My earthing is screwed

[Love4sound]

I don't know what he did to fry the multimeter. Most probably he had selector in wrong position. Sad.

If I understand it correctly, he disconnected the earthing from from each apartment coming to the earthing strip at the ground level. Then he connected one probe of the bulb to the main neutral wire and checked earthing wire coming out of each apartment using the other probe. In that case there was no wire going to the ground right? It's just an wire coming out of each apartment,which is not connected to earthing.
In that case bulb should not glow at all as there is a open circuit unless there is leakage from live wire to the body of the appliances. It looks like three is leakage in 4 houses. One way to check is turn of the mains to those 4 houses and check again.
Did you check the color of copper wires while disconnecting. If there was huge leakage, the wire gets charred and brittle.

If you have option to get a separate earthing done for your apartment, that's a better option in my opinion. You will be saved from such stray leakage from other people's appliances.

Yes your understanding is correct. He also suggested if we do separate grounding the issue will be fixed. But my concern here is what if one of the 4 ground wires, belongs to my house? I want to test before going for separate grounding which will be expensive for sure cause need to buy thick copper wires for earthing. One way to test is to disconnect the 4 faulty ground line and then check each house but sadly we didn’t have the multimeter and I have placed an order in amazon. Once i get the multimeter I will remove the faulty line and test. The electrician suggested two options. One is to do a separate line for me with individual grounding. Next is we need to bring a carpenter to remove the cupboard and also involve EB to disconnect the power and then check the wiring behind the cupboard. The meters and switches are installed outside the cupboard with all the wires behind the cupboard.

 

[zero7]

. But my concern here is what if one of the 4 ground wires, belongs to my house?

I was also wondering the same. Though it's bit of work, better to do it. Once you get the multimeter, check the voltage between ground and neutral / live while the earthing line is disconnected at the point it was checked today. Do it one by one. Please number the wires for easy identification. (just a suggestion)

 

[mbhangui]

Yes your understanding is correct. He also suggested if we do separate grounding the issue will be fixed. But my concern here is what if one of the 4 ground wires, belongs to my house? I want to test before going for separate grounding which will be expensive for sure cause need to buy thick copper wires for earthing. One way to test is to disconnect the 4 faulty ground line and then check each house but sadly we didn’t have the multimeter and I have placed an order in amazon. Once i get the multimeter I will remove the faulty line and test. The electrician suggested two options. One is to do a separate line for me with individual grounding. Next is we need to bring a carpenter to remove the cupboard and also involve EB to disconnect the power and then check the wiring behind the cupboard. The meters and switches are installed outside the cupboard with all the wires behind the cupboard.

This can also happen if in one of the flats, by mistake the earth and neutral wire has been interchanged. This mistake in wiring happened in my house.

 

[Love4sound]

I was also wondering the same. Though it's bit of work, better to do it. Once you get the multimeter, check the voltage between ground and neutral / live while the earthing line is disconnected at the point it was checked today. Do it one by one. Please number the wires for easy identification. (just a suggestion)

Yeah now that one issue has been identified need to test properly before jumping to install a new earth.

This can also happen if in one of the flats, by mistake the earth and neutral wire has been interchanged. This mistake in wiring happened in my house.

Ok will check that as well.Need to get this sorted out ASAP. Seems like we are heading to another lockdown due to massive spike with corona cases.

 

[Love4sound]

So I tried the conventional bulb test in my flat. If I try N-E even with the plug point switched off my MCB trips. And next I tried L-E and the second I switch on the plug it trips.

 

[mbhangui]

So I tried the conventional bulb test in my flat. If I try N-E even with the plug point switched off my MCB trips. And next I tried L-E and the second I switch on the plug it trips.

Does the tester glow when you put it into the neutral or the earth? I'm talking about the screw-driver type of tester

 

[Love4sound]

Does the tester glow when you put it into the neutral or the earth? I'm talking about the screw-driver type of tester
View attachment 65881

Hahaha dont mistake me for a monkey based on my DP I do know and have this tester. No it doesn't glow

 

[mbhangui]

Hahaha dont mistake me for a monkey based on my DP I do know and have this tester. No it doesn't glow

I just wanted to be clear because I saw you using the MX tester in one of your posts. So good thing that the tester doesn't glow. I was worried that you might have a dangerous case of high voltage

 

[Love4sound]

I just wanted to be clear because I saw you using the MX tester in one of your posts. So good thing that the tester doesn't glow. I was worried that you might have a dangerous case of high voltage

I am suspecting earthing fault for sure in the line and not grounding due to leakage in the N-E. Also its tripping in N-E when plug is off which means there is return supply.

