Power feed problems

[DOXY]

Residential power problem. Burning up surge protectors on a 15 branch circuit with no load on it. Over 2 weeks, various light flickering, dimming, etc. Finally 3rd surge protector burned up, found cb tripped on the branch feeding the sp that burned up, 15 amp arc fault. One 120VAC leg to main disconnect had 240VAC on it, the other had 4VAC. Called power company, when they showed up, legs were normal at 120VAC. Can't help but think transformer has to be possessed. 2nd time they came out to check meter base, even put load on it, checked ok. Loosing my mind. When reading 240VAC on one leg, lights in house that did work obviously were exceptionally bright. Transient situation again over 2 weels. Any ideas? Thank you. UPDATE
After burning out 2 bed motors, 2 ovens, range top, 2 refrigerators, ceiling fan, 2 garage door openers, etc, they finally looked at the transformer, the neutral lug on the can had never been tightened down, 5 years after installation. They said they would pay all damages. This took 2 weeks and 3 trips by linemen to find.

 

[Jadnashua]

Sounds like you have a loose neutral somewhere in/to the panel. First thing to do is to make sure all of the bolts/clamps are tight.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

I assume this is a 240v two pole breaker, otherwise none of that makes sense. And if it is, depending on HOW you are testing it, your results COULD be normal.

 

[WorthFlorida]

Does sound like a bad or open ground somewhere. Here is a link to a whitepaper that came from another post on this forum. Read page (2) where is explains how an open ground can cause high voltage problems. You do not sound comfortable, therefore, it is time to call in an electrician.

It was too large to upload.
http://www.samlexamerica.com/suppor...ingleSplitPhaseandMultiWireBranchCircuits.pdf

 

[Jadnashua]

An open ground opens you up to safety problems, but should not cause 240vac to be where 120vac should be...it could mean that you would have some voltage between neutral and ground, but L1-N and L2-N should still be 120vac and L1-L2 should be 240vac. An open neutral could allow backfeeding so that a 120vac circuit shows the full output of the transformer, or 240vac. That will really mess up lots of electronics and some motors and blow out many light bulbs. It can be a really expensive problem in addition to being a safety issue.

 

[Cacher_Chick]

I would not be surprised if a failing surge suppressor tripped an AFCI breaker.
What kind of suppressors are you buying, and was each one the same?

It would be helpful to know specifically how and where you were measuring for differences in potential.
Does the structure have multi-wire branch circuits?