Downed power lines

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 02:10:47 -0500, in message , "Abstract Dissonance" scribed:

When a lineman or electrician wants to work on a line, there are indeed devices called "portable protective grounds" that are employed to safeguard the worker from inadvertent energization of the lines. They are applied with what are called "hot sticks," and once attached, the ground ends are attached firmly to verifiable ground points.

One very important caveat: the grounds are applied with the lines de-energized. These devices are for protection from accidental energization, not for grounding live lines. As others have mentioned, attempting to ground a live line could be detrimental to the continuance of one's life.

The lowest voltage to be encountered in an overhead transmission line is probably 1500 volts, and that's very low, and likely carrying a large current load. Typical local distribution is 12-24-36-69 kV, and the big grid distributions are 115, 230 and 500kV. That's a lot of juice, dude. Remember the Boy Scout Jamboree accident of a couple years ago? That's what happens when you ground a live line.

OK, to the safe way to approach a downed line: contact the electrical utility and have them do it. Your only other option is to move the line out of the way with a very long wood or fiberglass pole, and then you are seriously putting life and limb at risk.

HTH!

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:05:12 GMT, in message , scribed:

That's a very bad assumption. The better assumption is that the ground is already somewhat live just by being covered by a live line. "vic"'s somewhat facetious comment about hopping on one foot covers the situation aptly: one would be foolish to even walk near a downed line, for the voltage gradient *on the ground* from one footstep to the next may very well be sufficient to kill or maim. It's called "step potential."

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 07:19:06 -0500, in message , "Abstract Dissonance" scribed:

You are now dead. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Cluck, Cluck, Cluck. Now run back to the henhouse, there MIGHT be a fox in the neighborhood. And don't run with scissors, even if it is an emergency, or go near fire or sharp objects to get me out of a burning building with a fire axe. I wouldn't expect any help from you.

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I'll bet you have never been to wiredpussy.com. That "step potential" might be fun! Yes it is real

but I suppose your mommy has the parental controls on.

Seriously, approach cautiously, if it tingles too much, and your hair is standing on end then back off and try a longer stick.

The wires coming up my driveway are 7200 volts, uninsulated. The one time one came down, my solution to get around them was to go WAY around them. I.e. I hiked through the woods to get to the house, then called the power company. And that was the ground wire that came down.

I would go around too, UNLESS there was a compelling reason for me to do someone else's job for free. But 7200 volts? Do you have a transformer near the house?

LOL! Did they consult Gary Larson for those signs?

--DF

Yes. The driveway is 0.3 miles long, we have a 25KVa transformer at the house.

My buddy Billy has 30 years at the power company. They show em a safety film about how to deal with a live wire falling on the truck.... jump out! Don't step out! And how about the lightning that strikes a tree in a cow pasture, and the cows facing the tree get zapped, and the cows sideways from the tree live to moo about it?

The only thing hypothetical is your ability to understand the danger involved, and Yes, I've watched MacGyver. Pure low grade fantasy bullshit. Hell, his role on Stargate SG1 is more believable that the stupid shit he did on MacGyver. Radio Shack parts used in a nuclear power plant? The aliens on the two Stargate TV series are more believable.

BTW, if you are asking a hypothetical question, you start off with: "This a hypothetical question".

Thanks for some sensible anwser. The rest of these guys are just idiots. They think I got some downed power lines in the back yard and I want to go play with them or something. The reason I asked is I saw a TV show about tornados and there was some downed power lines in the middle of the road and some people were crossing over it to get into a car. I thought it was pretty dangerous but I wondered if, say, I was in a situation where I had to do it if there was any way to make it safter. Sure, my first thing would be to avoid them, but it is a hypothetical. Something I can't believe these guys are having trouble understanding. I thought most of them were somewhat intelligent but not I'm starting to think otherwise. I guess they just didn't want to put any effort into thinking about it and the easist answer is something like "Your a dumbass for trying to play with power lines and you will get killed". There problem is they can't understand why someone would ask a hypothetical question. Like if I asked, what if I used plutonium in a bomb instead of urainium... There answers would be "Your going to die of radiation... you shouldn't play around with those chemicals cause they are dangerous"... or some shit like that.

Anyways, I also remember seeing osmethign on TV a few years ago where a power line worker was in a helicopter and his job was to do something with the lines. Somehow he got shocked when he was doing what he was doing(I forgot)... normally it doesn't happen but I think it was cause of something stupid.

Thanks, Jon

No one asked you to reply. To be completely honest you are the one that seems like a dumbass. You seem to believe that if, say, we saw some downed power lines we are going to run up and try this method to see if it works. If you really believe that you are more of an idiot then you are acting right now.

Why are you still in this discussion? Why are YOU wasting YOUR time? I am here to plan for a possible emergency (with no help from you). High voltage is a fact of life. And thinking about it showed me that I WOULDN'T use a grounded bolt cutter on the downed line because the hot end of the line after it was cut would be too close to me. Also that the downed line would only have a percentage of its nominal voltage that it had when it was up on its insulated, far above ground, proper place. And that the percentage of loss would be greater if it had really high voltage than it would be if it had a lower voltage. Soooo, can I talk you into making some actual measurements on the downed line, or do you want to go back to playing with your 12 volt model train?

Maybe if you get really interested in this subject you can get a job with the power company and get proper training and equipment. After all, everybody can't just stand back and let somebody else do it. Somebody will have to take the job.

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Not to mention the explosion at the instant of contact. And your millisecond-time-scale death if the ground had less current capacity than the feeder.

Like, say, 99.99 per cent or so.

Down to as low as, maybe, 99.98%?

Sure, always keep a Fluke in your back pocket to measure any downed power lines you happen across.

John