Feel Electricity running through air duct??

I'm setting up a a grow room in my basement and almost have everything done that i need. i have 3- 1000 watt air cooled lights hanging. I was doing the duct work today and put a inline duct fan to each light to blow cool air, finished the duct work and turn the power on to each light. I touched the air duct and could feel a electric current running. I touched one of the fans as well and felt an electric current. Why is this happening? Is it normal??

I shut everything down but not sure what could be causing it. I have 3 power strips. One for each light. Each strip has one ballast and the inline duct fan plugged into it for that light.

Thanks ahead for any help, and let me know if more info is needed.

no its not normal in fact its dangerous!!!!

you have a short in you line somewhere check all your cables and equipment for bare wires

ok, the light and ballast are new, the inline duct fans are new. the only thing not new are the power strips but i will check all wires.

I did go back and plugged in the three fans alone and didnt feel anything so i think its safe to cross those off.

Thanks for the help

well its a process of elimination but you could use an electric multifunction tester to see it there is a current in your tubing

you sure its not the vibrations from the fan?

definitely sure it was not the vibrations from the fan. It was a shock, so i touched it again and you could feel a light current, like a tingling sensation almost. i will inspect everything before powering these back on.

Use a light bulb put one hand on a ground the other around the threads of the bulb touch base of bulb on different objects when the light get brighter you are getting close. No wait don't do this lmao....

how bout grounding? i had the same issue until i checked my grounding, then it went away.

can you explain what i should be looking for?? when i connected everything i dindt notice any exposed wires but i will check everything very closely to try and find the problem.

i thought it might be the inline duct fans since i could feel the current in air ducts but when i plugged in all 3 fans without lights i didnt feel anything, anyways i'd like to know how similar your problem was and how you solved it.
Thanks

Put a fucking GFI recepticle in before you toast yourself. after that unplug 1 at a time until it
stops blowing the gfi. Then check ground on that unit

Something is not wired correctly, sounds like a return might be connected to ground, and to the ducting.

Find somebody that knows electricity, and get them to help.

1 - 1000W lamp draws over 8A, more than enough to kill.

Good luck.

Something similar happened to a friend of mine, I went over to fix a computer, and upon touching anything metal, like the back of the case or the end of the monitor cord, you would get shocked. Turns out he ripped the ground off the surge and plugged it in backwards.

The problem is your main ground is not connected properly, this will be a problem for anything using the supply voltage in your house, effecting some things more then others. The best way to get you safe is to run ground wires from the ducts and ballast cases to the copper pipes in your house. After that, find and check the main ground point on your house, could be a big copper steak outside or again a green wire connected to your pipes. If you don't have copper pipes going into the ground, buy a copper grounding steak and DYI, that way you know its safe.

I believe you are developing inductive loads with the fans motor coils, while applying the ballast load (resistive and capacitive) is creating a current through the ground wires. Normally any current would be directed straight to ground with a wire, but its not, when you touch the ducts you are providing the current a less resistive path to flow.

Everyone thanks for the input. I have checked every single cord very closely and there are no bare wires or tears anywhere.
Picograv I think you might be right about the fans producing the current through the air duct.

I checked my main breaker box and found the copper wire that runs outside to the ground there is no big copper stake.

There are copper pipes near my room so I will try to ground there.

02Camaro said:

Everyone thanks for the input. I have checked every single cord very closely and there are no bare wires or tears anywhere.
Picograv I think you might be right about the fans producing the current through the air duct.

I checked my main breaker box and found the copper wire that runs outside to the ground there is no big copper stake.

There are copper pipes near my room so I will try to ground there.

Click to expand...

Is the ground wire just sitting on the ground just sitting there? I think people must steal them because of the value of copper, quick everybody check your ground stake!

Should look like this:

Here is a pic of the fans I'm using from HTG Supply. and no it does not look like that but it is also not just laying on the ground. For whatever reason the copper wire was spray painted black on the outside of the house and it is pulled tight into the ground. Is it possible the stake is completely underground?? but the wire is not loose.

Picograv-- I just zoomed in on the picture you posted and the wire coming out of my breaker box to the outside is just like the exposed part of the wire coming from the green/yellow wire attached to the stake. Like i said there is no type of coating on this wire and it was ran straight into the ground without a stake so not sure what is underground or how it is being held in place.

Camaro, do the fans have a ground wire, 3 pin connector?

yes they do- the fans came already with a 6 foot grounded cord.

What could be happening is the fans motor coils are inducting the current into the metal ducts, there could still be those shocking currents in the ducts them selfs, I think grounding them would be the final solution, also this is best practice, in-case a live wire somehow comes lose and touches the ducts they will be grounded out and not become live them self's.

this being my first time around setting up the grow room--how do you ground the air duct to the copper pipe?? i know they have the the grounding clamp to the part that goes to the copper pipe...so do you just pick a random point in your air duct to connect the copper wire and run it to a point in your pipe...

also my basement has the steel support columns and a cement floor could this be an option for grounding??