This article was posted 07/05/2006 and is most likely outdated.

Protocols and Practices for Stray Voltage Testing
 

 
Topic - Stray Voltage
Subject - Protocols and Practices for Stray Voltage Testing

July 5, 2006  

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Protocols and Practices for Stray Voltage Testing

 

 

Michigan State University’s Agricultural Engineering Department has a 21-page treatise titled Protocols and Practices for Stray Voltage Testing which we are offering for free download.

 

For farmers, especially dairy, stray voltage is a very damaging phenomenon, and they often call upon the local electrician for help. The problem is neutral to earth voltage, which animals, especially dairy cows, experience as body current when they stand on a concrete slab or other ground-potential surface while eating or drinking from metallic equipment, or while being milked by an electric milking machine.

 

These animals become stressed on a daily basis and milk production declines, so it is in the farmer’s interest to find the causes of this stray voltage and make appropriate changes to the electrical system.

 

This Michigan State University document sets forth procedures for measuring these stray voltages and interpreting the results so that corrective action can be taken.

 

For the working electrician, a systematic and rational approach is preferable to random and costly upgrades which may not eliminate the problem. This detailed protocol, which includes several worksheets for tabulating results, is a valuable asset for anyone engaged in this type of work.

 

Click here to download the entire Protocols and Practices for Stray Voltage Testing document provided by Michigan State University.

                                                             

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Comments
  • Could not down load or open

    JimShafer
    Reply to this comment

  • It's an interesting procedure, but a bit equipment intensive. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to apply similar methods to why your pool gives you the tingles.

    Has it been verified against other methods?

    Matt
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  • I am very glad to obtain a copy of this article. Here in Puerto Rico I am not aware that this is a problem, probably because of the high % RH but, I have decided to perform some research. Nearby my house there is a dairy farm and it could be a good starting point. I will keep you informed of my findings.

    Thank you for your kindness,

    Carlos Gil

    Carlos Gil Navedo, P.E.
    Reply to this comment

  • Personal experience with stray voltage! My brother-in-law had a small (30 head) dairy operation for several years. One day he called and told me his herd was acting very strange. "They won't come to the milk barn on their own anymore!", he said. "When they are hooked up to the milkers, they kick me and they won't stand still; often causing the milkers to fall off their udders." Next, he told me that he had walked past the milk storage tank and got shocked. He wanted me to come look at his equipment to see if I could determine why he got shocked. He was pretty upset because his milk production had fallen drastically and it was putting him in financial turmoil. I took a meter and started testing for stray voltage. I immediately discovered approx. 30 volts AC between his storage tank and his evacuation pump when the pump was running. So I asked him if he had done any work to the system recently. He explained that the evacuation pump motor had failed two weeks previous and that he had it rebuilt at a local motor shop (this shop has an excellent reputation for quality work). So I made a visual inspection of the motor and discovered the case ground was not installed properly. My brother-in-law had done the motor removal and re-installation himself and had mistakenly connected the ground wire improperly. He had been shocking the cattle through the milking equipment plumbing. I corrected the problem and all stray voltages were gone! Within a week, the cattle were once again gathering at the milk house as usual and milk production was back to normal!

    Nat Abram
    Reply to this comment

  • Dear Mike:

    You and your staff do a very good job of keeping the public informed. However, in the above case I feel that you should have placed a warning on the e-mail.

    The warning is to the effect that the above document is obsolete, incorrect, antiquated (Too old to be fashionable, suitable, or useful; outmoded). It lacks “scientific method”

    scientific method n. 1. The principles and empirical processes of discovery and demonstration considered characteristic of or necessary for scientific investigation, generally involving the observation of phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis concerning the phenomena, experimentation to demonstrate the truth or falseness of the hypothesis, and a conclusion that validates or modifies the hypothesis.

    For the reader the first clue that the site is inaccurate and should be taken with a grain of salt should be when the incorrect term “Stray Voltage” is used. Voltage does not harm, does not kill. Current kills.

    Proof of this can be found http://www.amasci.com/emotor/vdg.html Picture of man touching approximately 400,000 volts and still living. Thus proof that voltage does not kill.

