The Electrical Safe Boat House
The Water Safety Council was formed, in part, because of electrical shock around boathouses.
Electrocution is still a real possibility at Lake Gaston.
Improper installation, faulty equipment, or frayed wiring can allow electricity to flow into the water around the source.
The accompanying picture shows a quick check for voltage on boat lift.
The lift is up in the air not touching the water.
The meter is set to a low range for AC voltage ( sorry, this $10 multimeter's lowest tange is 200)
The black test lead is hanging in the water and the red test lead should touch a crossbar or the cable on the lift.
If you don't feel comfortable testing this, ask an electrician.
Space is too short to go into all of the possibilities of what could go wrong, but here's a known problem.
You may have two grounding rods connected in the electrical panel (breaker box) at the boathouse. They can be at different potentials and cause an unbalanced system.
[ ] Look for a grounding rod at the shore and trace it to the panel.
[ ] Now look for the power wires that are coming from your house. If the bare copper wire in that cable is connected, along with the wire that comes from the rod you found, that could be your problem.
[ ] Kill the breaker at house that feeds power to the boathouse.
[ ] Remove one of those grounds (either, but I'd remove the one from the shore rod) and securely tighten the remaining ground wire and any other wires that were under the ground lug in the panel.
[ ] Turn the breaker back on and retest with the meter.
If you are ever in the water and you feel a "tingle or buzz" swim back the way you came and have it checked out.
Wyatt Andrews
(Not an electrician)
President
LKGWSC.ORG
Electrocution is still a real possibility at Lake Gaston.
Improper installation, faulty equipment, or frayed wiring can allow electricity to flow into the water around the source.
The accompanying picture shows a quick check for voltage on boat lift.
The lift is up in the air not touching the water.
The meter is set to a low range for AC voltage ( sorry, this $10 multimeter's lowest tange is 200)
The black test lead is hanging in the water and the red test lead should touch a crossbar or the cable on the lift.
If you don't feel comfortable testing this, ask an electrician.
Space is too short to go into all of the possibilities of what could go wrong, but here's a known problem.
You may have two grounding rods connected in the electrical panel (breaker box) at the boathouse. They can be at different potentials and cause an unbalanced system.
[ ] Look for a grounding rod at the shore and trace it to the panel.
[ ] Now look for the power wires that are coming from your house. If the bare copper wire in that cable is connected, along with the wire that comes from the rod you found, that could be your problem.
[ ] Kill the breaker at house that feeds power to the boathouse.
[ ] Remove one of those grounds (either, but I'd remove the one from the shore rod) and securely tighten the remaining ground wire and any other wires that were under the ground lug in the panel.
[ ] Turn the breaker back on and retest with the meter.
If you are ever in the water and you feel a "tingle or buzz" swim back the way you came and have it checked out.
Wyatt Andrews
(Not an electrician)
President
LKGWSC.ORG