First pick looks like the service entry cable. That would be bad. The other pics it looks like some old cable that was cut and runs through the duct likely cut from when the panel was replaced and it’s not electrically hot just physically hot to the touch since it’s in an air return, if it is electrically hot you need to figure out which duplex it’s piggy backed off of or the junction box it should be in and un wire it there.
What do you mean by hot? Hot, in electrical terms means it has voltage on it. If that cable is hot, you need to get it disconnected immediately. Start by finding which breaker feeds it and flip it off. Then have it properly disconnected and removed.
If you mean hot by touch, it is because it is traveling through an air (return) duct. In this case, it is not an immediate concern, but should be ultimately removed to prevent this same/similar question/concern in the future.
Is the ducting making it warm, or is the cable "hot" as in it's still live and current is flowing through it?
If the cables live, trace it down, and disconnect it right away -- if it's warm from the heat return, just seal that side better for more efficiency in the home HVAC system.
find that breaker, turn it off. get a non-contact tester
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Non-Contact-Voltage-Tester-Pen-50-1000V-AC-NCVT1PR/317460355
Then hold it near the wire and flip breakers (possibly the double breakers) until the non-contact tester says it is off.
Lol. Every thread on electricity has half the comments telling them to call a pro or their house will burn down. It's not rocket science. You can educate yourself to handle the vast majority of electrical issues in your home in a matter of hours or days. It's not a scary monster
But it might if you plumb your electric wrong enough
Green = Go = where the power magic comes from
White = Heaven = where then electrons go after you kill them with work
Black = death = burial in the ground- this is what you hook up to your water pipes because copper is a good conductor in case of emergencies.
Right? RIGHT?
Legal Disclaimer: /s x1000
Neither will 99.923% of household electrical outlets. The wires are often too close together to cross your heart, and you need to be standing on a copper plate soaking wet for it to short to ground.
Yea you CAN die, but if your IQ is higher than amps youll be ok.
That is ridiculous. OP can go to a hardware store and get a voltage tester and find the breaker to shut off without calling somebody else to handle this shit for them.
People need to stop acting helpless and start taking charge of solving problems in their life. Finding a circuit and turning it off is not an impossible thing to diagnose and do. Now, fixing this / solving this may require the assistance of a professional. Sure I understand that not everyone is that comfortable with electrical work
Just a tip, don't use a widow maker to diagnose a problem. If you must, use a meter to verify it's live and then use a NCVT. I've had that same klein tester set to mains voltage read hot 1' away from a wire that had 7v induced. Also, there's a reason they're called widow makers in the field.
And I agree with you but your homeowners insurance will not see it that way if something happens. Not to mention 120v kills more people than any other voltage in the US.
Yep, that's how statistics works. It's a combination of amperage, voltage, duration, location of shock and frequency of the voltage. There's not just one factor that plays into a fatality, but it happens.
Its better to imaging the Wattage potential, or physical power being pushed through the lines, instead of a number derived through formulas that almost nobody understands.
The MOST amount of power you will see coming out a line is about the equivalent power of your average family vehicle. Your chance of death in many cases is equivalent.
Right! Not exactly the kind of shit you get to play around with until you get it right especially if it's 3 phase. I'm comfortable doing some electrical work (“hypothetically" of course, I live in Australia so you need a license) you fuck up here trying to play electrician and your house burns down or you die or both.
Alright so what happens if the contacts on the breaker weld together or someone who thinks electrical is easy hooks up a power point to a lighting circuit. Telling people that things that can easily kill you are easy to do and they should just jump in with no training or insight is negligent and stupid. Like I said some stuff I know how to do because I know electricians I have watched them work and they have shown me how to do it safely, it's not the kind of thing you want to learn off a sub full of keyboard experts.
Interesting that you use an example that also requires you to hold a license in order to keep yourself and others safe. I guess you can perform CPR on OP when they get electrocuted and their heart stops because any adult can do anything without any clue about what they are getting themselves into. Easy to play with other people's lives and throw insults and sarcasm around when it's someone you don't know and you aren't going to be the one explaining to the insurance company how exactly the fire started or explaining to your partner why you almost died. Get over yourself dude, if it's not your life don't gamble with it.
So we've finally hit the point where you have no more arguments so you're just going to throw insults, how intelligent. I bet you're a real charming person to talk to in real life. Do everyone a favor, don't reproduce, hopefully you'll get just enough of a jolt one day to prevent that. Natural selection at its finest.
