half voltage

[panny300]

i was putting a couple of wall light fittings up.and was testing for voltage with a multimeter,on both lights it was showing 143v between live and earth,also 3 or 4v on the earth and neutral,what would cause such a low volt reading,there are no other problems,and the lights work ok.

 

[RF Lighting]

This almost certainly means your CPC conductor isn't actually connected to anything at the other end.

This means your light fitting(s) will NOT be earthed. This is dangerous, and should be remedied as soon as possible.

You should not use the lights in the mean time.

 

[jj4091]

Or it could mean you simply did not have a good connection with your probes, did you check live to neutral?

 

[panny300]

same to neutral,
they hav'nt been connected yet,wanted to find what could be the problem,
out of interest, what's the reason it is showing 140v
thank you both.

 

[Spark123]

Stick a normal filament lamp in the fitting and try reading the voltage again - sounds like you are just getting a misleading reading using a high impedance digital multimeter.
You can get readings like this owing to the capacitive effect of the cable however if you put any sort of load across it drops to zero.
More often seen in 2 way lighting strappers, try a search for capacitive coupling.

 

[electronicsuk]

If you're gettin 230v live-neutral and a significantly lower voltage live-earth then I'd be inclined to agree with RF, you need to check the CPC is connected properly to earth at the other end.

 

[Stoday]

It could mean that your multimeter isn't working properly.

 

[tim west]

Are you measuring a dimmer output?

 

[jj4091]

same to neutral,
they hav'nt been connected yet,wanted to find what could be the problem,
out of interest, what's the reason it is showing 140v
thank you both.

So you have 143V between live & neutral & live & earth, check a socket ,it definately sounds like your meter is duff. Also how can the lights work ok if "they have not been connected yet".