Can electricity conduct through a fine spray of water?

Well.....

Not very well. There was a myth busters covering this, the myth that pissing on a live third rail could kill you, it did not as the water was droplets in the air and hence needed a higher voltage to bridge the gaps. Also of course all water is not the same, conductivity wise. So if you have say a tesla coil giving very high voltages, spray would tend to help conduction, as you can often hear near pylons on foggy damp days. Brian

What happens when the entire glass insulator is wet? :-?

High voltage electric pylons and torrential rain?

Nothing special, most obviously wih the glass insulators on 350KV and 500KV transmission lines.

Don't they become surface conductive to ground?

Leakage in insulators is caused by physical impurities deposited on the insulator, that will dissolve in the collecting condensation. Corona develops. Resulting heat will evaporate the condensation - leaving deposits that 'track' when re-wetted, finally resulting in lower voltage breakdown in the dry state.

RL

Heavy rain will tend to clean the insulators, rather than inducing tracking.

RL

Google it.

RL

Water mist fire suppression systems claim to be suitable for all forms of domestic fire, including those involving electrical equipment.

I would think it's possible, but my own somewhat related experience has been: I have an electric lawn mower with a 100' extension cord that I no longer pull in when I'm done mowing the lawn or weed-wacking. It lies in the grass all year, even in the rain, even under the snow. After the grass grows even a little, it's hidden by the grass.

I have a GFI circuit breaker on that circuit and if current wwere going to ground and not back though the neutral wire, the breaker would trip, but it's only tripped 3 times in about 20 years, and since the bat hroom and kitchen sink receptacles are on the same breaker, I'm not positive it's the extension cord that did those.

I'm cautious in that if it's damp, I pick up the cord 6 feet from the end, but I've never had even a tingle.

Sure, with a lot of voltage, ballpark a megavolt/meter.

There could be a tiny current from droplet drift, too.

This is what we wash 400KV live line.Hot Line Washing is a process of cleaning of insulators with the help of DM water /normal water, conductivity below 200 Micr0-mh0s, under live condition, without asking for shut down. Factors like salt, cement/lime, smog, vehicular emissions etc. affect insulator performance.

Nope, if they did, the line would shut down.

But I don't understand how it doesn't happen. They are throwing water spray to them, a lot of water, from below. The entire surface of the glass must be getting wet.

Unless the wind comes from the Sahara down south (I'm in Spain). It rains mud.

Walk past any major substation during hot humid weather and the buzzing is quite alarming.

That's not due to surface conductive to ground, thats due to the transformer laminations.

No it doesnt with the inner vertical surfaces with the massive great insulators used on 350KV and 500KV transmission lines.