I think I need the help of an electrician. This house has 2 - 200 amp panels. Outlet circuits for main floor on 1 panel, outlet circuits for lower floor on other panel. Plasma, avr, dvd, basic low def sat rcvr on main floor. Pj, avr, xbox on lower floor. Terminated rgbhv cable between upper & lower floor. Plugged in 3 of the cables; composite, right & left audio in on lower avr. Went upstairs & reached into cabinet with my left hand resting on case of dvd, passed cable in through the back & when I grabbed the cable by the rca sheilds I got one hell of a zap! Started checking things out w/voltohm meter & found that my sheilds had a potential of 120vac to neutral upstairs w/ cables still connected to lower avr. I discovered that most of the outlet circuits on lower floor are out of phase, neutral & hot reversed, but not all. Pulled every outlet to see if I could find the problem, but could not find the reversed wires. So I thought I would plug a heavy duty extension cord to one of the outlets that was in phase to power the lower floor system & checked potential upstairs again. I now have 120vac from sheild to neutral & 240vac from sheild to hot! I am confused, although I have a vague idea of what is happening. I am just trying to get my brain around this. Erik

guess its reasons like this I need to stop using my tounge to check for voltage on satellite cables

WOw... Worp you bRain around that!?

Check for a proper ground from the main panel to where the water main enter the home.

We have conduit in our area, making the likely hood of such an incident lower, but I've seen strange things happen.

What V do you read inside the main panels where the white wires are connected... Common to ground..??

And keep liking the Sat cables... just check with your finger first. ew

I bet that would feel good.

Mike

Shock Therapy! Did those cables "burn" (wear through )some romex insulation when they were pulled?

just a check... are you using a Monster power conditioner? i think that there were certain series of Monster units that had a fault that caused their chassis to become energized... this could be transferred to case / ground.

-tom

It may not be any more than induced voltage from a mains wire somewhere. I had a situation where my trainee was removing a doorbell transformer. It was isolated, but a 12v feed was going in to the transformer, and the 240 side was live! It appeared this way, however; of course it was not live, but 240 volts was read across it. And it was enough to give a very sharp shock.

You may have a similair issue with some equipment you are using rguy, but it does not explain where your fault lies. I would get in a good electrician ASAP.

ok you are in a romex part of the country to start. unplug rca cables at head end and see if you still have 110vac potential on cables.......

if you do then you have a serious wire problem behind wall which is a fire hazzard. if you have potential then somewhere there is a romex staple or screw or nail thru your wire and a peice of romex. or the 2 were rubbing together when you pulled them anda bare spot exsisits....

only other way is eletrician has 110 hot to the ground, neutral to hot and ground to hot but your equipment would have melted down by now

also check to make sure its not a 220 outlet wired wrong that would put 110 on what you think is neutral.

Rguy, I would start with insisting that the homeowner have an electrician (not the one who wired the house!) open both panels and check for proper grounding and neutral terminations, as well as the system grounds. There is definitely a problem.

It would be simple to open both panels and check for a difference between them. If they won't have this straightened out, refuse to do any more work, and seriously consider calling the locality's electrical inspection dept. This is a dangerous situation!

Ive seen some pretty crazy stuff before, changed a bulb in a fixture and got NAILED. Turned out the fixure was crushing the hot wire, and the ground was loose enough in teh panel to not make connection, so all the grounds on teh circuit were 120v.

As larry said dont put it on yourself, get a good electrician involved. It will save you time, energy AND LIABILITY!

slowly back away from the home.then run away as fast as you can!