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Hello,
We have a puzzle here that's currently on-going (brain storming and analysis stage) between two vendors at the same time and myself!
I have two energy bars, one brand new dedicated for a lighting fixure, and one old one with 5 occupied outlets and one free outlet,
I bought a new light fixture, and the energy bar to control it. once i received everything and i plugged the first plug of the light fixture to check it out, i noticed that i got zapped anytime i touch anything connected to the light fixture (hangers, cables, screws..etc).
So i contacted the vendor and they told me that they tested the unit on a GFI without any issues prior to shipping and that i may have something else going on somewhere.
I tried to trouble shoot the issue myself while shooting an email to the power bar vendor in order to pin point the source of this problem. This is when i noticed that once i plug the unit into the wall socket directly, i do not have any stray voltage nor shocks anymore! and if i plug in a normal power strip to that energy bar, i do get stray voltage at the fixture again!
and once i plug any single plug from the fixture onto any port on my TWO energy bars, i do get shocked/stray voltage from the fixture. (i do testing using a bulb tester, i don't use my hand to check for sure!).
So i'm thinking that two energy bars, bought 1 years apart, cannot be both defective at the same time, so this comes down to:
- my BEST guess is that somewhere in that fixture, they interchanged an EARTH with a PHASE (not neutral), so whenever i plug this on my energy bar (not earthed due to power plug adapter) it creates that "stray". hence why when i plugged the fixture directly to an earthed outlet, it came out fine and did not trip my breaker/gfi (i believe this only trips if neutral is interchanged, because earth/phase interchange will not interrupt the current, right?) and that stray is completely gone!
- Second guess is that somewhere in the unit, a loose phase wire is touching earth, but wouldn't that just cause the breaker to trip as it would also influence neutral? am not sure.
- Third guess, everything is fine, i just need to earth my energy bars (schuko plug, so i need to get a proper schuko to UK adapter instead of only plugging N/P) and continue using fixture and energy bar completely fine.
What do you guys think? Where should i start looking out? i really don't want to open the fixture up unless the vendors agree my warranty won't be void. is there anyway to check for this using a multi-meter or something? (if E/P is interchanged, how do i know which plug is it?)
I also tried to check my energy bar on a multi-meter (earth and P) and i got zero readings so the sockets are fine in this case.
Sorry i had to explain in details since this is indeed a puzzle and if that condition is not safe (even though the stray went away now that i'm using a normal power strip, BUT i do want to use the energy bar to operate this unit on a timer instead of manually on/off or mechanical timers).
I'm confused at this point any feedback is extremely appreciated!
We have a puzzle here that's currently on-going (brain storming and analysis stage) between two vendors at the same time and myself!
I have two energy bars, one brand new dedicated for a lighting fixure, and one old one with 5 occupied outlets and one free outlet,
I bought a new light fixture, and the energy bar to control it. once i received everything and i plugged the first plug of the light fixture to check it out, i noticed that i got zapped anytime i touch anything connected to the light fixture (hangers, cables, screws..etc).
So i contacted the vendor and they told me that they tested the unit on a GFI without any issues prior to shipping and that i may have something else going on somewhere.
I tried to trouble shoot the issue myself while shooting an email to the power bar vendor in order to pin point the source of this problem. This is when i noticed that once i plug the unit into the wall socket directly, i do not have any stray voltage nor shocks anymore! and if i plug in a normal power strip to that energy bar, i do get stray voltage at the fixture again!
and once i plug any single plug from the fixture onto any port on my TWO energy bars, i do get shocked/stray voltage from the fixture. (i do testing using a bulb tester, i don't use my hand to check for sure!).
So i'm thinking that two energy bars, bought 1 years apart, cannot be both defective at the same time, so this comes down to:
- my BEST guess is that somewhere in that fixture, they interchanged an EARTH with a PHASE (not neutral), so whenever i plug this on my energy bar (not earthed due to power plug adapter) it creates that "stray". hence why when i plugged the fixture directly to an earthed outlet, it came out fine and did not trip my breaker/gfi (i believe this only trips if neutral is interchanged, because earth/phase interchange will not interrupt the current, right?) and that stray is completely gone!
- Second guess is that somewhere in the unit, a loose phase wire is touching earth, but wouldn't that just cause the breaker to trip as it would also influence neutral? am not sure.
- Third guess, everything is fine, i just need to earth my energy bars (schuko plug, so i need to get a proper schuko to UK adapter instead of only plugging N/P) and continue using fixture and energy bar completely fine.
What do you guys think? Where should i start looking out? i really don't want to open the fixture up unless the vendors agree my warranty won't be void. is there anyway to check for this using a multi-meter or something? (if E/P is interchanged, how do i know which plug is it?)
I also tried to check my energy bar on a multi-meter (earth and P) and i got zero readings so the sockets are fine in this case.
Sorry i had to explain in details since this is indeed a puzzle and if that condition is not safe (even though the stray went away now that i'm using a normal power strip, BUT i do want to use the energy bar to operate this unit on a timer instead of manually on/off or mechanical timers).
I'm confused at this point any feedback is extremely appreciated!