Got a problem here .... just wondered what people might hypothesis could be wrong.
One of the dual power outlets in the kitchen was working fine on Friday morning. I actually charged my phone through one (the toaster and kettle are normally plugged into both). Anyway, the phone charged - and I then disconnected the transformers.....
Then later when another family member went to boil water, it wouldnt start ... same with the toaster.
Anyway when I checked it carefully with the DMM, the output at the outlet was only 80 volts?!! This is from the normal 240v (Australia).
I switched off that circuit and unscrewed it to look behind. Everything was fine... I even took the connections out of the plate and then put them back in. Put it back in,t urned the power back on - same, 80V.
The wire etc looked fine - the ONLY thing I did notice was that about
15cm (6in) up from the plug point on the wire, there was a bit of blackening. But, this flaked off a bit.If there was a short, then wouldnt the circuit breaker have tripped ???
We have 2 safety switches installed two on all the circuits - so if there was electricity leaking to ground somewhere, wouldnt that have tripped too?
How is this staying at 80V? My thoughts were that if something had happened to the wiring somewhere in the wall, then there would be 0V. I cant understand the 80....if its working, 240V, otherwise no voltage.
ANY help/ideas would be GREATLY appreciated..... just wondering what could be causing it. I have called my electrician, but that will take some time. I'm not planning on doing anything stupid, but would like to know or have an idea why it might be like this.