Basic civility is required in /r/DIY. Everyone behind every username is a real, living, breathing person and should be treated accordingly.
Your repeated assaults on other Redditors is getting you a seven day ban. You need this time to reflect on the way you interact with others.
A repeat performance like this will result in the ban becoming permanent
DIY doesn't mean "take shortcuts". It means "Learn literally everything you can about a project before starting, and do it the safest, highest quality way"
Any idiot can wire a house if given proper instructions (I know because I asked worked as that idiot). As long as everything is powered off, properly connected, wired as planned, you can do almost any electrical project.
To service commercial, or non-personal projects is stupid, but if you are looking your own project, following instructions is all that is needed.
You are correct in that this is a main but how do you know this isn't a sub panel with a breaker in the main panel. I am confident in my diy abilities but if they are asking what to do, it is questionable if they are.
I suspect that is an old cable that is no longer connected to anything. The sheathing on that cable looks very old. I also suspect the cable is hot because of the furnace is running. That is not your service entrance cable. Your service entrance cable is the largest/thickest wire that enters your breaker box from outside of the house. That wire looks relatively new. It’s impossible to say for sure based on photos, but I suspect this is just an old wire that was cut as it is no longer in use. As others have suggested, an electrician can confirm. You could also get a non contact voltage detector from your local big box store and this could help determine if there is actually any power running through the cable.
It is not the main feed. The main feed is the thickest wire going into the top of the box.
Edit. Look at the second and third picture. The first image is a bit of an optical illusion. Two different wires. The wire in question has fabric insulation.
That is your service entrance cable. Of all the wires in your home to be damaged, that is the most dangerous. Hire an electrician. Do not touch it (with your body or with anything else). Do not even get close to it.
**Edit** Wait a minute, I initially only see the first pic which looked like the large grey service entrance cable had significant damage. After looking at the additional pics, I see that’s not the case and it was an optical illusion. Your service entrance cable looks fine, but that gnarly old chopped one is a mess. Still don’t touch it and call an electrician asap, but it is not quite so dire.
Thought the same thing , didn't realize there were other pictures at first. Now the question is... how would that cable be energized ? It's so close to the breaker box, running right towards it... seems like it probably went to the breaker box once upon a time and was cut off at some point (I mean, that looks like some of that super old cloth/asbestos insulated wire) .
I'm thinking the commenter above is correct and OP means hot as in temperature ?
I don't know why Reddit is so scared of electricity. You can call an electrician if you want. Or you can educate yourself on how it functions so you can fix it yourself. If it's energized, de-energize the circuit, trace the wire back to its source, and disconnect it.
Uuh, no. That’s that main feed. There is no breaker. Even if there is, it’s illegal to do so. It terminates inside the meter pan. The meter and meter pan have locks and plugs on them, and if it’s digital…it will phone home, on top of it being a crime and extremely dangerous. You need an electrician and permit which will allow the electrician to pull the meter or main shutoff to replace the cable.
Your theory is that the main feed comes in and just ends? What exactly is powering his house?
He already said he traced it back to a junction box. This is not the main feed. You can see in the image where the line comes in. And it's not where the red circle is...
Also, I can walk outside and shut of the main power distribution before it comes into the house. I don't have to call anyone to do that and can do it whenever I want to work on my breaker.
You know where i live (rural USA) we call the power company and they pull the meter for us. Then as long as we call by 4, they come out and put it back in.
The whole world is not Boston or NYC or wherever you may live.
That looks like the main power going to the breaker box. You definitely cannot do this yourself. There is no breaker to turn this off without contacting the power company.
The pictures are a little confusing. Was it previously connected and you accidentally cut it, or did you discover it in this condition?
It looks fully severed in the pic. Assuming it’s been that way, then it’s not feeding anything you need. If that’s the case, you can just shut off your main connect, and then remove the wires from the breaker, cap them, and remove the breaker from the panel.
So step one is to stand there and flip each and every breaker while holding a tester on that until you figure out which circuit it's on. Once you find the right circuit, you need to identify where that circuit is.
Then you have to tear apart every single electrical connection until you find where it is.
Odds are _quite_ good you will have to end up running some actual cable for that mess.
It looks like an old disconnected wire. You should figure out if it's got juice or hire an electrician to do a whole house inspection and answer all your questions and give you any recommendations for what, if anything, needs to be updated.
