Static shock rabbit hole - help

[JC707]

Hi folks. So yesterday my son was shooting some basketball in backyard and was dribbling up to raised spa and touched water and was shocked. He said it felt like the static electricity when inside on carpet or rubbing a fuzzy blanket.

Well my paranoid self went into overdrive and dove deep down the pool shock rabbit hole.

It was low humidity for our Nor Cal area, I believe 32% or so. Just rained a ton day before. He was wearing synthetic rubber boots, fuzzy sweater. Just want to provide these details if they matter or not.

Diving deep I read about testing the water with a multimeter so I broke that out. Read some posts about stray electricity so did a few tests today:

1. Tested water around same time He felt the static shock. Reading 00.00 on multimeter (AC).

2. Turned on heater (gas furnace driven), washer machine, and dryer. Reading was 00.01 - 00.05.

3. Turned off dryer and washer machines, left Heater on and got 00.00.

After he got shocked my dumb butt put my arm in water and could have sworn I felt tingling but maybe it was my mind. My question is, is 00.05 Reading on my multimeter bad/enough to worry about?

I was very hands on in pool build and believe they bonded everything correctly that I know of.

Only thing I can think of is some type of stray electricity coming thru ground when all these appliances are running.

I was thinking of calling PG&E utility company to express my concern and see if they can come out but maybe they laugh at my 00.05 Reading.

Anyways sorry for the long post. Thank you for any help.

 

[JC707]

This is a brand new pool about 5 months old. House is new build 1 year old.

I was around A LOT during home construction. During the underground utilities install, we got a record rain storm and after they dug trench and put down PVC conduit and utility lines they had to stop due to rain. Trench was left open and filled with water probably 5-6 feet deep. Was left like this for over a week due to record storms.

When they finally filled it in they forgot the sand backfill layer and builder dug everything up, re-ran new PVC conduit/utility lines, and backfilled everything per code. Not sure if this caused any issues or if they could check for stray voltage?

Thank you all. My wife and kids are scared to use the pool and I am a little worried as well.

I plan to reach out to pool builder after Christmas to see what they say as well.

 

[JC707]

Lastly, am I testing correctly, using AC Voltage on the multimeter or so I want to test DC? Thanks all!

 

[ajw22]

Finding stray voltage sources take a lot of detective work. Here are some threads to give you ideas of what you are looking for:

Here is a thread that has been going on for 6 years trying to find the source of a tingle - A Slight Shock.

Here the voltage source was a streetlight connected to the house power line Bonding Issue In A Pool.

Here the Power Company was called in and found the house neutral was damaged and sending current to ground - ELECTRICITY in the water! What could be causing it - how to stop it?

Electrical Bonding - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Keep us updated on your progress.