I hope there is someone here who knows some stuff about them. ok here is the story. About 3 days ago I'm standing outside in the morning waiting for the school bus and I'm standing under one of those poles that the wires are connected to. well it just so happened that I was looking up when all of a sudden above the pole there is this ball or something of electricity and it flashed followed by the loudest explosion i have ever heard (my ears hurt for 2 days after). there is no transformer there, so that did not explode. Well last night, there was a big flash and another realllllllllllllllly loud explosion at the same place. Anyone have a clue as to what it could be?
I believe that those explosions are the fuses - the power company makes them themselves with a high amount of something explosive for two purposes - one is to make sure that when a short occurs the fuse blows as quickly as possible (to minimize damage to lines/houses/appliances/etc.). The other reason is primarily so that at least someone will hear it. A lot of times the lines get get overloaded due to damage to the line somewhere (animal, car accident, etc.) and the weakest point on the line will short out. It is as loud as a cannon so that people sleeping will hear it and call the police with a "loud noise call" - it helps narrow it down where the disruption is. Have you ever seen one of those types of house fuses that are about 3 inches long, tubular shaped with metal tabs on the ends to connect to the service panel? If you look the electric pole you might see an industrial sized one similar to that. My guess is that you just happened to be right next to a power company fuse when it blew....
Noah. PECO installs extra specially loud fuses, particularly in your neighborhood, because you all do such a good job of minding your own business they feel they must have huge explosions to get anyone to respond. Noah, it's fun when you're standing under a 13,800 volt line that blows a fuse, eh? And that's all they are. If you look there is probably a metal handle on a long pole that leads up to the top of the power pole. Attached is a ceramic fuse, hooked directly to the power line. If there's a short or ground fault, the fuse goes with about the same volume as a good sized M-80. And when they come to replace it, first thing they do is simply put in another fuse and see if it blows too!! Like the 4th of July without having to pay. DM
Hubbell resistors actually have a shotgun shell inside that goes off when the fuse blows, maybe you heard 1 of those
don't get me started on how bad that movie was. the only thing keeping me from walking out was that I didn't drive there...
No excuse! I walked out of Moulon Rouge because it was so bad. And I was there with my GF and GF's mother, and I was riding with them and her mom bought the tickets! They stayed, I walked out and walked home, It was THAT BAD!
