*SILVERSLAB
December 11th, 2003, 12:40 PM
#3729: AC VOLTAGE ON PHONE LINE! Author: SILVERSLAB, Posted: 15 Jan 2003 04:50 am
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TODAY, THE LOCAL PHONE COMPANY CAME TO MY HOME TO INVESTIGATE WHY, FROM TIME TO TIME, RANDOM PHONE USERS WERE GETTING ZAPPED TO TEARS BY A MYSTERIOUS VOTAGE. THEY CONCLUDED THAT, AT THE EXTERNAL HOOKUP, 8VAC WAS PRESENT. AT THE PHONE JACK WHERE ALL THE " INCIDENTS" OCCURED, THE VOLAGE WAS 25VAC. TELEPHONE VOLTAGE IS DC! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?WE'VE DONE NO MAJOR REMODELING/RECONFIGURING IN THE HOUSE. HOW CAN I ISOLATE THIS PROBLEM WITHOUT GETTING GOUGED BY THE RESIDENT AUTHORITY IN HOME ELECTRICAL??
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#3736: Author: dkerr, Location: Ottawa Ontario Canada Posted: 15 Jan 2003 10:35 am
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Normal operation of the phone / phone line is dc voltage EXCEPT during the ring cycle, AC voltage is sent during the ring cycle. When someone calls you an AC signal is sent, once you pick up the phone, it runs by dc, or when there is no ring signal being sent it is dc.
Please clarify , is the phone company saying that the mysterious voltage is orginating in your home ?
If 8 v ac was present at the external hookup , was it from inside the home or on the phone companies side ?
Answer the above questions and repost.
Inside the home , There should be no physical connection between the phone wires and any other electrical.
There is several possiblities here if the ac voltage is orginating from within your home, if it orginately from the phone companies end then it is their problem to fix.
1. Phone wires at some point tied close to an electrical cable, and thru inductance (similiar to how transformers work) ac voltage is being induced in one wire from the generation and closaping of electromagnetic fields created / generated by the other cable even though no physical connection between the 2 cables are there.
2. Faulty telephone equipment perticularly those that require an elctrical plug in.
Has there been any electrical work done recently or phone lines routed.
Get back to us with an reply and verify which side of the side the phone company stated the problem was in. Then we will go from there.
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#3768: Author: Wgoodrich, Location: Indiana Posted: 15 Jan 2003 10:17 pm
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Couple of more ideas are a faulty computer modem. Possibly a mistake in wiring thinking a door bell wire was a phone wire.
I would put my bets on a cordless phone malfunctioning.
I would unplug the debark point and test for the a/c voltage. Then I would unplug ALL phones in the house including any computer modems.
If the ac voltage disappears then I would plug in one phone at a time testing each individual phone plugged in one at a time for the voltage to appear.
Let us know what you find
Curious
Wg
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#3775: re: answers to expert Author: Guest, Posted: 16 Jan 2003 02:17 am
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the phone company disconnected the source wiring and the house-side phone wiring. the 8vac was only present on the house side. at the time of the reading, no phones or computer modems were connected. no modifications of any size have been performed recently that would correlate to this symptom. i did have a very large tree cut down rather forcefully in the front yard very close to the house. loose ground? we confirmed the phone ground, and there was no ambient ac voltage present in my cb panel.hope this clarifies thingsa a bit. At least one of us will have some clarity. Thanks.
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#3781: Author: dkerr, Location: Ottawa Ontario Canada Posted: 16 Jan 2003 02:03 pm
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Well it has to be induced or picked up somewhere ...
double check that absolutely every phone, answering machine, computer, is disconnected at the jack point (no extesnion cords left connected, and if an ac voltage is still present on the interior portion of the line, then do the following...
Recheck the precense of an ac voltage on the phone line WITH th e main electrical panels breaker switched off, what this will do is shut down all electrical current in the house, if no ac voltage is on the phone line, then switch the main breaker back on and switch off absolutely all the circuit breakers on the panel, check for phone line ac voltage again, if no reading, now switch on one breaker at a time , recheck phone line for ac, switch on the next breaker, recheck again, if one breaker or breakers when switched on and the phone line gets the unwanted ac voltage , make a note of and report back exactly what kind of circuit that breaker is feeding.
Do the above test with nothing conencted anywhere on the line.
Report back your finding...
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#4272: Author: joed, Location: welland ontario Posted: 02 Feb 2003 05:28 pm
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Were they using a digital meter. Sometimes those meters will pickup transient voltages that are introduced just by wires running beside each other.
