Ever been sparked before?

[Minerva]

Just came back from a horrifying experience.

A pole fell near the street and the wires were sparking and hot metal rolled over the truck! It was like getting shot at with a roman candle! :Q

 

[olds]

Is that what they are calling it nowadays?

 

[Minerva]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Is that what they are calling it nowadays?

Well it's a lot easier to say than "600 mcm copper 34.5kV feeder touching birch tree on Queen St. Numerous arcing after multiple reclosures. ACOCB fault. Send FD immediately."

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: Minerva

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Is that what they are calling it nowadays?

Well it's a lot easier to say than "600 mcm copper 34.5kV feeder touching birch tree on Queen St. Numerous arcing after multiple reclosures. ACOCB fault. Send FD immediately."

haha, wtf

There's really no other response to this.

 

[HomeAppraiser]

Glad to hear that you are safe.

 

[Midlander]

I open this thinking it was going to be about kissing or something similar.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: Midlander
I open this thinking it was going to be about kissing or something similar.

It isn't?

 

[Minerva]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: Midlander
I open this thinking it was going to be about kissing or something similar.

It isn't?

Sparked not spanked.

 

[bolomite]

I read this and immediately thought of "Who wants a body massage?"

 

[BlancoNino]

Lets launch over it.

 

[funboy6942]

My friend and I got the full volt/amps right out of my breaker box when we were instaling a new 220 line. Father in law failed to tell us some breaker boxes are staggered so when we went to test the line to see that we had 220 volts I was holding the tester my friend the wires and when we touched them el zappo. Poped the breaker at the box and we stood there shaking for a good 3 minutes with our hairt stainding on end, our knuckles swolen, and stuttering trying to ask each other if were ok.

Needless to say not good thing to happen to two guys with heart conditions I called my father in law back, who was supposed to be an electrictian and said "it didnt work and we got electricuted", he said "OH yeah forgot to tell you some boxes the sides are staggered so do check right across from one another" WELL DUH

Last time I tried to put in my own electrical line.

As far as sparks go, used to get it all the time from welding and grinding. Sucks when you cant stop and you got a rain of hot molten metal running down your shirt/sleve/back.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: funboy42
My friend and I got the full volt/amps right out of my breaker box when we were instaling a new 220 line. Father in law failed to tell us some breaker boxes are staggered so when we went to test the line to see that we had 220 volts I was holding the tester my friend the wires and when we touched them el zappo. Poped the breaker at the box and we stood there shaking for a good 3 minutes with our hairt stainding on end, our knuckles swolen, and stuttering trying to ask each other if were ok.

Needless to say not good thing to happen to two guys with heart conditions I called my father in law back, who was supposed to be an electrictian and said "it didnt work and we got electricuted", he said "OH yeah forgot to tell you some boxes the sides are staggered so do check right across from one another" WELL DUH

Last time I tried to put in my own electrical line.

As far as sparks go, used to get it all the time from welding and grinding. Sucks when you cant stop and you got a rain of hot molten metal running down your shirt/sleve/back.

lol i would have went off on the father in law.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: funboy42
My friend and I got the full volt/amps right out of my breaker box when we were instaling a new 220 line. Father in law failed to tell us some breaker boxes are staggered so when we went to test the line to see that we had 220 volts I was holding the tester my friend the wires and when we touched them el zappo. Poped the breaker at the box and we stood there shaking for a good 3 minutes with our hairt stainding on end, our knuckles swolen, and stuttering trying to ask each other if were ok.

Aw man, isn't that awesome? I wanted to test a breaker box with my multimeter to make sure it was feeding the right voltage. I had the thing turned to VAC, but the wires were plugged in to test amps - a short circuit.

Big spark.
The multimeter sustained damage in 2 places. The test lead now has about half its diameter blasted out where it contacted the ground connection. And the fuse was done in. The metal wire inside apparently melted, and then splattered against the inside of the glass cylinder.


The other guys in the apartment were convinced that I nearly killed myself. No closer to death then than when you plug in something. Your hands come very close to the metal prongs, which are electrically charged while still exposed in the brief time before the plug is fully inserted.
These guys probably just weren't used to seeing and hearing bright sparks that sound like firecrackers.

 

[HomeAppraiser]

The worst I ever did was try to adjust the tempature on an electric water heater element without cutting the power first. I was thinking "Why is my hand numb?" then yanked it away.

 

[BrownTown]

Well, as far electricity goes I stuck my finger in a light blulb fixture where the light had been taken out and I tough it was disconnected. It wasn't, so flash of light and intense pain, but my reflexes janked my finger out darn quick, so no damage.

Also,as far as seeing sparks, I worked at a power company the last 2 summers and one time saw a 161 line beign switched in and there are some nice arcs that come off that when they were putting the disconnect switches back down. Also, there was a cool video of a 500kV phase to ground fault on a transformer that blew sky high. If you have ever seen the video of the 500kV disconnect switch tripping under load, image that arc going threw a transformer the size of a small house filled with insulating oil. The fireball puts the transformer expolsion videos currently on the internet to shame.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: HomeAppraiser

Who's Samir Patel?

 

[SampSon]

In the recent surprise october storm here in western NY, I was driving around my town that night trying to get home. All I heard was trees shattering and falling to the ground and I saw at least 30 live downed power lines which I had to avoid or try another road to drive down.