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Two days ago my wife and I noticed an electrical problem in our house.

Our dryer would run but not get hot and our hot water heater just wouldn't make hot water, and the toasters coils wouldn't even get red hot it would just make the bread warm. Half the house's electrical sockets were showing 60-95v.

I checked all the GFCI outlets and found that one was faulty so I replaced that. I checked the breaker box half of the 120v circuits were reading the same 60-95v, and the 220v circuits were reading 112-120v. The two main legs read 120v on the top leg and 112-114v on the bottom leg. I had the PoCo come out and check the outside box and everything on their end seemed fine they said.

I'm in no way an electrician I didn't even know what a leg was before today so any advice would be much appreciated.

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    Call your power company, there is a good chance this problem is on their side.
    – Tyson
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 22:03
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    Since you have good power at the service and some outlets some are low voltage it could be your main breaker. First if this is an FPE federal pacific panel call a electrician, FPE Stablock are horrible just google them if it is. If it is a diferent brand turn all the branch circuit breakers off and flip your main breaker on and off 10+ times. If a dirty hammer in the breaker this might clean it enough to schedule someone to replace it. It could also be a loose lug on 1 leg but insulated tools, hot gloves and a arc flash shield should be used for safety to tighten the incoming power.
    – Ed Beal
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 23:30
  • Hey OP, did you ever get this resolved?
    – Chuck
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 13:10

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First I would say that it sounds like something is seriously wrong with your home wiring. Personally, I would trip every breaker associated with a circuit where the voltage is reading low, including the 220V circuits.

What I would guess is happening is that maybe the neutral wire on one of your mains lines is broken or loose/disconnected. If that's the case, then all of the power for your electric items is having to go through ground.

Seriously, flip those breakers and call an electrician. It's probably an easy fix - just reconnect the wire, but if all of your electric power is relying on ground connections, then there's a chance that things that are supposed to be safe may not be - the case of the breaker panel, the case of the washer/dryer, etc.

It sounds like a voltage divider - hot to "neutral" is not getting 100% of the voltage (power) you're expecting, so "neutral" to something else (ground) is getting the remainder of the power you're expecting. This power is either on its way to starting a fire somewhere in your house, or it's being dumped to ground and is heating up wherever the ground (or water pipe!) is making contact with the ground.

When you measure voltage, how are you doing it? Hot to neutral? What happens if you go to the breaker box and measure hot to neutral, then hot to ground?

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  • Let me just reiterate that, if it is an open neutral, the electricity is now relying on the ground wire to close the circuit. If there's a problem with the ground connection, or if there isn't one, then you get to play the part of ground when you touch the item and anything that is connected to ground - a water pipe, basement floor, etc. Use a hairdryer with no ground plug in a humid bathroom and it might kill you. That's supposed to be the point of the GFCI circuits, but I'm surprised that they haven't all tripped yet and you found a bad one already. Like I said, dangerous condition.
    – Chuck
    Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 18:58

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