 NightfallMy Goal Is To Deny YoursPremium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
 ·Site5.com
 ·Comcast
 ·Callcentric
| Not one bravo for Comcast? I skimmed through all the posts and replies and didn't see one single good thing posted about Comcast on this issue. Its obvious the homeowner didn't have a ground wire on their electric system, and for Comcast to pay the bill for the damage done by a faulty install or in an old house that was built before code is very honorable no matter how you cut it.
Not that any Comcast bashers will admit. 
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 Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | I did a search about utility companies being liable for causing problems with household appliances. It came back that it was ruled that they are not liable, due to their responsibility stops at the meterhead.
It comes down to the home owner being responsible on this one, not the utility. Give Whizkid a chance, and he should be able to clear up some of the misconceptions on the O.P. post about this. Now of course, I have seen some instances of short to ground with 600v Ship to shore lines when in the Navy, along with watching direct buried lines getting cut (first hand experience).
In order for this to happen, there would have to be a high amount of amperage being dumped back on the line, along with Volts. If the breakers or fuses did not trip from the overload (100amps min. on most, older homes where 60amps), I call this one as B.S. unless proven by reputable proof where and when this happened with documentation.
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I threw out the map a long time ago. Now I follow my own direction! |
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garywk
join:2001-03-06
Clarkston, WA | quote:
I did a search about utility companies being liable for causing problems with household appliances. It came back that it was ruled that they are not liable, due to their responsibility stops at the meterhead.
That is simply not true. I worked as an HVAC and appliance service tech for a couple of decades and I've seen the utility company held responsible for damages quite a few times. If their neutral connection burns out up on the pole it can literally burn up appliances quite easily. I've even seen that situation take out electric furnaces several times. Who was responsible? The power company. It was their connection, on their lines, that caused the failure.
Their bad connection will create a situtation in which one hot leg of the 220 coming into the house will be as high as 180 vac to ground while the other hot leg will be down as low as 70 or 80 vac to ground. Both conditions will burn up appliances and actually cause them to fail quite spectacularly at times. I've seen appliances which failed that had as damage as a laptop in which the batteries exploded due to bad grounds on utility company wiring.
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“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.”
Dwight David Eisenhower |
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Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | I could understand this, due to if the neutral becomes "loaded", but it will still not cause appliances to explode, wiring to melt in the ceiling. The surge potential can be enough to cause appliances to burn out or motors to stop, but a surge has to have enough amps in it to cause a electrical explosion.
You can load a line with enough volts and keep the amps low, and never cause anything other then tripping the breakers, or smoking a fuse.
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I threw out the map a long time ago. Now I follow my own direction! |
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Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | reply to garywk
The following just brought up a memory where we melted a bus bar caused by a Ground fault. Of course the sucker was melted in two. I think that this clears it up. »www.bassengineering.com/grnfault.htm
An electrical explosion is the sudden release of energy due to a short circuit between power phases or a phase to ground. Before discussing design issues, it is important to realize that a very large amount of energy is available on the bus of most electrical panels when they are operating within their normal design parameters. For example a phase to phase short circuit on a 400 Amp, 120/208 Volt panel can instantaneously release over 84,000 watts of energy during a fault condition and not blow the protective fuse or circuit breaker. An explosion of this magnitude will destroy the panel and can start a fire and can cause severe injuries or even death.
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I threw out the map a long time ago. Now I follow my own direction! |
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garywk
join:2001-03-06
Clarkston, WA | reply to Greg_Z
said by Greg_Z:I could understand this, due to if the neutral becomes "loaded", but it will still not cause appliances to explode, wiring to melt in the ceiling. The surge potential can be enough to cause appliances to burn out or motors to stop, but a surge has to have enough amps in it to cause a electrical explosion. You can load a line with enough volts and keep the amps low, and never cause anything other then tripping the breakers, or smoking a fuse. I agree that you "can" do that, but that is most definitely not the only possibility.
Nothing at all was said about the age of this house. I can't tell you how many breakers I have run across that simply will not trip under overload conditions. I've seen breakers hold while the wire they were supposed to be protecting burned from an overcurrent situation. Far too many breakers fail "closed" to discount this story. I've seen breakers that stayed closed even after you manually tripped the breaker with the handle.
You take a 10+ year old breaker box that no one has ever looked at or maintained and the odds are good that wire connections have loosened over the years due to the inherent heating and cooling in an electical circuit causing overheat conditions on individual breakers. The heat will have made some of the breakers take a "set" to where they simply will not trip anymore. You get a few of those breakers in a home and you can double and triple the sustained electrical loads, burn down the house from melted wiring, have direct shorts to ground, and never trip a breaker.
This problem is even worse in the mobile homes where they used aluminum wiring. It's amazing to me that many more of these things haven't burnt down over the years. I've put 6-8 complete turns on the screws making the connection to the breaker many times and still not had a tight connection with aluminum wiring. The same goes for all the grounding connections in those panels.
It is not very difficult to find a home electical system with more than 10 years age on it that isn't going to have some type of hot leg and grounding issues.
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“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.”
Dwight David Eisenhower |
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Greg_ZPremium
join:2001-08-08
Springfield, IL | Of course, when I found the link about the Watts spiking when you Load the Neutral, that does make better sense. Watts being the Potential such as water flowing through a pipe. You can push more water through a pipe without the valves failing, but the weakest point will always give way first.
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I threw out the map a long time ago. Now I follow my own direction! |
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