Bwana
Well-known member
We just upgraded our cable system to HD so each TV now needs its own decoder box. The CRT TV in the master bathroom used to be in a recess in the upper wall using a GFI receptacle and a coaxial plug. When we had the bathroom remodeled, we put in a flat screen at the same location and covered the recess with dry wall. The remodeler simply left the TV power plug plugged in to the existing receptacle and ran both the power cord and the coaxial cable thru a hole in the dry wall. Pretty bush I know but we missed it as it was behind the TV.
So now with the upgrade, I was planning on moving the receptacle out to the wall so I can plug in both the TV and the decoder box right behind the TV. As I don’t want to tear out a whole section of textured and painted dry wall and take down the TV, I was planning on powering up the new receptacle with an extension cord plugged into the original receptacle and then cut and stripped then wired to the new receptacle on the wall. OK, just get it over with and shoot me now, it’s not much better than the original BS setup.
The problem I’m having is I’m getting 45VAC in the new receptacle and can’t figure out why. I’ve checked the POS extension cord/new receptacle on a known receptacle and I get 120 VAC as it should be. Power and neutral are in the correct positions. So my “extension” is not the problem. When I plug it into the old TV receptacle in the recess, I get 45 VAC on my VOM. We have gone around the house and tripped every GFCI we know of but there’s no change on the 45 VAC in the old receptacle.
The TV has worked for more than a year before I started messing with the setup. I’m hesitant to plug in a $400 TV just to see if it would work on 45VAC so I can’t tell if the 45 VAC has been there for a year or if it just happened. Do flat screens care what the minimum input voltage is? I did touch the receptacle terminals and got a minor buzz from the new receptacle so possibly I tripped the GFCI? But shouldn’t that give zero volts, not 45? We checked some receptacles in another bathroom with the VOM and that was indeed the case, zero volts on a tripped GFCI.
So how can 45 VAC show up on a household circuit? And how do I find a possibly hidden GFCI? Is a GFCI the problem?
And please save the safety lectures for both myself and other readers. I’m well aware of the rules I’ve broken but also well aware of the risks.
So now with the upgrade, I was planning on moving the receptacle out to the wall so I can plug in both the TV and the decoder box right behind the TV. As I don’t want to tear out a whole section of textured and painted dry wall and take down the TV, I was planning on powering up the new receptacle with an extension cord plugged into the original receptacle and then cut and stripped then wired to the new receptacle on the wall. OK, just get it over with and shoot me now, it’s not much better than the original BS setup.
The problem I’m having is I’m getting 45VAC in the new receptacle and can’t figure out why. I’ve checked the POS extension cord/new receptacle on a known receptacle and I get 120 VAC as it should be. Power and neutral are in the correct positions. So my “extension” is not the problem. When I plug it into the old TV receptacle in the recess, I get 45 VAC on my VOM. We have gone around the house and tripped every GFCI we know of but there’s no change on the 45 VAC in the old receptacle.
The TV has worked for more than a year before I started messing with the setup. I’m hesitant to plug in a $400 TV just to see if it would work on 45VAC so I can’t tell if the 45 VAC has been there for a year or if it just happened. Do flat screens care what the minimum input voltage is? I did touch the receptacle terminals and got a minor buzz from the new receptacle so possibly I tripped the GFCI? But shouldn’t that give zero volts, not 45? We checked some receptacles in another bathroom with the VOM and that was indeed the case, zero volts on a tripped GFCI.
So how can 45 VAC show up on a household circuit? And how do I find a possibly hidden GFCI? Is a GFCI the problem?
And please save the safety lectures for both myself and other readers. I’m well aware of the rules I’ve broken but also well aware of the risks.