My Live to Earth voltage is slightly higher than Live to Neutral by around 4V. I could understand this were N:E 4V but it’s actually 0V. What could cause this?

Rgds

Khonwan

Who knows

Check outside, that Martian spacecraft perched on the 22kV could be affecting your power

Certainly not worth worrying about, but a few thoughts:-

Measurement (cheapo meter) error, 1% +- 1 digit would give a possible error approaching this magnitude on a 3 1/2 digit meter.

Voltage changed between readings.

Power factor (not sure how) but big phase angles between voltage and current can do odd things.

Different zero point on different ranges.

Weird L-E waveform confusing the meter.

Paranormal activity (your spirit house is correctly aligned isn't it).

Any combination of the above.

Do you have a MEN link?

Who knows

Check outside, that Martian spacecraft perched on the 22kV could be affecting your power

Certainly not worth worrying about, but a few thoughts:-

Measurement (cheapo meter) error, 1% +- 1 digit would give a possible error approaching this magnitude on a 3 1/2 digit meter.

Voltage changed between readings.

Power factor (not sure how) but big phase angles between voltage and current can do odd things.

Different zero point on different ranges.

Weird L-E waveform.

Do you have a MEN link?

Hadn't thought about the Martians!

'Expensive' clamp meter. Readings taken several times. No MEN link (yet). Agreed that it's nothing alarming - just wondering as I can't make sense of it.

Thanks

Khonwan

Edit: spelling.

While Martians are the likely source, it isn't uncommon if you don't have an MEN link or if there is a break in the grounding. Just making an educated guess, I would say you are about 120m (along the wire) from the N-E bonding point.

The neutral is going to float a little higher due to the voltage drop back to the N-E bonding point. When you measure the N-E voltage, there is no current flow in that path, so no potential difference.

For the science fair project, if there is zero potential difference, you could short N and E and not have any current flow, right? To establish if there really is a problem when trouble shooting ground problems, we often short between N and E with high impedance (like a 60W incandescent light bulb). You can measure the voltage difference based on how bright the light bulb is, or use a current clamp or voltage probes. If there is no current, your ground is likely broken.