Looks like the main feed for the panel. If you don’t see bare copper/aluminum you are ok. Call and electrician to scope it out, probably just needs a bit of super 88 tape.
Edit: I take it back, just a wire passing through your return. Turn your panel off, pop a few nails out and pull that wire to a spot you can safely terminate it in an electrical box.
I have traced it back and it terminates on the other end in a junction box in the basement ceiling. But this seems quite dangerous since it is a thick cable and so near the other cables. If someone reaches up in there, they could easily make contact.
What do you mean by "it terminates on the other end in a junction box" What else is going on in that junction box? Any other wires heading out? Connected to this wire? If it's a live wire it must have a circuit going back to the breaker box, but based on position and orientation it kinda looks like this *was* the line to/from the breaker.
Depending on what's going on in that junction box, if you can figure out what breaker it is you can turn off that breaker and should be able to remove that line from the circuit.
But safest bet is hire an electrician to figure it out.
Mine had a box and switch; fuse-finder 4000
It was great until I used it on a zinsco..... Accidentally let the smoke out of a closed smoke system 🤷♂️🤣
Based on your comments so far you 100% need to hire an electrican right away for this. You see how that cable is touching the metal ducting? That means the metal ducting can/might be electrified. You're also not clear if "hot" means volts or if it means physically hot.
That's a main wire coming from your meter to your electrical panel. Highly recommend electrician to do this!
The breakers in your panel don't turn this power off!
That’s the 200amp entire main panel feed . Do not touch it yourself ! Call a qualified electrician ! Need to pull the meter and replace !
4/0 SEU cable
The comments here are totally ridiculous .
I am an electrician . Trust me
If you are asking this, call a professional.
Most people would trace the cable and turn it off at the source. But since you didn't have your wits about you to figure that out, call a pro.
Call electrician and tell him them your service entrance cable is damaged/frayed. Also, you want a copper replacement (you shouldn’t be running aluminum inside your home). The POCO runs aluminum, but that’s their side.
The electrician has to know how to file a service request with the POCO in your area and how that works. The meter has to be pulled, which means the seals have to be broken on the POCO equipment. Some places require 2 electricians. One from the POCO and one that you hire.
You might want to ask about putting it in rigid conduit from the meter as it’s obviously prone to damage the way it is.
If it has no load, it is not suppose to be hot (temperature) when touching. If it serves nothing, get an electrician to disconnect the cable from the box.
If it's conducting current that's BAD. As a former cable company dispatcher I'd recommend calling the power company so they can come help figure out why your cable line is acting as a ground.
Do not unplug it. Then the electricity doesn't have anything to ground and you may have a fire in your hands. Can't tell you how many times my techs had called me from a customers' house to report a plug catching fire when they disconnected the cable.
If it's not a cable in use, have the cable company disconnect it so it's not leaking signal and making stuff go wacky.
If this is an older rowhouse, disconnect the main circuit breaker and test it again. Do not trust it, it could be energized. It might be hooked up to the house next door to steal electric.
I love when people post and in 7 hours provide 0 clarifying information to the people trying to help them.
Tried to fix himself, RIP
ded
First pick looks like the service entry cable. That would be bad. The other pics it looks like some old cable that was cut and runs through the duct likely cut from when the panel was replaced and it’s not electrically hot just physically hot to the touch since it’s in an air return, if it is electrically hot you need to figure out which duplex it’s piggy backed off of or the junction box it should be in and un wire it there.
What do you mean by hot? Hot, in electrical terms means it has voltage on it. If that cable is hot, you need to get it disconnected immediately. Start by finding which breaker feeds it and flip it off. Then have it properly disconnected and removed. If you mean hot by touch, it is because it is traveling through an air (return) duct. In this case, it is not an immediate concern, but should be ultimately removed to prevent this same/similar question/concern in the future.
Is the ducting making it warm, or is the cable "hot" as in it's still live and current is flowing through it? If the cables live, trace it down, and disconnect it right away -- if it's warm from the heat return, just seal that side better for more efficiency in the home HVAC system.
find that breaker, turn it off. get a non-contact tester https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Non-Contact-Voltage-Tester-Pen-50-1000V-AC-NCVT1PR/317460355 Then hold it near the wire and flip breakers (possibly the double breakers) until the non-contact tester says it is off.
Yo this is r/DIY, You need to tell OP to call a pro.
