This may be an odd diary. I will be going over some of the natural and man made electrical dangers. As a lay person, I may not have the most accurate or up to date information, which electricians, engineers, scientists, and weather enthusiasts may have. Feel free to educate me on any errors I’ve made. We’ve all used electricity, it powers our computers, homes (for most) and even some of our cars. Many of us have played with it, some have worked with it, some been injured by it, some enjoyed watching the natural aspects of it, and a few of us may know someone who has died from it.
As a kid, I used to love visiting my hometown in the Midwest. The winters were exceptionally dry, and the carpets yielded a fun way to tease everyone. Simply scuff my shoes, walk up to my sister, father, or mother, and ZAP, a mini lightening bolt would jump from my finger tip onto my target. Some of those milli amp discharges could be close to painful. Those same small discharges, and even smaller ones were found to be hazardous to microcircuits.
When I worked for a Silicon Valley Wholesaler, we would frequently get returns that would appear undamaged. Some small chip would be fried making the hard drive inoperable and not reparable. If a larger electrical charge had destroyed the circuitry, the smell of burned components, or sight of exploded chips or scorched circuit boards would tell the story; “sorry your warranty is void”. The consumer electronics industry started out somewhat ill informed. By the time I left, our computer production line was fully grounded, our components, boards, and drives were shipped in protective anti static bags, and everyone handling the goods wore a grounding strap.
Today, I worry about power spikes getting into the house and frying my entertainment and computer goods. I just replaced an unprotected modem after an electrical storm last week. The past prices I spent for surge protectors, I now recognize as buying a power strip and not protecting any of my equipment. My latest surge protectors cost me over $80 and will sound an alarm if they receive too much voltage and are damaged. When the power goes off once a month or more, I don’t want to have to replace several thousand dollars worth of computer and entertainment electronics. For less than $300 I can protect all my toys and sleep well. If you have a new fangled computerized refrigerator, you may want to swap out the plug behind it and install a surge protected receptacle.
I used to play with the static build up on balloons and carpets. I even attended a Halloween themed haunted house that showcased an electrocution. I caught the implication in time to escape getting bit on my butt by the joke being played on the audience in the form of metal screening on the benches we were sitting on. When the switch was thrown, it wasn’t harmful, but everyone else jumped. As we get older, we begin to see some real dangers in what we use every day. Short a flashlight battery, and the wire glows red and can burn you. Short a car battery as I accidentally did in an off road excursion and you can fry your grounding system. Not an expensive fix for a 70’s style 2 door, but I’ll bet it would be quite pricey on today’s computerized models.
Anyone who has been bitten by inadvertently touching both prongs on an electrical plug can attest to the displeasure. When I worked in facilities, I had to change out the occasional fluorescent tube. I always made sure the switch was off before removing the bad ones and installing the new ones. My precaution one time wasn’t enough to prevent 240 volts jumping though my thumb after inserting one end into the fixture and getting my thumb between the end of the lamp and other bayonet mount of the assembly. Turned out the switch was defective.
Anytime you are working on wiring, be sure to turn the circuit off at the breaker (fuse) box. For changing a light bulb the switch being in the off position is (should be) safe. When changing a light fixture, plug, overhead fan, or working with bare wires, it is better to err on the side of safety and turn off the circuit, or even the power to the house, than run the risk of accidentally shorting something, starting a fire, or hurting yourself.
One of my team mates in a bowling league was an electrician by profession. I won’t work with 240 circuits if I can avoid it. He worked with multi phase systems and had a run in with a 480v accident. He and his partner were working on an open box when a tool rolled off the top and fell into the powered box. I do not recall if his partner survived or not, but he was seriously burned. The arc flash singed the hair on his head and removed one eyebrow. He luckily saw the tool fall and shut his eyes tight as he turned away, so he was not blinded. His arm had second and third degree burns. He considered himself lucky to have not been more seriously hurt.
As the voltages rise, so do the inherent dangers. I learned more about arcing when PG&E did a presentation to my Search and Rescue team. The little table top display of power lines, house, road and scale men and equipment hid a sinister truth. A simple step down transformer that could reduce 120 volts to 1.2 volts, would do the opposite when wired in reverse. The linemen wore heavy duty rubber gloves and demonstrated the arcing ability with the table top figures. The gloves were required because the stepped up voltage was identical to the transmission lines feeding your home’s transformer, 12,000 volts.
The lines over our heads have a deadly potential. Every year linemen and citizens are killed when accidentally coming in contact with energized power lines. The photos and reports of investigations PG&E shared from around the country was not for the general public. The education learned was valuable for any driver or citizen who encounters downed lines.
