Insulation Test "MEGGER" on a single wire installed direct bury or in an HDPE conduit.

Cjmccarthy

Cjmccarthy

Member
Location
Florida
Occupation
Project Coordinator FDOT
Can a insulation test be performed on a single wire. This single wire is used to locate our fiber optic cable run. The wire they want to test is a "Locate Wire" it is a
single copper conductor with a minimum gauge of No. 12 AWG. with a 45 mil minimum thickness polyethylene sheath. I am getting conflicting answers.
 
Cjmccarthy

Cjmccarthy

Member
Location
Florida
Occupation
Project Coordinator FDOT
zbang said:
An insulation test here doesn't make sense to me, what would you test to ("dirt" is the wrong answer IMHO)? If there are metallic objects in the ground, you could test to those, but I don't think you'll get a meaningful reading.
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That is what I have been thinking and saying. If the tracer wire is in the ground, you could only test the soil for leakage, and I am not sure you would pick that up. If the wire was in a conduit, and that conduit was filled with water, then I think the test could be done.
 
Cjmccarthy

Cjmccarthy

Member
Location
Florida
Occupation
Project Coordinator FDOT
ptonsparky said:
I'm with the others.
Why?
It's a locate cable. It doesn't matter if the insulation is compromised even if direct bury.
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From what I can decipher, if the locate wire sheathing is compromised, it can bleed the locate tone and make the locate machine less accurate.
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
Cjmccarthy said:
From what I can decipher, if the locate wire sheathing is compromised, it can bleed the locate tone and make the locate machine less accurate.
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Not much. It's been common in this area to bury a single #12 cu, yellow, to locate privately laid plastic gas or water lines. It works fine years later. IIRC, about 20 years for my brothers water lines.
 
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