Outlets alternate between 110v and 220v

[lsexton1]

We have been in our new office for several months with no problems. Two weeks ago everything plugged into our outlets burned up. We've had the local utility company and several electricians out to look at the problem. Late last week they discovered that a neutral was loose in the box. Everything has worked fine since then until today when all our surge suppressors burned up again. The electricians and local utility will be back out tomorrow. Obviously, they are missing something. What else could be causing this problem?

[HayZee518]

have him/them check the ground to the driven ground rod. what a lot of utilities are doing is have two driven ground rods installed, six feet apart with a continuous #4 bare copper wire between them and terminated at either the meter socket or the panelbox. At the pole where a transformer is mounted there is a groundwire going down the pole to a driven ground rod installed by the utilities. this utilities ground is connected to the bare wire in the triplex messenger cable also called the "crib" line. sometimes this wire breaks and the neutral, the X2 lead on the transformer is ungrounded. and depends on the ground connection at a/the house for a ground reference. obviously a loose or "not there" ground becomes a problem. houses on city water have a ground bond at the inlet pipe for their water supply and are supposed to have a "bond" around a water meter that uses dielectric unions. the "extra" driven electrodes are for safety.

[lsexton1]

Thank you for your response. The local utility ended up replacing the underground line from their pole to our office. The pipe had water in it and they found a splice that was corroded. They think this is what was causing our problems. Hopefully they are correct.