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I have a series of eight receptacles in the game room, all showing 109 volts, which is of course low. If anything (a lamp, fan) is plugged into any of them, it won’t work, but also all the other receptacles, up and down stream, will drop to 49 volts.

I tripped the breaker and identified all the receptacles in this series. I found the last receptacle which holds just two line wires (aside from ground) and worked upwards to find the first one providing the load for all the others.

They all show 109 volts (including the line of the first one). None of the receptacles had any loose wires or showed any sign of damage or overheating. The breaker never tripped, and the test button on the breaker works fine. All the receptacles had been working fine, and this just started last week.

What am I missing?

How can I know if the problem is in the breaker, or if somewhere in the house there is another receptacle upstream that I can not locate?

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  • Were the wires attached by the screw terminals or "backstabbed" into the outlets? If backstabbed, there can be an issue there. Move all the wires to the screw terminals.
    – RMDman
    Commented 2 days ago
  • Are the outlets installed in series, like a single wire goes in one side out out the other? This sounds like something plugged in the circuit is dropping the voltage. Is anything else plugged in at all?
    – Tiger Guy
    Commented 2 days ago
  • Welcome. Please take the tour so you know how to respond to answers. "Thanks" comments are discouraged. Also, add all new information to your question post, not (or not just) in a comment.
    – isherwood
    Commented 2 days ago
  • 1
    To confirm, these outlets area all on one breaker, and all the other outlets in the house measure expected voltage? If you disconnect the circuit from the breaker does the breaker measure 120V to neutral? If you connect something else (a lamp) to the breaker does it work properly? Are you able to do a continuity test on each of the live and neutral wire between the breaker panel and the first outlet? And to test voltage there with the outlet disconnected?
    – jay613
    Commented yesterday
  • Thank you for the comments: As described, all the outlets are in series, all on one breaker, all backstabbed (two wire line and two wire load), all the outlets have the same behavior.
    – Nate
    Commented yesterday

2 Answers 2

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It's a broken hot or neutral either at the last working outlet or the first dead one.

The 109/45V is "phantom voltage" picked up by capacitive coupling to nearby wires (same way farmers use fence lines to steal power from transmission lines). You get rid of that by using a lower impedance voltmeter.

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A lamp or fan should still work even at 109 volts. Your issue may be the neutral. You may have lost it in the breaker box.

also if the wires are "backstabbed" into the outlets, reattach all the wires to the screw terminals.

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3
  • Just fyi, it drops to 49 volts as soon as something is pluged. That is probably the reason why they don't work?
    – Nate
    Commented 2 days ago
  • @Nate No, if the 49 VAC was accurate it would be merely a brownout situation. Have you checked if the reading changes when the corded device is turned on? And are you using a multi tester or a NCVT?
    – Robert Chapin
    Commented yesterday
  • Thank you for your comments. I am using a digital multimeter.
    – Nate
    Commented yesterday

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