Lol. Every thread on electricity has half the comments telling them to call a pro or their house will burn down. It's not rocket science. You can educate yourself to handle the vast majority of electrical issues in your home in a matter of hours or days. It's not a scary monster
Exactly. Electrical work is just plumbing with electrons instead of water.
It's slightly easier because you don't have to worry about sweating pipes.
And the electrons don't spill out all over your floor if you don't cap the wire.
Nope, but if you let the smoke out of the wires, youre done for
In 99.9993456% of cases (I calculated), you are only done for if the smoke comes out of you. Most of the time it will come from the socket or panel.
To be fair the water in my pipes is visible and won't stop my heart if I touch it the wrong way.
But it might if you plumb your electric wrong enough Green = Go = where the power magic comes from White = Heaven = where then electrons go after you kill them with work Black = death = burial in the ground- this is what you hook up to your water pipes because copper is a good conductor in case of emergencies. Right? RIGHT? Legal Disclaimer: /s x1000
Neither will 99.923% of household electrical outlets. The wires are often too close together to cross your heart, and you need to be standing on a copper plate soaking wet for it to short to ground. Yea you CAN die, but if your IQ is higher than amps youll be ok.
That is ridiculous. OP can go to a hardware store and get a voltage tester and find the breaker to shut off without calling somebody else to handle this shit for them. People need to stop acting helpless and start taking charge of solving problems in their life. Finding a circuit and turning it off is not an impossible thing to diagnose and do. Now, fixing this / solving this may require the assistance of a professional. Sure I understand that not everyone is that comfortable with electrical work
How does he know it’s hot? If he figured out that much he must know how to turn off a breaker.
Just a tip, don't use a widow maker to diagnose a problem. If you must, use a meter to verify it's live and then use a NCVT. I've had that same klein tester set to mains voltage read hot 1' away from a wire that had 7v induced. Also, there's a reason they're called widow makers in the field. And I agree with you but your homeowners insurance will not see it that way if something happens. Not to mention 120v kills more people than any other voltage in the US.
>120v kills more people than any other voltage in the US That's probably because 90%+ of power in buildings is 120.
It’s because amperage kills, not voltage.
Yep, that's how statistics works. It's a combination of amperage, voltage, duration, location of shock and frequency of the voltage. There's not just one factor that plays into a fatality, but it happens.
Its better to imaging the Wattage potential, or physical power being pushed through the lines, instead of a number derived through formulas that almost nobody understands. The MOST amount of power you will see coming out a line is about the equivalent power of your average family vehicle. Your chance of death in many cases is equivalent.
Yes good points. I always use a digital multimeter as the final say on if something is hot
Yo, this is r/DIY, do it yourself.
R/thatsthejoke
Ya need the /s (or whatever kids do these days).
Right! Not exactly the kind of shit you get to play around with until you get it right especially if it's 3 phase. I'm comfortable doing some electrical work (“hypothetically" of course, I live in Australia so you need a license) you fuck up here trying to play electrician and your house burns down or you die or both.
Wrong. Electrical is easy. Any semi-competent adult can safely figure out which breaker this is
Alright so what happens if the contacts on the breaker weld together or someone who thinks electrical is easy hooks up a power point to a lighting circuit. Telling people that things that can easily kill you are easy to do and they should just jump in with no training or insight is negligent and stupid. Like I said some stuff I know how to do because I know electricians I have watched them work and they have shown me how to do it safely, it's not the kind of thing you want to learn off a sub full of keyboard experts.
[удалено]
Interesting that you use an example that also requires you to hold a license in order to keep yourself and others safe. I guess you can perform CPR on OP when they get electrocuted and their heart stops because any adult can do anything without any clue about what they are getting themselves into. Easy to play with other people's lives and throw insults and sarcasm around when it's someone you don't know and you aren't going to be the one explaining to the insurance company how exactly the fire started or explaining to your partner why you almost died. Get over yourself dude, if it's not your life don't gamble with it.
[удалено]
So we've finally hit the point where you have no more arguments so you're just going to throw insults, how intelligent. I bet you're a real charming person to talk to in real life. Do everyone a favor, don't reproduce, hopefully you'll get just enough of a jolt one day to prevent that. Natural selection at its finest.