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TODAY, THE LOCAL PHONE COMPANY CAME TO MY HOME TO INVESTIGATE WHY, FROM TIME TO TIME, RANDOM PHONE USERS WERE GETTING ZAPPED TO TEARS BY A MYSTERIOUS VOTAGE. THEY CONCLUDED THAT, AT THE EXTERNAL HOOKUP, 8VAC WAS PRESENT. AT THE PHONE JACK WHERE ALL THE " INCIDENTS" OCCURED, THE VOLAGE WAS 25VAC. TELEPHONE VOLTAGE IS DC! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?WE'VE DONE NO MAJOR REMODELING/RECONFIGURING IN THE HOUSE. HOW CAN I ISOLATE THIS PROBLEM WITHOUT GETTING GOUGED BY THE RESIDENT AUTHORITY IN HOME ELECTRICAL??
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#3736: Author: dkerr, Location: Ottawa Ontario Canada Posted: 15 Jan 2003 10:35 am
----
Normal operation of the phone / phone line is dc voltage EXCEPT during the ring cycle, AC voltage is sent during the ring cycle. When someone calls you an AC signal is sent, once you pick up the phone, it runs by dc, or when there is no ring signal being sent it is dc.
Please clarify , is the phone company saying that the mysterious voltage is orginating in your home ?
If 8 v ac was present at the external hookup , was it from inside the home or on the phone companies side ?
Answer the above questions and repost.
Inside the home , There should be no physical connection between the phone wires and any other electrical.
There is several possiblities here if the ac voltage is orginating from within your home, if it orginately from the phone companies end then it is their problem to fix.
1. Phone wires at some point tied close to an electrical cable, and thru inductance (similiar to how transformers work) ac voltage is being induced in one wire from the generation and closaping of electromagnetic fields created / generated by the other cable even though no physical connection between the 2 cables are there.
2. Faulty telephone equipment perticularly those that require an elctrical plug in.
Has there been any electrical work done recently or phone lines routed.
Get back to us with an reply and verify which side of the side the phone company stated the problem was in. Then we will go from there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#3768: Author: Wgoodrich, Location: Indiana Posted: 15 Jan 2003 10:17 pm
----
Couple of more ideas are a faulty computer modem. Possibly a mistake in wiring thinking a door bell wire was a phone wire.
I would put my bets on a cordless phone malfunctioning.
I would unplug the debark point and test for the a/c voltage. Then I would unplug ALL phones in the house including any computer modems.
If the ac voltage disappears then I would plug in one phone at a time testing each individual phone plugged in one at a time for the voltage to appear.
Let us know what you find
Curious
Wg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#3775: re: answers to expert Author: Guest, Posted: 16 Jan 2003 02:17 am
----
the phone company disconnected the source wiring and the house-side phone wiring. the 8vac was only present on the house side. at the time of the reading, no phones or computer modems were connected. no modifications of any size have been performed recently that would correlate to this symptom. i did have a very large tree cut down rather forcefully in the front yard very close to the house. loose ground? we confirmed the phone ground, and there was no ambient ac voltage present in my cb panel.hope this clarifies thingsa a bit. At least one of us will have some clarity. Thanks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#3781: Author: dkerr, Location: Ottawa Ontario Canada Posted: 16 Jan 2003 02:03 pm
----
Well it has to be induced or picked up somewhere ...
double check that absolutely every phone, answering machine, computer, is disconnected at the jack point (no extesnion cords left connected, and if an ac voltage is still present on the interior portion of the line, then do the following...
Recheck the precense of an ac voltage on the phone line WITH th e main electrical panels breaker switched off, what this will do is shut down all electrical current in the house, if no ac voltage is on the phone line, then switch the main breaker back on and switch off absolutely all the circuit breakers on the panel, check for phone line ac voltage again, if no reading, now switch on one breaker at a time , recheck phone line for ac, switch on the next breaker, recheck again, if one breaker or breakers when switched on and the phone line gets the unwanted ac voltage , make a note of and report back exactly what kind of circuit that breaker is feeding.
Do the above test with nothing conencted anywhere on the line.
Report back your finding...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#4272: Author: joed, Location: welland ontario Posted: 02 Feb 2003 05:28 pm
----
Were they using a digital meter. Sometimes those meters will pickup transient voltages that are introduced just by wires running beside each other.
