Lets be careful out there...

Today’s home inspection was an eye Opener. Walking around checking outlets when I get bit. Tingling sensation when an outlet is energized. As I was leaning on the air conditioner I get bit again. Just as I was checking the panel my helper told me he just turn the light switch on and the light bulb exploded. Decided to get the meter out before I disclaim. Yikes.

246 millivolts is near nothing

So what?

Would you care to explain in more detail what we’re looking at? Are you testing to ground in the photos? What was the cause of the problem?

That meter appears to be reading 246 MV.

But I do not know that particular meter.

Something is not right but I’m not sure the meter is telling us anything.

I turned off the breaker and measured from ground to load. No power to 1 leg, looks like open neutral but could be other grounding issues. POS foreclosed home, wet feet can get you hurt.

No power. Dropped leg, imbalance, open neutral, grounding issues. Got my *** handed to me for trying to diagnose.

You learned a valuable lesson.

Observe and report.

Defer for repair as needed.

With the main energized there is no way of knowing if the fault is on the utility side or the branch side, I’d de-energize the main and defer to a licensed electrician.

Could this be by chance a hot and neutral swap from the utility? Everything you describe, and assuming the meter is reading hot to panel chassis, is classical to a swap (minus on leg being zero volts to chassis, but would be so to remote earth) . It would also explain the light bulb exploding because its getting 240 volts.

Just wondering if we should be using tickers on metal enclosures.