I hope someone here likes to solve mysteries. Eventually I will be calling an electrician to go to the end of the book for whodunit.
My typical US residential service has a conduit leading from the meter base to the service panel in the house. If I measure voltage from an extension cord hot blade side to conduit I get 124 volts. That should mean that the conduit is at neutral. However, if I measure ohms from any house outlet neutral blade to conduit I get no continuity. This seems remarkable since the neutral wire is supposed to be bonded to the meter case, and the conduit has a metal fastener to the meter case. Therefore, even if the conduit was not connected to the service panel, there is a conductive path through the meter neutral bond via neutral entrance wire that should connect conduit to neutral in the service panel. All neutrals inside the house checking from outlet to outlet are definitely bonded at 0 ohms between them. Additionally all internal outlet neutrals are grounded. The conduit is not. I can't understand how the conduit is "lit up" with an orphaned neutral. If the conduit is not sharing with house wiring neutral it should be dead. There shouldn't be 124 volts from it to hot. It's as if the legitimate neutral line is not connected to meter case and a second "mystery neutral" line has been brought in from the utility, and tied to the conduit to drive me crazy.