Hi all -- sorry for the really delayed response, but I finally got the problem diagnosed....only took 3 electricians (3rd one was the charm!!!) I'm going to spare you the drama, false starts, weird ideas and glimpses into what true frustration looks like, and just give you the answer. I'm hoping it will help somebody else should they ever have this issue. Very quick recap: 1 to 7 volts (depending on the day, lower in the morning, higher in the afternoon) could be found in the pool by using a multimeter (red lead goes into the water, black lead is attached via a copper ground wire which is attached to a known ground [i.e., rod]). Here's the answer (which I think some of you had already surmised and put forth): the Neutral running from the transformer is believed to be faulty. Ta daaa! The pool was "fixed" when the electrician disconnected the pool light completely from electricity (just throwing a breaker doesn't stop the problem). The pool light was inadvertently energizing the water, and when someone in the water grabbed on the surrounding "ground" (i.e., concrete and brick pool deck) they got a "tingle" for their trouble. So we left the light fixture in, but the wires are "stubbed off" (not connected), and the voltmeter reads
ZERO....not .2 millivolts, but actually 0.000.
Now for those who have been asking, "why are you dragging your feet on calling the power company" -- actually, everyone asked more politely than that -- I called them and told them the following:
"I have electricity in my pool, and people are getting shocked….I also noticed that my workshop and house have a problem with lights constantly dimming. I called an electrician and after bonding all electrical boxes, checking that the grounds were solid and isolated from the neutral; he was still able to measure current on the ground and in the neutral. It appears that the neutral wire from the transformer serving both my workshop and my house (as well as another structure) is faulty. Please send someone out as soon as possible. We have turned off the pool, but we are concerned about the safety and the quality of our electrical service."
The dimming / blinking of lights in my shop and home is really something I thought was just par for the course, but turns out that a less-than-great neutral wire (or transformer under an excessive load) will cause that to happen. So I get on the phone and I relay that to my power company, and they send a guy out the same day (within just a few hours). First thing he says is he thinks it's stray voltage in the ground; but not from them, since there are no downed wires or any other "general" indications that they are leaking power. He say he's had at least 3 calls for similar pool problems himself in this area, and really the only solution is to "put a grid around the pool with copper rods". He says they never found the power leaks, and that "fixing the pool" is really my only solution. So I explain to him what the electrician did and said, and then because the electrician is an outstanding guy and told me I should do this, I call the electrician and put him on speakerphone so that the power company guy and he can communicate directly. The gist of the conversation was the power company guy saying "I hear what you're saying and I believe you; but you have to hear me and believe me" and they basically each make their case, but neither person was persuaded. The power guy said he would put a volt recorder on my house and he would (and did) go up to the transformer and check and clean the connections. He also said that he would advise they put the transformer on a load study, but he also said that was a "corporate call" and it would be their done at their discretion. As he left, he again strongly advised me to put a grid around the pool, and drove off.
Here's more info on the how and why diagnoses:
- Electrician #3 who has 30+ years of working on residential and commercial electrical projects, along with 20+ years of bonding pools for pool companies; had a long drive but was willing to take me on as a client. He was adamant that we find source of the problem first, and then discuss how we bond the pool.
- After a tour and looking at my pool voltage journal, he started by pulling the meter and working on eliminating potential problems by bringing my ground wires up to code (e.g., #8 ground wire was used for a 200 amp box, and only one ground rod, he replaced the wire with #4 (as per code) and put in a secondary rod that was 6 feet away. No change to anything. I have 2 breaker boxes inside the house, another one by the pool equipment, another in the workshop and one more in a cabin on the property. He got the 2 in the house and the 1 by the pool equipment straightened out. One of the boxes had the ground sharing the neutral and he isolated the neutral.
- Once everything was cleaned up, he started measuring amperage on the neutral in the back of the house and noticed that it was reading 2 amps; he also noticed that the newly installed ground wire was reading 1.8 amps. Then we tried some test of turning things off and on and noticed that the lights were dimming as large appliances were kicked on and off. Then a visual inspection of what appears to be a 40+ year old (possibly older) transformer, and noting that the split is going to 3 areas, each of them drawing 200 amps potential. So a faulty neutral or inadequate transformer starts to really feel like the culprit.
- Then we head to the pool and he notes that there isn't any metal in this vinyl-liner pool, except for the pool light (which does not have a ground wire. All this time and through the above, we were checking the voltage in the pool and watching rise during the day as my AC units would kick on and off, and the neighbors giant unit which shared my transformer would kick on and off. So we decided to pull the pool light and see if we could run a copper wire into and ground it. As we were in the process of doing that, he disconnected the pool wiring and we noticed that the voltage in the pool went to zero, but if you measured the voltage on the pool light wiring, you got your 6 volts -- and this was with the main breaker being thrown in the off position. So even with the breakers off, the voltage (because of the faulty neutral line) was traveling through the neutral line and even the ground line). So I had him completely disconnect the pool light and the next liner change, the light fixture itself is going to go completely away and be capped off.....I'm done.
Meanwhile, I'm running "dirty electricity" and the life span of my electronics are likely shortening before my very eyes, but until I can convince the power company of that, I am out of luck. But at least I have a pool again.
If I can offer one piece of advice, it is to find yourself a seasoned electrician who has also has experience with pools. I hope I got most/all of the details right in conveying this story. I've learned a bit more about electricity, but honestly, I'm still confused by how it travels, where it goes and despite our safety measures (i.e., breaker boxes, etc) can still be problematic. I have a ton of respect for those of you who do this for a living!!! And thanks again to everyone here for weighing in with your thoughts, ideas and support!!!
P.S., I hope there aren't too many typos....I'm typing this fast and I have to run to a training course tonight, so I'll try proof-reading and fixing them when I return.