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jay1971

Help electric charge on copper pipe

jay1971
10 years ago

This is strange we just purchased this place, so yesterday my wife said the lights in the bathroom started blinking very bad, we I got home I noticed it too. I went to the panel and started turning off breakers until I found which one was at fault. It was the water heater so I went in to check it out, it is in a closet area and very close confined space with both copper and PVC pipes. When I went to check the bottom element my screw driver made an arc on the copper pipe so it was the hot water heater arcing against the cooper pipe. I could see where it had been rubbing against the pipe. What would be the cause? I have never seen anything like this. I put a barrier between the heater and the copper pipes but I am concerned as to why a pipe would have an electrical charge on it. By the way power was off to the heater at the time this happened.

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