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By
06/19/2007
Hi Greg
If your meter read 110 Amps, then your lamp post must be powered by a UFO. A current flow of 15 Amps will pop your outside plug-in breaker.
Most likely you were measuring Volts, not Amps.
However, if you did indeed measure 110 Volts between the lamp post and the ground, you can get sued for manslaughter if a kid touches it. Your best bet is to save a LOT of money by getting a local electrician to check out your mystery.
It seems that, somewhere between the breaker and the lamp, you have some wires mixed up. I have no way of telling from here whether the mix-up is in the house, before the outside plug-in, or after. The flashing proves that there is a mix-up, and I would not be in the least surprised if some other appliance, like a baseboard or water heater or something else, also consumes power without your knowledge.
You should, at the same time, also install a GFCI breaker or at least a GFCI outside outlet, just to get within the Code and to notice immediately when there is a similar problem. GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. When it senses that 40 milli-Amps ( 40 1/1000 of an Amp ) of current flow get sidetracked to the ground, it pops. 45 milli-Amps of current flow are enough to kill. That is why the Code requires them for outside outlets.
To reduce your liability, turn the breaker off until the wire mix-up has
been corrected and a GFCI installed.
Have FUN!
DearWebby
By
06/19/2007
Our power company will send someone out to do an energy evaluation on our property for free. If you can get an expert opinion for free, I say go for it.
By
06/18/2007
If all else fails, how about trying solar lighting?
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By the way - can you switch power companies?
Where I live we can go to
www.powertochoose.org and select a company after reviewing the rates for all the power companies that serve my zip code.
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