Red Dust on Back of Switch Gear

[Saturn_Europa]

On the back of my switch gear there is a thin layer of red dust. 4160v. I'm not authorized to open the panels to look at it. The dust is around the vents where the conductors are terminated at the buses. Please see attached picture. The gear was installed in 2013 and was wiped down after construction. The switchgear has generator breakers, generator tie breakers, and two main utility breakers. Anyone ever seen this before?

 

[rt66electric]

red floor sweep??

red floor sweep??

Somebody hammer drilling through red brick??

That red stuff janitors use to cleanup kid-puke???

 

[Saturn_Europa]

Somebody hammer drilling through red brick??

That red stuff janitors use to cleanup kid-puke???

Thanks for the reply. We only use a dry mop and push brooms. It's a cinder block building. Although, I'm in the Carolinas and we have red clay dirt. But honest to gosh , the only place there is dust is by those vents.

 

[grich]

The electrostatic field around the transformer might be attracting the dust. I routinely fight dust buildup on high voltage components of the radio transmitters I care for...plate voltages of 7 to 10kV.

Gregg

 

[jim dungar]

But honest to gosh , the only place there is dust is by those vents.

Those vents appear to be at the bottom of the gear, which means they likely let air flow in rather than out.
The dust does not appear to be deposited in a 'vee shape' like I see with air currents caused by rising warm air.

 

[Saturn_Europa]

Those vents appear to be at the bottom of the gear, which means they likely let air flow in rather than out.
The dust does not appear to be deposited in a 'vee shape' like I see with air currents caused by rising warm air.

There is another set of vents of not included in the picture. But yes there is uniform distribution of dust not usually associated with air flow.

As Grich stated electrostatic attraction is probably the cause.

 

[GoldDigger]

There is another set of vents of not included in the picture. But yes there is uniform distribution of dust not usually associated with air flow.

As Grich stated electrostatic attraction is probably the cause.

Electrostatic attraction to a grounded surface is not going to be a full explanation.
You also have to understand how the dust particles are getting charged in the first place.
One possibility is a flow of ionized air generated by any equipment anywhere in the area that deposits a net charge on the dust particles.

In the absence of really high voltages, the most likely ion sources, IMHO, would be sharp points inside low voltage (up to 1kV) equipment or rotary equipment with brushes.

The dust would also have to be kicked up somewhere within the air flow volume by traffic, wind, etc.

 

[JFletcher]

Red clay dust. The stuff is fine and gets everywhere.