that works for psnh. He tried to get me to call electrician, but none were available.



I have no options for other wire? PSNH even uses the same wire with the AL neutral. Inside of meter box is sealed, as is the top of it.



While I don't need a electrician here in NH I am sure PSNH will not be happy I did what I did, but hey I needed electric.

The only thing that PSNH may be unhappy about is that your meter does not have a seal on it.



I don't know about NH but in Maine you have the right to do electrical work on your own residence. It has to meet code when completed but you certainly can do it yourself.



I have replaced everything from the box in and upgraded from 60amp to 200amp panels on two houses that I have owned.



In my town this is how it goes.....



Our utility is Bangor Hydro-Electric, I will refer to them as BH.



Call town office and talk with code enforcement, explain that you are changing an entrance and installing a new panel. Pick a day that code enforcement is available to come out and do an inspection. Call BH, set-up a meter pull and wire disconnect for first thing in the morning of that day. Tell them that you would like a reconnect in the afternoon. Have everything ready for supplies and someone standing by to run after anything that you might not have. Empty the refrigerator and stick contents in a cooler. No BEER until after the meter is back in... . :-laf



BH shows up, removes meter and unhooks wires from pole at the house. Start ripping and tearing. Install new entrance wire, mast, meter box, wire from meter box to panel, new panel, new breakers, etc. In my case I had rewired the house and had new 12/2 at the panel ready to be connected so that the fridge, coffee maker and some lights would be working just as soon as the BH came back.



Call code enforcement, tell them that you are ready for the inspection. Just as soon as code enforcement shows up and appears happy you call BH to tell them that you are ready for wires to be connected to the new mast and for the meter to be re-installed.



I have have done this twice now over the years in one day and it pisses the local electricians right off as BH will make them wait a couple days for the process above if they are doing new construction or heavy remodeling.



The BH guys know when a guy is trying to do it himself to save money and as long as it appears that the homeowner will follow directions, be safe and do it properly they will support that and be as helpful as possible.



So after that long winded story this is what you should do... .



See if you need an inspection from code enforcement, you do not want something to happen now and find your self in hot water with the town and your homes insurance company. . CYA... .



Call PSNH, tell them that your meter was not sealed after they came the first time. You would like the meter pulled so that code enforcement can take a look. Then PSNH can re-install the meter, seal it and you, my friend are in complete compliance as far as I know.



Run it by your buddy at PSNH and see what he thinks... ...



Mike.

 

[MarkEkberg]

Buddy at PSNH just said they will put the anti tamper tag on it next time they read it.

 

[mwilson]

Buddy at PSNH just said they will put the anti tamper tag on it next time they read it.

Sounds like you are good to go.

Mike.