If you are in a vehicle that collides with a power pole and the line drops, stay in your vehicle as long as possible or until you are told it is safe to exit. If you are caught in a storm and lines fall around you, stay put. Power lines have sensors that detect drops in voltage or disruption of service. Many grids use computerized controls and will attempt to re-energize the line. This is normal and what may seem safe one minute could be deadly the next second. Normal attempts to recharge the lines vary, which is why it is best to stay in your vehicle and away from any downed line.
Your car is a safe spot, but not because of the rubber tires. Cars get hit by lightening every year and the people inside remain safe. The bolt travels around the passengers on the metal surface and then to ground through your tires. Vehicle tires have metallic chords for durability and strength and can conduct electricity as it travels from the body, to the chassis, to the rims, jumping to the tires, and finally to ground.
Power lines, like a bolt of lightening, discharge voltage through the ground, with the voltage charge lessening over distance. The farther from the source, the lower the voltage. Unfortunately, the ground is not as good at conducting electricity as we are. When lightening hits the ground it can knock people down, or out, yards from where the strike hit, because the victims’ feet are exposed to differing voltages. One leg has more and the current travels up the body and down to the lesser charged area because we have better conductivity than the ground.
If power lines fall on your vehicle, leave it only if you must or have been advised it is safe to do so by first responders. If a flood or fire is possible and no one is around to assist, you can still leave in relative safety even if the lines on the car or ground are still charged. Open what ever door is safest and furthest from the wires, keeping as far away as possible. Carefully place both feet on the ground at the same time, without touching the door frame or any of the metallic exterior. Carry your child or pet. DO NOT TAKE LARGE STEPS or RUN AWAY. Try not to panic, take small shuffling steps without lifting your feet from the ground. By keeping your feet close, touching, and on the ground, the difference in voltage between one foot and the other remains small enough that you can safely leave the area. Once you are safely away, 30 feet or 2 car lengths, then you can break down and cry.
I love lightening. It has always had an attraction that I can’t explain. Maybe it comes from seeing a step leader (small charge heading towards the clouds) when I was 5 years old. Maybe it was the shear volume of Midwest thunderstorms, the sound of which I related to 5,000 trashcans being knocked over by hungry bears. Maybe it’s the excitement of standing on a porch watching distant flashes only to have one explode and crash directly and instantaneously above my “safe” place. Perhaps I just like the rumble that follows a distant flash, like from the camp in Tuolumne Meadows.
I’ve witnessed small storms and large ones. I recorded a mountain thunderstorm in the Grand Tetons on 30 minutes of video (I still need to convert that to DVD). Riding a motorcycle on Highway 40 between Flagstaff and Albuquerque I watched untold numbers of distant desert bolts and only rarely heard the thunder over the wind, road, or motor sounds. I spent that night on a picnic bench, off of the ground, with a rest stop’s brick walls and metal roof for protection from the elements. Then there was the 2008 lightening storm that set much of Northern California alight.
I doubt that I am alone in my interest in Mother Nature’s light shows. I’ve been in storms where the sky seemed to be constantly lit for hours on end. I saw a radio antenna on Fremont Peak get struck by a jagged bolt that suddenly plunged in a straight line to the ground. Last Sunday night, the thunder was nearly continual, but the flashes seemed distant or non existent.
The warning of going inside when you hear thunder is not without cause. As a child, I was taught that for every second after a flash of lightening, the bolt was a mile away. Not true! Sound travels at about 1050 feet per second, or 1/5 of a mile every second, much closer than you may believe. Watching nature and weather shows, I’ve heard stories of people who were struck 20 miles from a cloud (bicyclist on a sunny Colorado day) and of people who seem to be lightening magnets (en.wikipedia.org/... ). Any count that doesn’t reach 5 one thousand means the bolt was within one mile of your location.
From 2006 through 2013, 261 people were struck and killed by lightning in the United States. Almost two thirds of the deaths occurred to people who had been enjoying outdoor leisure activities. The common belief that golfers are responsible for the greatest number of lightning deaths was shown to be a myth. During this 8 year period fishermen accounted for more than three times as many fatalities as golfers, while camping and boating each accounted for almost twice as many deaths as golf.
From 2006 to 2013, there were a total of 30 fishing deaths, 16
camping deaths, and 14 boating deaths, and 13 beach deaths.
Of the sports activities, soccer saw the greatest number of deaths with 12, as compared to golf with 8. Around the home, yard work (including mowing the lawn) accounted for 12 fatalities.For work-
related activities, ranching/farming topped the list with 14 deaths.
Electricity can be a powerful tool when handled safely. Keeping safe requires an understanding of the potential dangers. For our homes, that means turning off the things we need to work on, unused appliances and shutting off circuits when exposure to wires may cause an injury. It also means we should ensure our electrical appliances and computers are protected from unwanted power spikes. Unplugging is good prevention from lightening caused surges. In our vehicles, we have to understand the dangers of downed power lines. In nature, it requires us to reduce our chances of becoming a target for lightening by getting out of the weather as soon as possible. When thunder roars head indoors.