This is patently false. The neutral doesn't ever get 'hot.' In fact, if you look in most electrical panels, the neutral and grounds are often tied together on a bus bar. The ONLY way you're getting shocked is if your HOT (black or red, usually) is shorted against the grate itself or another part of the HVAC system. ----- Eric F Crist On Jan 4, 2013, at 08:52:11, Ryan Coleman <ryanjcole at me.com> wrote: > I agree... you could do a once-over first... turn off the breaker for that room/outlet group and remove the outlet from the wall box... Check to see if there's a loose connection or if the ground is intersecting with the neutral in any way (It's not likely the hot [black] wire that's bad judging by the intermittent nature)... at least then you've looked at all you can physically look at... > > Return the outlet to the box, making sure you don't have any crosses or other concerns and, once battened down, you can flip your breaker back on. > > Of course if you have a fear of high voltage don't do the above work... or if you aren't feeling completely confident. There is, of course, the possibility that the wire past the box (in the wall) is the issue and you'll never find it there. > > In the interim can you plug it into another outlet that is not showing a ground fault on your tripplite?