Megger Wire

[newt]

Recent customer asked me to megger underground service conductors. Customer nicked wire and taped it back up during installation of deck. My question is: Should I megger the wire or should I put a load on each phase to neutral to determine a larger voltage drop on one side compare to the other?? Which one would give me a better indication of the condition of the wire?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Newt

 

[hbiss]

Re: Megger Wire

Don't bother. You can assume that at some point water will get under the tape, especially if the HO did it. Just plan on splicing or replacing. It may check good now but odds are it will fail later.

-Hal

 

[brian john]

Re: Megger Wire

The proper way to determine if the cable insulation is compromised would be to megger the cable. Assuming the HO does not want an unexpected outage, if the cable falls within the lower limits for the voltage classification an underground splice kit would resolve the tape issue. With the cable exposed and the splice cleaned you should megger the cable prior to utilizing the splice repair kit.