Power Line to my house was broken

[Industrial Toys]

I take it you are talking TRIPLEX, overhead service.

Loosing just the Neutral is often the worst possible thing that can happen. It's why neutrals must never be switched. To better ensure they don't fail, because you can get nasty voltages on one leg.

Loosing a neutral feed and it's implications would then depend on soil resistance and what loads you have connected.

If that ever happened here, I would disconnect from the Utility IMMEDIATELY!

It's also a SERIOUS mistake to think a Neutral like this, can't harm you. (Stupid misinformed FD!) The potential between this (broken) conductor and ground could be substantial!

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Neutral wire carries the unbalanced load. If both hot wires have 50A loads, everything appears ok. Frige turns on needs 10A, without neutral voltage on one leg goes up other goes down. Over voltage, light bulbs vary light output or burn out, surge protected equipment blows fuses or trips breakers. All this activity changes electrical demands between legs.

They're baaaack, feels like the house has a poltergeist in it.

Better UPS power supplies kick on and display line voltage. If wild voltage swings are present, best to trip main breaker and contact power co. Usually very responsive as it could casuse a house fire.

This is worth repeating.

With no neutral, you don't have your hot legs balanced in your house (or anywhere else). So a heavy load on one leg will unbalance the other leg. We lost neutral on our house years ago in Phoenix. It fried a whole bunch of stuff in the house. There was smoke literally pouring out of my computer's UPS, and the lights in the living room went ultra bright. This was from the load of the fridge or freezer coming on. That's how we knew there was a problem. Called utility company and they came out and tapped off the neighbor's neutral to get us through the weekend. Monday morning they were digging in a new line from the transformer to our meter on the house.

I would unplug anything with a load, and anything sensitive that you care about like computers and such.

And yeah, the power company should be out there NOW. Before the house fire.

 

[LD1]

Don't know enough about primary stuff....but I'd stay away.

Neutrals don't "normally" have potential difference to ground.

You have a broken neutral.....so this isn't a "normal" circumstance.

Think about power flow.... (And this would be true in a residential 120v or automotive 12v system).....

The power has to have a complete circuit. Let's look at a simple light circuit. (I'll forget about the switch right now

You have 120v hot → light →neutral wire back to source.

As long as the neutral is connected....there is no potential difference between it and ground. Because it is bonded to the ground at the source.

But now cut that neutral in half. Light no longer works. The half the neutral still connected to the source is deader than a door nail.

BUT....the half still connected to the hot side (through the filament in the lightbulb) is live with 120v.

Again...under normal circumstances the neutral has 0 potential difference with Earth. But anytime there is an electrical problem....NEVER assume that the neutral is not live.

 

[MossRoad]

....

I always thought they carried somewhere around 14,000 volts through them, and then the transformer dropped it down to 240. I also thought that both power lines where hot. The Chief of the Fire Department told me that the top line was hot and the bottom was neutral. I guess he's correct because I still have power to my house with just the one power line. I just don't understand how this works and was hoping somebody could explain it to me in simple terms that I will understand.

My guess is there's a 7200V single phase running on the top wire down your road.
The bottom wire is ground. That's the broken wire.

The single phase 7200V wire feeds a transformer for your house (or several houses if you have close neighbors).

From that transformer there are three wires running to your house.
1-120V
2-120V
3-neutral

You still have power because the transformer still has 7200V from the top wire.

Where is your transformer located?

 

[MossRoad]

Like this...

 

[LD1]

Like this...

View attachment 692291

The correct term is neutral though.

Too many people confuse what a ground and neutral is....because most only know that they terminate in the same place.

But a neutral carries the same amount of current as the hot in a 120v circuit. The ground does not. And if it does...it will trip gfci's or breakers.

It can be very dangerous to confuse the difference between a neutral and a ground

 

[Industrial Toys]

Now, I am quite confused what the situation in this case was. A downed neutral, but feeding his transformer? So he was just getting service to his X-Former primary via ground resistance?

We have issued here that there is normally voltage between neurtral and ground. But within spec. Means I can't touch the shower knobs standing on grade. I have to go tell the new neighbor about this, who intends to have animals and they won't drink from a grounded (heated) bowl. I wrote a thread on it once. It has never been resolved, and the (idiot) experts deem it quite acceptable!

 

[EddieWalker]

Like this...

View attachment 692291

Looks like this, except the power lines end at my place. I am the only home on this line. I had it installed when I built the house.

It's 2:30 pm, and exactly 24 hours since I called 911. The line is still on the ground.

I'm trying to find the number to call Oncor myself.

