How come wet trees don't conduct electricity?

Hello Rob,

Call your utility. Immediately. This is a VERY dangerous situation. What if somebody touches a wet tree, falls over and dies from cardiac arrest?

Wet wood does conduct. A situation like this can seriously harm or kill someone.

How much current is a matter of voltage. But a few milliamps too much can kill. A couple of years ago we had a tree in our county touch 10kV lines during a storm. Boom, and the whole tree was engulfed in flames.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

If the wires are really as you describe, then they don't care about a current path to ground because it's an isolated current loop.

Hope This Helps! Rich

I don't know what kind of trees you have in your area, but around here when the wind pushes rain-soaked trees into the bare wires, the pole breakers trip. It causes power flickers throughout the rest of the grid (off time == reaction time of breaker).

Thanks for the replies Joerg and Rich.

First, I did call the utility company as soon as I bought this house, more than a year ago (I'm in the northeast US if that makes a difference). I was told that someone came and looked at the lines and that it was no problem on their end. If I wanted the trees trimmed for "aesthetic" reasons then it was my responsibility as the homeowner.

Second, the lines are definitely not an isolated current loop. There are 4 paralell conductors on the top of the pole (middle part of the pole has telephone and cable TV lines). Of the four lines (uninsulated aluminum alloy by the looks of them) three of them are tapped for my house. One of them is an un-insulated line, which comes through the power meter to my circuit breaker panel and is bonded to a grounding rod by the meter and also to a cold water pipe. So as far as I know, either of the other two lines would be at a potential of 120 volts to earth ground. Meaning some current should be flowing to ground through the wet tree.

From the sound of th>>

DJ, . Funny you mention that, we definitely get very brief (approx 1 sec) power outs during very windy storms. I did not realize that whatever types of breakers are employed down at the "street" level of the grid are actually auto-resetting.

Being an electrical engineer this type of thing is horribly fascinating for me, but there doesn't seem to be any good online reference for such low level technical details. Searching the web or how_stuff_works.com type of sites for "power grid" info usually results in a nice pretty picture of a power plant, a house, a wire in between and not much else in the way of technical info. Looking around the neighborhood i see the wires and the "pole-pig" step down transformers, but nothing else I recognize as a breaker. please excuse my ignorance and dont hesitate to educate.

Regards, Rob

If these get up in the primary (usually the wire on top with the big insulators) they will come to cut it. That will arc and spark. I couldn't get the PoCo interested in cutting the trees away from my secondaries either (the 120/240v side). I called and said I was thinking about cutting the tree down and asked if they had any concerns since it might fall on the lines and they were right out there. They whacked it down below the secondary and told me I could cut it down now. I still hadn't got around to it when Charlie took it out for me.

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:50:20 -0400, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com Gave us:

Those damned commies! :-]

Yup and a year later That Fred Flintstone's bitch Wilma cane by and whacked me again.

rain water has anywhere from 1 M/cm to 1/10 M/cm ohms resistance(approximately). given that a tree tends to be several meters high theres not much of a chance for shock or much leakage. Unlike humans a tree doesn't have a heart. I'm not sure if the current will flow through the tree or just on its surface though and it might change the results somewhat. I doubt theres much to worry about unless you like plain around tree's next to powerlines when its raining?

LOL !

Graham

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:41:19 -0400, Spehro Pefhany Gave us:

MMMmmm... especially baby rat meat... Mmmmm... Stir fry...

Depends on which side of Tet he was in on.

Most of 'em got Chi Chi! (FireSign Theater, Eat Or Be Eaten)

Ahhh... the smell of Napalm in the morning!

Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Looks like Hajji don't surf either:

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 05:17:27 -0400, Spehro Pefhany Gave us:

Interesting that they make it as safe and easy going as they can for those that aren't actually in the urban shit, and somebody still manages to make it look like our leaders do not value the lives of their men by claiming that all that comfy setup has cost us lives.

There are a lot of facts in that opinion piece, but the opinion that the command and control setup over there or the logistics system that is in place over here is slowing us or costing us should not be entertained.

Ask for a signed paper that makes them liable for any potential harm from anyone touching the tree.. That should get their attention :)

One could circle some steelwire around some upper part of the tree and a ground rod. Connect it to light bulb. And wait for some rain ;)

120 volts isnt enough to leak very much current. Now if these were your 4400 volt lines, there would be sparks and smoke.

Most power companies are alerady too busy trimming trees near 4400 and up lines. Maybe later in the fall they'll have some free time and can work on your lower voltage lines.

They're not. What happens is, when a tree hits a wire it shorts out the power, and everyone's power drops. Then the breaker trips. Everyone covered by the breaker gets a power failure. Everyone *else* sees a flicker, as the short is isolated and no longer affects them.

The repair trucks drive around in storms resetting them by hand.

Go look at your power pole. Find one that has wires running off in three directions; one of them should have a breaker on it. It's just a rod clipped between two metal arms; it falls out (pivots) when open.

You know why Fred's so terrified of earthquakes?

He doesn't want to come home and find Wilma under Rubble.

Do a google on "recloser" They do reset themselves on the MV distribution lines.