First, thank you all for weighing-in and helping me with this. I know it's challenging to help troubleshoot from a distance, and it's even harder when you're dealing with a person with so little base knowledge of the problem. The info (both in links and words) you've all provided has been extremely helpful.
Some changes have happened. As you may recall, upon the advice of an electrician, I sunk in 3 ten foot grounding poles around the pool, ran 4 gauge copper wire connecting those poles and ran the wire back to the "known" ground pole by the pump and that external breaker box. Prior to doing that, I had a measurement of 2 to 3 volts in the water (the 2 different values are from 2 different multimeters, a Cen Tech and a Fluke). After putting in the poles and hooking up the wire (where it was just coiled above ground, so prior to burying it), the readings jumped to 6 to 7 volts using the Fluke -- the 6 volts were if the breaker to the pool equipment was off, the 7 was with it on.
So I started burying the wire (only a few inches deep) and I made sure to lay it in a trench that where it was touching, and in some cases tucked underneath (and touching) the concrete slab which is my "decking" around the pool. It was a difficult job (almost 200 feet of wire), and I finished it yesterday evening. After it was done, I took some readings and here's what I found:
- All readings done with the Cen Tech Multimeter (since it's what I have)
- First reading was done with the pool filter/pump running (and I could hear my large air conditioner/fan running): 3 volts
- Second reading was done with breaker thrown for the pool filter/pump equipment (AC unit still going): 2 volts
- Wife suggested throwing the breaker to the part of the house with the AC unit going....I did that and measured 0 to 1 volts (the reading would fluctuate between 0 and 1)
Now I'm not really sure what to do. Had I come to you all sooner, I would've not done my pseudo-bonding experiment, and I should've been throwing the breakers and measuring with a voltmeter in a more systematic way to really get a handle on what's what. A few things I know about my house wiring from the electrician....at least one breaker he checked (the pool breaker, has uneven loads....not sure if that's a big problem, he didn't indicate that he thought it was affecting the pool situation). The AC units (I have two large condenser/fan units, one for each part of the house) are not grounded, and he suggested we do that.
I still suspect stray voltage and if I run the "everything", I've got 3 volts in the pool....probably 3 volts too many, I'm sure. There probably is stray voltage in the ground, but my playing with copper has muted that. I'm trying to figure out next steps, which I'd love to get feedback on...here's what I'm thinking:
- Call the power company as planned and see if they can identify stray voltage using their equipment, which I hope is more than just a multimeter
- Get an electrician to thoroughly go through all of the breaker boxes I have, balance the loads, make sure there are no shared neutrals, and ground any large external appliances (i.e., the AC units)
- Try to find a pool contractor/pool electrician who can tell me what would need to be done and quote a price to get the pool to be equipotentially bonded
In the meantime, I'm wondering if the pool is safe with the breakers thrown for the AC Units and Pool equipment, and the measurement fluctuating between 0 and 1. Again, any thoughts on this would be helpful. And has anyone known someone or had their own pool equipotentially bonded after it was installed?