 

[Industrial Toys]

That's when I get on the phoen and say, listen guys, forget all about it. I HAVE AN ALLUMINUM LADDER, I'll just go fix it myself. Amazing how quick someone get's there. Done it. It works. Forget about press this or press that, or use this AP!

 

[MossRoad]

Did my explanation about why you still have power make sense? It's sometimes hard to put it in writing VS voice conversation.

Also, where's your transformer?

 

[MossRoad]

That's when I get on the phoen and say, listen guys, forget all about it. I HAVE AN ALLUMINUM LADDER, I'll just go fix it myself. Amazing how quick someone get's there. Done it. It works. Forget about press this or press that, or use this AP!

BZZZT!

 

[fruitcakesa]

I take it you are talking TRIPLEX, overhead service.

Loosing just the Neutral is often the worst possible thing that can happen. It's why neutrals must never be switched. To better ensure they don't fail, because you can get nasty voltages on one leg.

Loosing a neutral feed and it's implications would then depend on soil resistance and what loads you have connected.

If that ever happened here, I would disconnect from the Utility IMMEDIATELY!

It's also a SERIOUS mistake to think a Neutral like this, can't harm you. (Stupid misinformed FD!) The potential between this (broken) conductor and ground could be substantial!

The uninsulated steel cable, I am guessing it was the ground, from the pole to my folks meter was pulled out by a falling limb and I unknowingly switched on a light when I entered the house and immediately the light bulb popped and sparks shot from the fixture.
I went into the basement and disconnected the mains and called the power company, who ultimately got it fixed.
Thankfully there was no other damage from it.

 

[coobie]

After looking at your photo Eddie you have 2 wires down both different size.One looks like #4 wire the other #1 wire.STAY CLEAR of both until your power company arrives.One could be a guy wire the other Primary overhead wire..

 

[EddieWalker]

Did my explanation about why you still have power make sense? It's sometimes hard to put it in writing VS voice conversation.

Also, where's your transformer?

Yes, and thank you to everyone who has explained this to me. There was a lot that I didn't know.

My transformer and meter is about a thousand feet into my land. The line is broken between two poles out along the road. One of them is where the line turns into my land, and the other is down the highway, on the other side of the area where they are working.

My soil is red clay and in the summer, it doesn't work very well for grounding. I had to put in 3 ground rods, ten to 12 feet apart, to get my electric fence to work. But we've had decent rain here all winter, with an inch to half an inch every week, so I think that I have an extremely good ground in the soil right now. Maybe that's helping?

I took this picture a few minutes ago. They are there right now, unloading another trailer with the excavator. I think this gives a good indication of what happened. They are denying it, but that's just being stupid in my opinion. Nothing else could have broken that cable right where their gate is.



I just got off the phone with Oncor. I had a horrible time getting through yesterday, which is why I called 911. The Chief of the Fire Department said he called it in to be fixed. I heard him on his radio doing this, but I don't know if the person on the other end of the radio did anything. When I talked to the lady at Oncor today, she said that they didn't have any record of them calling it in.

She asked for pictures, and all sorts of information about the location of the cable, and how they could get to it. She told me several times not to get close to it, that it could still be very dangerous.

So now I'm still waiting for it to be fixed and hoping for the best.

 

[Industrial Toys]

So that picture does show TRIPLEX going to the house service.

 

[coobie]

So that picture does show TRIPLEX going to the house service.

What pic are you seeing Triplex service wire?

 

[coobie]

Eddie does your state have a public power service commission ? If so tell the power company that is who you are going to call.That will light a fire under there A$$.

 

[Diggin It]

Maybe this will help some.

 

[EddieWalker]

The power company guy showed up around 4:30 and looked at the broken cable. He agreed that it looked like they broke it with the excavator, but since nobody is admitting to it, it really doesn't matter how it broke.

He said that since it's the neutral line, and all the poles are grounded, that it wasn't a big deal. He also said that they have a lot of lines without a neutral line on them right now. "Just being honest" was his next comment. When I asked about houses burning down and electronic devises dying, he said that wasn't a concern because all of the poles where grounded. There are four poles after the break in the cable.

His plan is to talk to his boss and let him decide what to do. He doesn't know when they will be back, or when they will fix it. It's noted that there is an issue, and I guess they will get to it when they get to it.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The pic I was referring to was from Moss.

I still don't understand "this" exact situation. What broke where? Doesn't matter. At least everything is under control.

So this guy is saying that customers don't have a neutral connection into the PRIMARY of their transformer and it's just using the ground (real ground/ground or wired ground) as a return path? I can't even pretend to understand what's going on. My God, these TBN "Electrical Threads" take years off a mans life. lol