Underground fault

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Zmax25 said:
I have no way of knowing if power was flowing on it, im simply assuming it had to be. There certainly wasnt any lightning in colorado in the last month. But its really hard to tell. Im quite certain the fault started at this fence postView attachment 2559340
fence was replaced sometime late last summer or early fall.
the burned section of cable was from here back towards the main panel/meter, not toward the house panel. The owner of the house had only recently purchased it and reports not having any power issues since he lived there. Then he was on vacation and came back to no power. so no way of telling how long it was out. At least two days but maybe up to 5 or 6.
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If it went from a low grade fault to a relatively low impedance fault that could not trip the OCPD, I can see the shorted section burning its way back toward the feed point over a couiple of days. The power would have been out for that whole time. Think of a carbon arc lamp without the light. :)


I am curious whether it was still burning its way backward until you disconnected it to start diagnostics or simply hit a different environment where it stopped burning back.

Or possibly it finally worked its way far enough toward the souce that the fault current could open the breaker.
 
GoldDigger said:
If it went from a low grade fault to a relatively low impedance fault that could not trip the OCPD, I can see the shorted section burning its way back toward the feed point over a couiple of days. The power would have been out for that whole time. Think of a carbon arc lamp without the light. :)


I am curious whether it was still burning its way backward until you disconnected it to start diagnostics or simply hit a different environment where it stopped burning back.

Or possibly it finally worked its way far enough toward the souce that the fault current could open the breaker.
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Great comment. This would make some sense and make it seem like it was the perfect coincidence of events...homeowner out on vacation so didnt know when the power first went out. then it burned and burned for the days till he returned.

I would bet that it was still burning its way back. When I first showed up his main breaker was off, not tripped. I said oh theres your problem, some jerk was probably walking thru the ally and messing with people turning off breakers(this same thing had just happened to me at my house days before!) turned it on, checked voltage leaving which was good and thought sweet, that was easy. Then moments later checked the power at the house, had nothing...breathed out a great big sigh and thought dang why cant it ever be easy😂
 
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