Why are there two phases in the sockets and how to fix it?

readers How does this happen?

In order for you to understand the cause of the malfunction, we will provide a visual diagram of the connection of the socket-switch-light:

As you understand, the voltage is fed through the phase conductor and returns to zero. And now imagine what will happen if the break of zero occurs:

If you turn on the light switch, the voltage will go through the filament or the included electrical appliance, go to zero wire and tk.zeros are connected, will go to the socket on the second circuit. The result - when checking the voltage in the sockets of a socket with a probe you will see two phases. If you have taken care of the grounding of the apartment, there will be no danger to life, just need to find a wire break and restore contact. However, if the apartment used wiring zero, the consequences may not be the best.

The main causes of the problem

As you have already understood, the cause of the appearance of two phases on the socket is most often a zero break. Loss of contact can occur on the floor panel, at the entrance to the apartment, in one of the distribution boxes and even just in the wall.

If the wire is burnt out in the switchboard, the light will go out in the apartment, but the outlets will all still work, but only when one of the appliances is switched on or the lighting in the room. If you turn everything off and check the voltage in the outlet, you will see that there will be only one phase.

Other case, when the zero break occurs in the junction box one of the rooms. In this case, the light will cease to light only in this room; in the rest, everything will work, as before. To solve the problem, you need to open the switch box and reconnect the wires.

Another common reason why two phases in the socket is the old wiring where the plugs are screwed in instead of the automatic switches. If it kills only one plug, zero, the voltage will appear in the two sockets. To prevent this from happening, we recommend replacing the electrical wiring in the apartment with a modern one - with a neutral bus.

It is also common for a situation where a break occurs directly in the wall due to your lack of professionalism. Before you hang a picture, you must always find electrical wiring in the wall, so as not to damage it with a nail( and yourself including).If you interrupt only the neutral conductor, there will be two phases in the sockets. This can include the damage to the wire rodents, which can exist in the voids of panels of apartment buildings. About how to protect the wiring from rodents, we told in the relevant article.

We recommend viewing the video, which clearly shows the problem:

So, we told why there might be a voltage in the two socket sockets, how it happens and what to do to solve the problem. Now I would like to explain how to immediately understand that there was a damage to the wire N and this is not both phases, but one that flowed over the second line of the power grid.

Useful advice for readers of

The situation is clear - the light in the apartment was gone and you immediately decided to check the voltage in the sockets. Noticing that the indicator shows a phase on two wires, you thought that these are two phase wires in your wiring. As we have already said, it's far from the case and you can see this in the following way:

Use a multimeter to check the voltage in the socket, if it shows 0, then you have only one phase, flowing to zero conductor.

This is the surest way to determine a fault, because the indicator screwdriver is an extremely inaccurate method of verification. The indicator can work on a tip and show the second phase, although in fact it will be one.

That's all I wanted to tell you about this faulty wiring. We draw your attention to the fact that the consequences of such a breakdown can be very noticeable - if your apartment is using zeroing, the voltage can go to the body of electrical appliances, which is extremely dangerous. We hope, now you know what to do if there are two phases in the outlet, and why this happens!