'Stray Voltage' Zaps students

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The electrical connections are corroding with the sidewalk snow salt mixture etc. and as a result are now electrically in contact with the metal box and metal surface plate.If this was properly grounded and each circuit protected with the correct breaker system etc. there would not be this problem.

I have a situation with this same utility with over 15 amps of current flow on the ground.To date it has not been fixed.Stay tuned,there may be more fireworks.:mad:
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
This incident is not stray voltage. The shock felt is from the standard run of the mill fault condition.
I am sure the POCO will do just as so many here in NY have done. Fix as much as is possible.
Click to expand...

Pierre

Maybe for the rest of us dumb bunnies,you could take some time and explain your electrical fault suspicions in more detail.
I have also included the latest link on Toronto Hydro's action plan
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_31775.aspx:smile:
 
ghostbuster said:
Pierre

Maybe for the rest of us dumb bunnies,you could take some time and explain your electrical fault suspicions in more detail.
I have also included the latest link on Toronto Hydro's action plan
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_31775.aspx:smile:
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm.....

I did not see any explanation what was the root cause of the 'live' handhole cover. The winter salt-spreading seems like the most plausible explanation, resulting in conductive moisture tracking path combined with insulation deterioration both independent of and due to moisture and chemical attack by the salt.
 
UPDATE:

Just found out these are all 120/240 volt outdoor lighting circuits(that are in trouble).The metal plates and rings on all approx. 16000 units in the city have never been electrically wired to ground.

These metal sidewalk plates are ELECTRICALLY FLOATING.


There is no plan to ground them either during this investigation.
 
when voltage from the ungrounded conductor "escapes" the insulation (in this case due to the salt factor) and the voltage makes contact with the metallic parts, that is a ground fault.

Stray voltage and current is usually produced from the grounded conductor, not the ungrounded conductor.

Stray voltage is generally of a lesser value than is fault current.

Someone getting blasted, belted or zapped is generally getting shocked from a fault current/voltage.
 
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