<story><title>Why is there a voltage on my HDMI and coaxial cables?</title><url>https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/268070/why-is-there-a-voltage-on-my-hdmi-and-coaxial-cables</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nly</author><text>I moved in to a newly renovated Victorian house here in England in December, which we bought from a property developer.&lt;p&gt;It was completely rewired, with everything signed off and certified by a qualified electrician, as per legal requirements.&lt;p&gt;Most properties in the UK have common earth&amp;#x2F;ground and neutral wiring (they&amp;#x27;re the same wire, the &amp;quot;earth&amp;quot; just bypasses your main board... there&amp;#x27;s no earth spike).&lt;p&gt;Anyway, I bought a socket tester after noticing an outlet or two didn&amp;#x27;t work. Went around and tested the whole house... half of the 30 electrical outlets in the house were defective, and at least 4 were wired incorrectly such that they were live on the neutral pin (which means they&amp;#x27;re live when the switch is off). Some had earthing issues. Fortunately the RCBO&amp;#x27;s  work as advertised.&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#x27;t risk your life with this stuff, test it all yourself. A tester will cost you $10</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dmd</author><text>&amp;gt; which means they&amp;#x27;re live when the switch is off&lt;p&gt;For anyone else confused by this - it&amp;#x27;s a British thing. In America, all outlets are live all the time. British outlets have a switch per-outlet, built in.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why is there a voltage on my HDMI and coaxial cables?</title><url>https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/268070/why-is-there-a-voltage-on-my-hdmi-and-coaxial-cables</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nly</author><text>I moved in to a newly renovated Victorian house here in England in December, which we bought from a property developer.&lt;p&gt;It was completely rewired, with everything signed off and certified by a qualified electrician, as per legal requirements.&lt;p&gt;Most properties in the UK have common earth&amp;#x2F;ground and neutral wiring (they&amp;#x27;re the same wire, the &amp;quot;earth&amp;quot; just bypasses your main board... there&amp;#x27;s no earth spike).&lt;p&gt;Anyway, I bought a socket tester after noticing an outlet or two didn&amp;#x27;t work. Went around and tested the whole house... half of the 30 electrical outlets in the house were defective, and at least 4 were wired incorrectly such that they were live on the neutral pin (which means they&amp;#x27;re live when the switch is off). Some had earthing issues. Fortunately the RCBO&amp;#x27;s  work as advertised.&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#x27;t risk your life with this stuff, test it all yourself. A tester will cost you $10</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tblt</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve seen houses with ground bonded to the copper water&amp;#x2F;gas pipes...and upon further inspection they were supplied with plastic piping outside of their property boundary. Yikes.&lt;p&gt;My understanding is that neutral goes to ground at the substation</text></comment>