- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
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 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.
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.