Used a Fluke 117 on a weird flicker in an old Boston brownstone

Thought it was a loose neutral, but the reading jumped around like crazy. Turns out the knob and tube in the wall was picking up interference from a new data line run right next to it. Learned to always check for parallel runs in these old places now. Anyone else run into phantom voltage from modern cables messing with old wiring?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige8612d ago

Wow, I always blamed the wiring itself before considering outside interference.

nancy_smith12d ago

Hey, did you hear about my friend's weird garage door opener? It kept acting up for weeks, and they replaced the whole unit before a neighbor mentioned his new radio antenna. Turns out the signal from that thing was messing with the remote. They had to change the frequency on the opener to fix it.

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allen.ivan12d ago

Remember how old cordless phones used to cut out when someone ran the microwave? It's the same idea. Baby monitors and wifi routers can step on each other's signals too. Makes you wonder how many "broken" things just have noisy neighbors on the airwaves.