Wonder how many homes and businesses this guy blacked out.

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
14
81
Yeah. Nice idea. Find a 500 kV overhead line and chuck metal wires at it to see if you can short it out.

Jeez.

That's not this crazy's only video - but they all tend to have something in common - namely vandalism of power lines.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how much these guys antics cost to mitigate?

Do I need to say, 'Don't try this at home'? Hmm. This is ATOT....
 

effowe

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2004
6,021
18
81
What an idiot, I was going to say someone should report him, but I guess he's in Russia.
 

dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,572
3,401
136
You get hit with 500kv, you'll be lucky if they find enough to fill a baggy. One can only hope that happens to these Darwin wannabes.
 

Glavinsolo

Platinum Member
Sep 2, 2004
2,946
0
0
Originally posted by: dainthomas
You get hit with 500kv, you'll be lucky if they find enough to fill a baggy. One can only hope that happens to these Darwin wannabes.

Its not the volts that kill you its the amps
 

dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,572
3,401
136
Originally posted by: Glavinsolo
Originally posted by: dainthomas
You get hit with 500kv, you'll be lucky if they find enough to fill a baggy. One can only hope that happens to these Darwin wannabes.

Its not the volts that kill you its the amps

If one of these clowns became the path to ground, there would be more than enough amps to atomize them.
 

legoman666

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2003
3,629
1
0
I work for a major power company in the midwest. Shorting two phases together on high voltage lines can cause very high dollar amounts of damage. The person (retired) who was in my cubicle before me collected cuttings of the conductors that have failed for various reasons. Each sample has a small note on it explaining what it was and how it failed. There is one that says:

This is a piece of 447kcmil [about an inch in diameter] ACRS that was part of a 69kV circuit... The circuit was heavily loaded (overloaded might be a better word). It sagged into the 12kV circuit located lower on the poles. The small burn marks from where contact was made belie the damage done. More than $250,000 in damage was done to customer owned stuff. Fortunately no one was injured and no building were burned.

Some of the other notes a funny however:
This peice of triplex (neutral conductor) that has been chewed up by a squirrel. Like all rodents they have to keep their teeth ground down or they will grow too long. this sort of damage is less likely on the phase wires because the squirrel is usually dispatched with the first on second bite.
The piece of wire the note is discussing is where two conductors were spliced together. The splicing "shell" is almost completely chewed through.

Major damage from shorts are rare however, because the circuit is usually cut off within 1s of the fault being detected. Regardless, high voltage power lines are not something you want to mess around with. it only takes about 22kV to overcome the resistance in 1 inch of air (typical). Some high power lines are 340-785kV; that means the current can jump gaps of up to 3 feet in the right conditions.

An 8000amp 785kV fault current is basically an instagib, even for 1 second.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,413
616
126
you know some moron here in the states is going to try that now. like that idiot who tried to steal power by hooking up jumper cables to a power line because his power was cut off.
 

CptCrunch

Golden Member
Jan 31, 2005
1,878
1
0
I'm hoping this guy will try this again at some point in the future and zap himself right out of the gene pool
 

amdhunter

Lifer
May 19, 2003
23,324
219
106
Originally posted by: Citrix
you know some moron here in the states is going to try that now. like that idiot who tried to steal power by hooking up jumper cables to a power line because his power was cut off.

lol, what was the outcome of that?
 

legoman666

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2003
3,629
1
0
Originally posted by: amdhunter
Originally posted by: Citrix
you know some moron here in the states is going to try that now. like that idiot who tried to steal power by hooking up jumper cables to a power line because his power was cut off.

lol, what was the outcome of that?

What do you think happens when you hook up 7.2kV-25kV to something that's supposed to be 120v?