Electrical Connection

[edroelle]

We had our "Back to the Bricks" bus rally near Flint, MI, this last weekend.   Good people, food, car show, car cruises, seminar, garage sales, etc.   

One coach was very cautious and had a plastic bowl over the connection of 2 electrical chords.    We got  a lot of rain Saturday afternoon.   After the rain, we walked out to the drainage ditch.   Yellow chord going in, black chord coming out.   The connection was under about a foot of water and the 20 amp breaker did not blow !!!  What gives ??

Ed Roelle
Flint, MI

[Sean]

Ed,

Fresh water is actually a very poor conductor.  While there was undoubtedly some "leakage current" between the current-carrying conductors and/or ground, it would not necessarily be enough to trip a breaker. (I am betting, though, that a ground-fault interrupter would have tripped quickly in this scenario.)

Those scenes in the movies where the bad guy murders the woman by dropping a toaster in the bathtub, complete with a shower of sparks and a puff of smoke, are more the stuff of Hollywood fantasy than reality.

The problem with water and electricity is two-fold:

1.  Lots of things that can be in the water will make it conductive, and you can't tell just by looking whether or not any particular pool of water will have such stuff in it.

2.  Lots of things, for example, human skin, conduct better when they are wet.

I am not surprised at all, especially after a fresh rain where the water is still clean.  I've seen outlets with devices plugged in to them still working in a flooded computer room more than once.  And I'm sure you can guess who had to wade in to fix things.

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[demodriver]

When I was 15 I worked in the summers doing heating and cooling.  We had installed 5 new furnaces in a doctors house who had did his own plumbing. The first big rain had filled his finished basement with about 4.5' of water. Most everything was still working, except the furnaces.

I also got the privilage of being the ginny pig to wade in and turn the power off.

Man those where the days..... I made $6 a hour and thought I was a million air lol.

[edroelle]

Thanks for the technical explanation.

We plan to have the rally again next year mid-August. Maybe you can make it.

Ed