3 Causes of Stray Voltage and What You Should Do About It

It’s a tingle that no one likes. It will raise the hair on your neck and often leaves a n unsettling taste in your mouth. Sometimes it will come from an outdoor outlet or maybe even the old metal tap. In any case, stray voltage, known also as tingle voltage can be very uncomfortable, especially to any four-legged family members.
Stray voltage, which is defined as a small voltage that exists between two conductive surfaces that can be simultaneously touched by a human or animal, can be difficult to diagnose. It is sometimes intermittent which means when you go to test your home or facility, it may not be present. You will often chase the problem for awhile before determining the actual source.

Sources of stray voltage are:

1. Neutral to Earth voltage (NEV) – Most often seen from intentional grounding of objects to the ground. The ground retains a portion of the grounded voltage.
2. Metallic Object to Earth Voltage – Most often seen as unintentional as certain objects come into contact with an energized conductor. A good example would be a pipeline that is accidentally energized.
3. Stray voltage from intentional actions: Often occurs by improperly grounding a system so when you touch it and the ground, you become the grounding mechanism.
There are several different remediation options when you find the source of stray voltage, but much of it is at the hydro end of the line. For your part, you want to make sure that everything is grounded properly and that you don’t have any wires inadvertently touching the ground.