Looking at my lighting earlier and see that my multimeter is measuring 230v from live to neutral at the ceiling light, but only70 ish volts from live to earth. Am I right in thinking the earth may be disconnected somewhere and the 70ish volts im reading is due to capacitance ? I cannot get my head round why its like this The live is definately at 230v so if the earth was disconnected I should not be getting any reading atall. Where is this 70v reading from ???? and between what ?? I need to check the continuity of the earth tomorrow but it cannot be continuous or i would be getting 230v, even a loose earth connection would still read full voltage would it not ??
Try measuring the voltage between L and N when the light is switched off. I'll bet it's not zero.
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Voltage across L-E when the light is off reads zero volts
Presumably with "lamps in" or equivalent - i.e. the SL is shunted to N by the load. With no load on the SL you're likely to see a similar apparent voltage on the SL when the switch is off.
Ah yes, I first discovered this on a 2 A socket, but I have also found it Between the pins of an ordinary lamp holder. Clearly in both circumstances, the load was removed. IIRC, there was a current of about 1 mA.
That was between L and N, not L and E and in both cases on 2-way lighting.
Try measuring the voltage between L and N when the light is switched off. I'll bet it's not zero.
:
Voltage across L-E when the light is off reads zero volts
Presumably with "lamps in" or equivalent - i.e. the SL is shunted to N by the load. With no load on the SL you're likely to see a similar apparent voltage on the SL when the switch is off.
Ah yes, I first discovered this on a 2 A socket, but I have also found it Between the pins of an ordinary lamp holder. Clearly in both circumstances, the load was removed. IIRC, there was a current of about 1 mA.
That was between L and N, not L and E and in both cases on 2-way lighting.
