Heard from a plumber I work with today and was told that after cutting the main water line on the house side of the water meter he received a shock bad enough to knock him off his feet. I asked him if the GEC was still connected to both the street and the home and he said it was. I can only guess that the GEC was still connected at the main. I was not there. He wanted to know how this could happen, and I couldn't answer his question. Also it started a fire on the 2nd floor of the home. What caused this?
Plumber gets wacked cutting water line
- Thread starter jaykilty
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
The service neutral is open or has a very high resistance. The water pipe, because of its connections to other buildings in the area and their water pipe bonding connections, was serving as the neutral. When he cut the pipe and was touching both ends, he was serving as the neutral.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
I agree with Don. If the GEC connection to a common water system is sound then an open neutral can go undetected for a long time because as Don mentioned the neutral current will flow into the neighbors building and back to the source.
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
The same thing happened to a friend of mine right after he started working for the city.
Now is SOP to use jumper cables across the pipe being cut.
Now is SOP to use jumper cables across the pipe being cut.
K8MHZ
Senior Member
- Occupation
- Electrician
I have some pics somewhere of a service drop to a house with the neutral broken right off, the triplex was hanging by the hot wires. The neutral snapped when a car hit the pole the triplex was attached to. We were next door repairing a mast that was bent over because the pole had snapped. The POCO just guyed the pole and left it. This had been this way for nearly two years while the owner of the bent mast battled with her insurance company over the repair, which meant the service be moved.
The POCO did fix the open neutral a couple days after I called it in.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
My guess is that this happens more than we think. As long as the pipe clamp isn't corroded these can remain for, as you've stated, years without detection.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
I told my plumbing acquaintances that they should use a jumper cable when cutting those lines. I think it fell on deaf ears
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
The open neutral creates a series parallel circuit with higher than normal voltage on one side and lower than normal on the other side. This often lets the smoke out of electronic equipment and sometimes results in a fire.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
The was a paper from the American Waterworks Association a number of years ago that said, on average, this happens about once a day in the US.
FionaZuppa
Senior Member
- Location
- AZ
- Occupation
- Part Time Electrician (semi retired, old) - EE retired.
or somebody elses N was using that pipe and he just so happened to re-bridge that gap?
chris kennedy
Senior Member
- Location
- Miami Fla.
- Occupation
- 60 yr old tool twisting electrician
- Location
- Bremerton, Washington
- Occupation
- Master Electrician
There is a great video on this from the city of Miami fire dept. I don't have a link. maybe mike holt has it on his web site
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
My guess is when he cut the pipe then they completely lost the neutral and a tv or radio or such upstairs blew and caused the fire.
Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
yup. this close to the election, if you don't have a really good ground on the tv,
the spew coming from the candidates will destroy the set.
if you are tuned to fox news, i'm told it's almost instantaneous. :angel:
brantmacga
Señor Member
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Former Child
I think what has been said above is what likely happened .....
Interesting story though, had a utility come connect a service for me once while the plumber was working on copper lines.
Heard him shouting when they energized. Utility swapped L-G at the meter. Linemen were staring at each other in disbelief.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Interesting story though, had a utility come connect a service for me once while the plumber was working on copper lines.
Heard him shouting when they energized. Utility swapped L-G at the meter. Linemen were staring at each other in disbelief.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
JFletcher
Senior Member
- Location
- Williamsburg, VA
Agree with all the above. Cutting/disconnecting coax can result in similar shock/fire
We bond around the water meters here. Maybe the water line got cut after the water meter?
David Goodman
Senior Member
- Location
- Pahrump, NV, USA
Will a non-contact voltage detector pick up this condition if used before cutting the pipe?
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
Generally not, as the intact water line is at a low voltage to ground.
A clamp-on ammeter would detect the current flowing though.
- Status