What is wrong with my electric?

Question

When I bought my house 5 years ago it had a fuse box and a breaker box. Six months ago I had a friend look into rewiring everything into the breaker box but he said I had to get a new box for some reason (it has plenty of open spaces). I had a friend of the family come out and look at it and he said it could be done but it would not be code. Long story short, he did it and a few weeks later I started having problems. My microwave only runs half speed, I have to physically turn the dryer while pushing the button to get it started, I turn a box fan on at night and it will speed up and slow down for no reason. If I am barefoot standing in water and I turn my hose on from outside I get a pretty good jolt. While cleaning my pool, if I clean out the skimmer that is attached to the pump and I touch the pool while my hand is in the skimmer I get an nice jolt. The only time my microwave works at full power is when my pool pump is on. The electrician has been to my house several times to try to fix it but nothing works. He split a bunch of things up on seperate breakers including the microwave, dryer and pool pump on their own and still same problems. The only thing I can tell you about the breaker box is that everything runs through a 100 amp breaker that will kill all power in the house if flipped. He did run a new ground and I made sure that was tight. I have never had a problem with breakers tripping, it's almost like I am not getting enough power. The line coming into the house was brand new when I bought the house. I turned all the breakers off and kept one on at a time and tried that appliance and still have the problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

You are in a very bad situation.  Getting a shock, having things run slowly, etc clearly shows that things are not properly wired.  It does not meet code, but more importantly it is very dangerous.

You can have an electric fire at any time; someone can be killed.

Immediately hire a licensed electrician to fix the problem.  Cost is not important as you are in a very dangerous condition.

Answer 2

If you are getting shocked touching the garden hose spigot while you are grounded( i.e. wet feet in yard) it sounds as though you may have an open neutral in the panel and are relying on the cold water bond for a neutral leg this is very dangerous... being that electrocution is very possible even in the shower.  It can also explain the "shortage of power" you described. It may or may not be because of the work your friend did, if you have over head lines coming to the house there may be a bad connection at the pole or at the house... Or many ,many other things. Contact a licensed electrician to fix it  NOW.

Answer 3

Wow, first of all you need a new electrician.  This is not something that should puzzle a licensed electrician for long.  The thing that concerns me most is that your water lines are energized.  This is very dangerous for obvious reasons and can be confirmed with a volt meter by testing between the ground prong (the round one) on a receptacle or an extension cord and a water faucet.  This should read 0 volts.  If it reads anything else, then your friend improperly installed the water pipe ground wire.  Or perhaps the water pipe ground is installed properly but the neutral wire that feeds the house is loose or even disconnected.  This would mean that all or some of the electricity is flowing through the grounding wires rather than through the service drop.

Let me say again - this is very dangerous!  It's time to call in the professionals.  Find a new electrician quickly.

Answer 4

sounds like the friend of the family din,t know what he was doing, i would get a certified electrician to rewire it all or you might end up getting electrocuted,