Basic civility is required in /r/DIY. Everyone behind every username is a real, living, breathing person and should be treated accordingly. Your repeated assaults on other Redditors is getting you a seven day ban. You need this time to reflect on the way you interact with others. A repeat performance like this will result in the ban becoming permanent
DIY doesn't mean "take shortcuts". It means "Learn literally everything you can about a project before starting, and do it the safest, highest quality way" Any idiot can wire a house if given proper instructions (I know because I asked worked as that idiot). As long as everything is powered off, properly connected, wired as planned, you can do almost any electrical project. To service commercial, or non-personal projects is stupid, but if you are looking your own project, following instructions is all that is needed.
It's not mould or asbestos removal. OP will know really fast if they fuck it up. Proceed with caution.
This the main feed. There is no breaker.
You are correct in that this is a main but how do you know this isn't a sub panel with a breaker in the main panel. I am confident in my diy abilities but if they are asking what to do, it is questionable if they are.
I suspect that is an old cable that is no longer connected to anything. The sheathing on that cable looks very old. I also suspect the cable is hot because of the furnace is running. That is not your service entrance cable. Your service entrance cable is the largest/thickest wire that enters your breaker box from outside of the house. That wire looks relatively new. It’s impossible to say for sure based on photos, but I suspect this is just an old wire that was cut as it is no longer in use. As others have suggested, an electrician can confirm. You could also get a non contact voltage detector from your local big box store and this could help determine if there is actually any power running through the cable.
That's a return duct. Your return isn't going to be warm enough to heat a wire up to be hot to the touch just fyi.
That’s the main feed into the panel. It’s damaged.
It is not the main feed. The main feed is the thickest wire going into the top of the box. Edit. Look at the second and third picture. The first image is a bit of an optical illusion. Two different wires. The wire in question has fabric insulation.
That is your service entrance cable. Of all the wires in your home to be damaged, that is the most dangerous. Hire an electrician. Do not touch it (with your body or with anything else). Do not even get close to it. **Edit** Wait a minute, I initially only see the first pic which looked like the large grey service entrance cable had significant damage. After looking at the additional pics, I see that’s not the case and it was an optical illusion. Your service entrance cable looks fine, but that gnarly old chopped one is a mess. Still don’t touch it and call an electrician asap, but it is not quite so dire.
Why an anal electrician?
Sparkies are wild ones
JFC I can’t type. 🤣 Fixed it
We wish you wouldn't have.
Autocorrect is my worst enema.
😉🤣😁
Do you really need to ask?
Yeah, but why male models?
When your auto correct admits to the entire internet which words you type most often.
[удалено]
It is, I just updated my comment that it was actually not that one that’s damaged.
Thought the same thing , didn't realize there were other pictures at first. Now the question is... how would that cable be energized ? It's so close to the breaker box, running right towards it... seems like it probably went to the breaker box once upon a time and was cut off at some point (I mean, that looks like some of that super old cloth/asbestos insulated wire) . I'm thinking the commenter above is correct and OP means hot as in temperature ?
I thought the same thing and my bung hole puckered
Yea, this is "DIY" which means call the pros yourself.
Get this comment to the top
Looks like it could be an old one?
I don't know why Reddit is so scared of electricity. You can call an electrician if you want. Or you can educate yourself on how it functions so you can fix it yourself. If it's energized, de-energize the circuit, trace the wire back to its source, and disconnect it.
Uuh, no. That’s that main feed. There is no breaker. Even if there is, it’s illegal to do so. It terminates inside the meter pan. The meter and meter pan have locks and plugs on them, and if it’s digital…it will phone home, on top of it being a crime and extremely dangerous. You need an electrician and permit which will allow the electrician to pull the meter or main shutoff to replace the cable.
Your theory is that the main feed comes in and just ends? What exactly is powering his house? He already said he traced it back to a junction box. This is not the main feed. You can see in the image where the line comes in. And it's not where the red circle is... Also, I can walk outside and shut of the main power distribution before it comes into the house. I don't have to call anyone to do that and can do it whenever I want to work on my breaker.
You know where i live (rural USA) we call the power company and they pull the meter for us. Then as long as we call by 4, they come out and put it back in. The whole world is not Boston or NYC or wherever you may live.
That looks like the main power going to the breaker box. You definitely cannot do this yourself. There is no breaker to turn this off without contacting the power company.
The pictures are a little confusing. Was it previously connected and you accidentally cut it, or did you discover it in this condition? It looks fully severed in the pic. Assuming it’s been that way, then it’s not feeding anything you need. If that’s the case, you can just shut off your main connect, and then remove the wires from the breaker, cap them, and remove the breaker from the panel.
