Long time issues

[brian john]

Based on the meggering question.

How many of you have come across issues that most likely existed for years un-noticed yet were only moments away from a fault.

Such as:

We did a demo on a kitchen in the 70's of a house built in the 50's, a nail had been driven into the rag-wire SEC and knicked a phase conductor yet never hit the stranded ground the nail was energized.

Parallel feeders 3-sets 500kcmil in PVC to a chiller "A" phase in one conduit, "B" phase in another conduit and "C" phase in the 3rd conduit, no slots cut in the cabinets (MDP or chiller cabinet) the insulation was GONE/burnt off all conductors for two feet in each direction yet never shroted (no contact with each other or ground), building was 20 years old.

 

[mdshunk]

How many of you have come across issues that most likely existed for years un-noticed yet were only moments away from a fault.

Every week, and people's response is often along the lines of, "it works what's the problem"?

 

[Rampage_Rick]

Every week, and people's response is often along the lines of, "it works what's the problem"?

That's where you shove a dummy grenade in there hand, minus the pin. "So long as you hold the spoon, it's safe. What's the problem?"

 

[Rockyd]

Seen it so bad that they wouldn't let us Hi-Pot a cable a 5KV cable after "repairs". Reason? Afraid it wouldn't hold, wasn't in the budget for the work package in a classified area (c1d2).

 

[e57]

That's where you shove a dummy grenade in there hand, minus the pin. "So long as you hold the spoon, it's safe. What's the problem?"

One must remember to remove the "thumb-clip" as well.... While it is not relaible as a method of holding the spoon after thown, it can (seen it) hold the spoon on... If one just pulls the pin and lets go of the spoon - nothing happens. If you throw it - the thumb-clip might come off - it might not....

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

A friend of mine is a fireman in NYC. He called me one day from the scene of a fire they had just put out. The fire was started from a nail driven through the old "BX" cable. The nail was supporting the lath for concrete and it made contact with the sheathing and the hotleg. It did not trip the breaker because the BX armor was not a good ground path. The constant arcing for years set up a carbon path to the wood that one day spontaneously combusted...it took years for this to occur.

I am sure that there are too many of these situations to even guess how many there are. A megger on this circuit would have picked it up the day of the testing.