posted
Ok, not smart to grab the leash...but a 10' high power line with a dead tree leaning up against it???
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
The residential power lines in my neighborhood are probably only about 10 ft up. They carry 220v, which is enough to kill.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I found a secondary cite (like a cite of a cite) where the minimum clearance is as follows :
- 20 feet for secondary power lines up to 750V - 25 feet for primary power lines up to 25kV - 30 feet minimum for anything above that
There are detailed tables for this and codes, but I don't have a current code book, and I can't find the right section in my T&D (Transmission and Distribution) book. It's only 800 pages - I know it's here somewhere.
-------------------- "The fate of *billions* depends on you! Hahahahaha....sorry." Lord Raiden - Mortal Kombat Posts: 1587 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by GenYus: The residential power lines in my neighborhood are probably only about 10 ft up. They carry 220v, which is enough to kill.
Wow. The lines that go to my house get no lower than ~15 ft and they are coated (hit them with my ladder once...
We may be looking at a lawsuit if there was a code violation. I know the kid should not have been messing with the line, but 10 ft seem WAY too low. Note, Mike's reference (I assume) was for Canadian lines, but I bet the US regulations are not much different.
-------------------- And now for something completely different... Posts: 4164 | From: Alabama | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Doug4.7: Only 10 ft. up? That seems awful low for a line that could kill...
Power lines will heat up during times of peak demand, which causes them to expand expand and and therefore sag. (One link in the chain of events that led to that huge blackout in the Northeast a few years back was a power line sagging onto a tree branch, which shorted out and tripped a circuit breaker).
But... that generally happens during the summer when everyone turns on their air conditioners, which makes me wonder if those lines are only 10' high now, how low do they get during the summer?
-------------------- "Unseasonable is an odd word to begin with. It sounds like it's describing something that it's impossible to sprinkle pepper on." -- Nonny Posts: 5483 | From: Just south of Folsom Prison, CA | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Never mind. It was the cable line that is 10 ft. The power line is at least 15 ft high.
I've never tried hitting them with a ladder to see if they are insulated.
Could the lowness of the lines in the OP have anything to do with the fact that there was a dead tree lying on the line?
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
My cite of a cite was actually for Hawaii, and I can't find the guidelines in my T&D book, which would be for the US, in general. (Plus, it's a book published in 1973 and things may have changed since then.)
Usually power lines are insulated even up to 600V, which is the highest voltage that would come into a house or even a barn in a rural area. But I've seen 2300V bare conductors - which look like they were installed when Ben Franklin was still alive - but these would be at least 25 feet up, *and* insulated.
I wonder what the local utility is like there - normally the utility owns the lines up to the "point of entry" at your house, so a code violation - assuming that the resident hasn't changed things - is the fault of the utility. Bad thing, all around.
-------------------- "The fate of *billions* depends on you! Hahahahaha....sorry." Lord Raiden - Mortal Kombat Posts: 1587 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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It was the cable line that is 10 ft. The power line is at least 15 ft high.