 

[grindstone]

Exchanged mails with a pro electrician acquaintance and he pointed-out that TV service providers can also compromise buildings (his word was "butchers")

 

[Reay]

I don't know if it is the same problem you had faced but even after switching off the mains in my home I still got electric shock when ever I touched any metal that is connected to the plug in the wall. Burnt couple of mobile chargers and a router. Luckily saved other electrical equipment's by pulling out the plugs connected to the wall sockets. The EB guys dug up and changed the entire neutral wire in the distribution box and right up to the gate of my apartment (I shelled out 4K for that)

U need a insulation tester ( megger ) meter to check for ground it should be 1000 volt megger , disconnect appliances which is grounded and do the check meaning heating appliances

 

[Hiten]

This test fried my multimeter.

Multimeters have fuse inside. See if replacing makes it work again.
regards

 

[Love4sound]

Multimeters have fuse inside. See if replacing makes it work again.
regards

It’s powering on but showing wrong readings.

 

[Love4sound]

This can also happen if in one of the flats, by mistake the earth and neutral wire has been interchanged. This mistake in wiring happened in my house.

So I had another electrician visit today and we wanted to test this theory. We switched of the MCB in the main line for the entire apartments and unplugged all the 8 earthing wires.We checked the N-E voltage and still it read 40-45V. We connected the neutral line directly with the ground to check N-E voltage. So the electrician concluded this must be an issue with the main neutral line from EB which makes sense theoretically cause our flats main line, earth line is completely disconnected and still the N-E is reading 40V. Spoke with AE and explained the issue clearly and she sent two technicians who again did the same thing. Just checked the phase and refused to even touch the multimeter

 

[mbhangui]

So I had another electrician visit today and we wanted to test this theory. We switched of the MCB in the main line for the entire apartments and unplugged all the 8 earthing wires.We checked the N-E voltage and still it read 40-45V. We connected the neutral line directly with the ground to check N-E voltage. So the electrician concluded this must be an issue with the main neutral line from EB which makes sense theoretically cause our flats main line, earth line is completely disconnected and still the N-E is reading 40V. Spoke with AE and explained the issue clearly and she sent two technicians who again did the same thing. Just checked the phase and refused to even touch the multimeter

So the EB will do nothing? This is criminal. Who will be responsible if there is any mishap? Write them a letter saying that you have hired professionals to examine the situation and send it by Regd Post. Write them a letter saying that if anything happens then the AE will be responsible as he/she refused to acknowedge the problem and the technicians left without actually measuring the voltages.

 

[Love4sound]

So the EB will do nothing? This is criminal. Who will be responsible if there is any mishap? Write them a letter saying that you have hired professionals to examine the situation and send it by Regd Post. Write them a letter saying that if anything happens then the AE will be responsible as he/she refused to acknowedge the problem and the technicians left without actually measuring the voltages.

Well we all know the quality of our EB service. We just need to keep pushing them. I still haven’t met the AE in person. May be that’s what they are expecting.The line man was like speak with AE personally.

 

[zero7]

Hope you have taken the video / photos of the readings to show to AE. 40V is just horrible. 10 times the normal range.
You may need to escalate to all the level up in EB to get this fixed if meeting the AE doesn't help.

 

[Love4sound]

Hope you have taken the video / photos of the readings to show to AE. 40V is just horrible. 10 times the normal range.
You may need to escalate to all the level up in EB to get this fixed if meeting the AE doesn't help.

Yeah I have. It’s going to one painful ride to get EB to check this and solve it

 

[Kannan]

@Love4sound one way to catch the attention of TNEB (Tangedco) officials is to check if your meter runs (albeit very slow depnding on the leakage current) even when you cut off the output to your flat. If after watching for a while you find the consumption count increasing, you then have a strong case against the Electricity Board for getting charged for even nom consumption. If so then all flats will be on the same pedestal. So other than the great risk factor, you are also paying for non consumption or buying electrocution. Write a strong letter jointly signed by all apartment owners pointing out the risk of electric shock, equipment damage and excess billing

 

[Love4sound]

@Love4sound one way to catch the attention of TNEB (Tangedco) officials is to check if your meter runs (albeit very slow depnding on the leakage current) even when you cut off the output to your flat. If after watching for a while you find the consumption count increasing, you then have a strong case against the Electricity Board f

Thanks Kannan I will give it a try