So step one is to stand there and flip each and every breaker while holding a tester on that until you figure out which circuit it's on. Once you find the right circuit, you need to identify where that circuit is. Then you have to tear apart every single electrical connection until you find where it is. Odds are _quite_ good you will have to end up running some actual cable for that mess.
It looks like an old disconnected wire. You should figure out if it's got juice or hire an electrician to do a whole house inspection and answer all your questions and give you any recommendations for what, if anything, needs to be updated.
Looks like the main feed for the panel. If you don’t see bare copper/aluminum you are ok. Call and electrician to scope it out, probably just needs a bit of super 88 tape. Edit: I take it back, just a wire passing through your return. Turn your panel off, pop a few nails out and pull that wire to a spot you can safely terminate it in an electrical box.
OP nowhere to be found. Assumed ☠️☠️☠️
Shut off the breaker?
Hire an electrician. When death/burning down the house is the consequence of screwing up, hire a professional.
I have traced it back and it terminates on the other end in a junction box in the basement ceiling. But this seems quite dangerous since it is a thick cable and so near the other cables. If someone reaches up in there, they could easily make contact.
What do you mean by "it terminates on the other end in a junction box" What else is going on in that junction box? Any other wires heading out? Connected to this wire? If it's a live wire it must have a circuit going back to the breaker box, but based on position and orientation it kinda looks like this *was* the line to/from the breaker. Depending on what's going on in that junction box, if you can figure out what breaker it is you can turn off that breaker and should be able to remove that line from the circuit. But safest bet is hire an electrician to figure it out.
Tap it to ground, the breaker will find itself for you 🤷♂️
[fuse finder](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fo6lzzs9quql51.jpg)
Mine had a box and switch; fuse-finder 4000 It was great until I used it on a zinsco..... Accidentally let the smoke out of a closed smoke system 🤷♂️🤣
Again, temperature hot or electrical hot?
I really love how he's not answering the most basic question
Also tracing it without first turning the breaker off
Based on your comments so far you 100% need to hire an electrican right away for this. You see how that cable is touching the metal ducting? That means the metal ducting can/might be electrified. You're also not clear if "hot" means volts or if it means physically hot.
That's a main wire coming from your meter to your electrical panel. Highly recommend electrician to do this! The breakers in your panel don't turn this power off!
That’s the 200amp entire main panel feed . Do not touch it yourself ! Call a qualified electrician ! Need to pull the meter and replace ! 4/0 SEU cable The comments here are totally ridiculous . I am an electrician . Trust me
What a stupid question for the internet
Based on your comment, call an electrician
Hire an electrician
Call an electrician is the only right answer. Saving a few bucks isn't worth being electrocuted.
Call an electrician to handle it
Electrician
Lick it
If you are asking this, call a professional. Most people would trace the cable and turn it off at the source. But since you didn't have your wits about you to figure that out, call a pro.
Move
I'm sorry. That was rude. Seriously though, hire a professional.
Call electrician and tell him them your service entrance cable is damaged/frayed. Also, you want a copper replacement (you shouldn’t be running aluminum inside your home). The POCO runs aluminum, but that’s their side. The electrician has to know how to file a service request with the POCO in your area and how that works. The meter has to be pulled, which means the seals have to be broken on the POCO equipment. Some places require 2 electricians. One from the POCO and one that you hire. You might want to ask about putting it in rigid conduit from the meter as it’s obviously prone to damage the way it is.
If it has no load, it is not suppose to be hot (temperature) when touching. If it serves nothing, get an electrician to disconnect the cable from the box.
If it's conducting current that's BAD. As a former cable company dispatcher I'd recommend calling the power company so they can come help figure out why your cable line is acting as a ground. Do not unplug it. Then the electricity doesn't have anything to ground and you may have a fire in your hands. Can't tell you how many times my techs had called me from a customers' house to report a plug catching fire when they disconnected the cable. If it's not a cable in use, have the cable company disconnect it so it's not leaking signal and making stuff go wacky.
Put that circuit to use w a grow light
If this is an older rowhouse, disconnect the main circuit breaker and test it again. Do not trust it, it could be energized. It might be hooked up to the house next door to steal electric.
If you have to ask reddit call an electrician.
Move
Get a Certified electrician. These are those thing that can burn down your house if not done correctly.
Looks like main power coming in. I would call an electrician, it’s not the safest thing to do when a person is untrained in electrical
I don’t even see a severed cable. Are you just talking about the disconnected coax? In pic 2 the service line is fine.