    Another hair raising experience engineeronline.ws/ vdgspheres.htm Additional sites proving voltage does not kill are: http://www.newschoolrome.com/html/van_der_graaff_generator.html

    http://van.hep.uiuc.edu/van/pictures/pictures.htm

    Another clue that false information will be forthcoming are the words, “neutral to earth voltage”. This term is misused, misapplied, abused and exploited. It has little to do with the real cause, stray current, that harms humans and cows.

    When one reads “interpreting the results” is another clue that the authors lack an understanding of the subject. The so-called “corrective action can be taken” described in the publication is incorrect and detrimental to both humans and cows. This has been shown in several court cases and in several technical papers presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers technical conferences by Donald W. Zipse.

    If a person were just to look at Figure 1 and ask why would a person want to measure, voltage to a reference rod would be another clue that the following information is erroneous. Is the cow or person going to be able to contact the reference rod and any other electrical point being measured? Not unless you have an ox named Blue owned by Paul Bunyan who would be able to span the gap.

    Testing performed by Mr. Lawrence C. Neubauer on over 900 dairy farms has proven what Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) states in one of their documents that “60 % of the remaining (neutral) current flows in the earth” on the way back to the source, the substation.

    An example would be when 20 amperes flows out on the single-phase conductor and only 8 amperes (per EPRI and measurements by Mr. Neubauer) flow back to the substation on the neutral conductor. That leaves approximately 12 amperes flowing over and through the earth.

    Of those 12 amperes, approximately 6 amperes will flow directly into the dairy so-called equipotential plane that according the NEC will have no voltage gradient across the plane. Bull Shit. Those 6 amperes are directly connected by electrical conductive copper wires. The primary neutral of the transformer is solidly connected to the secondary neutral. The secondary neutral is connected to the service drop and the service drop neutral is grounded in the service entrance panel and connected to the equipment-grounding conductor, the green conductor in addition to being connected to the white colored neutral conductor. This ground conductor is directly and required by the NEC to be connected to the equipotential planes in both swimming pools and dairy buildings. Thus, the primary neutral current is allowed to flow unimpeded directly into your house, your swimming pool, hot tub, metal piped shower and the dairy farm.

    What is devastating is the lightning arrestor is also directly connected into your home and the dairy farm. Thus, when ever the lightning arrestor fires it directs lightning current into your home and into the dairy farm. This bastardly act has been going on since 1932. The BIG SECRET OF THE UTILITIES.

    Now these 6 amperes can be stopped by the insertion of a neutral blocker or a transformer that isolated the primary neutral from the secondary neutral thus blocking the direct electrical connection from the primary neutral to your home. However, this only stops a part of the stray current.

    The remaining 6 amperes enters the ground from the multiple neutral to earth connection that are required to be made 4 per mile and at every transformer. Some states such as Wisconsin and I believe Idaho require about every pole to have a neutral to ground connection. They lack understanding of Ohms Law and common sense.

    One dairy farmer cut all the down grounds for over a mile on each side of his dairy and the milk production increased. That is until the utility found the down grounds had been cut and repaired them.

    This final 6 amperes of stray current flowing uncontrolled over the earth can only be corrected by the utilities installing, as any common sense electrician would do, an insulated and isolated neutral conductor. This third conductor on a single-phase distribution line is the same, as the NEC requires for a home or dairy farm. Since the 1920, the utilities have been installing their distribution lines with one less electrical conductor than required by common sense and saving billions and billions of dollars. This so called savings has resulted in shocking humans and cows and in my opinion several deaths.

    Donald W. Zipse
    Reply to this comment

  • I have seen this problem in Okalhoma where I grew up. Farms tend to evolve and the power tends to just expand as the buildings are added. What you end up with is a Kluge not a design. There are undesireable leakage currents everywhere. Generally go one gets concerned until it gets high enough somewhere for someone to feel a tingle or the livestock starts acting strange. Trying to deal with these old farmers is an interesting experience.

    Charles Hines
    Reply to this comment


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