scary electrical pictures

[murdock]

the last thread i posted got me thinking...lets start a thread with all the scary pictures you see in people houses or factories etc

these are my favourite ones because its the result of poor workmanship...and until your house has burnt...people will continue to use dodgy electricial contractors because they are cheaper...the only way this is going to stop is if the insurance companies put their foot down and start enforcing a no payout system if the installation is illegal or if a "valid COC" can be produced...i did a job 2 days ago where i found the house security lights where wired with the telephone cable...no earth and the wire was illegal...the first thing you see as you walk into the house...yet the COC was issued....by the way this is a very common sight.

[siphom_3]

I am dying to look at the pictures (for my learning curve) but I am unable. Think it's my browser. I am the only one unable to view this pictures? Mind forwarding it through to siphom_3@hotmail.com?

[Chrisjan B]

Doesn't want to seem a snob but is somebody actually living in this place?

[bergie]

pity i dont have a photo of a pool d.b. that burnt out. one of those plastic pre wired"water tight" enclosures.it burnt so fiercely that there was nothing left.there was no trace of a circuit breaker,a wire,even the pipes going down to the ground were gone.not even the screws that hold the d.b. to the wall.just a pile of dust.

[mikilianis]

A few scary pictures of tired circuit breakers any explanations as to how this happened, the obvious is to say a loose connection, the maintenance electrician swears that the connections were tight. I suspect a bad connection, 50mm2 welding cable was used to supply the breaker and a cable end (bootlace ferrule) would not be accommodated so there was some whiskering of the strands , a loud bang though.

[AndyD]

There's only two causes of burning MCB's I've ever come across, the most common by far is poor or loose screw terminations, the other was one that had got full of brick dust causing bad contact internally.

[Justloadit]

My 3 Phase Mains isolator did the same thing on one of the phases, and the connections was tight, as I occasionally check it. Another cause could be a defective contact which may have had a pin hole through the hard material the contact is plated with, and with time, the pin hole grows, causing a bad connection due to arcing, and heating the contact. Thermal run away then causes the failure.

What I did notice that a time prior to failure, there was a sick fishy smell in the air, which I could not place my finger on, and after the failure, I realised that it was the material of the circuit breaker body taking strain due to the heat being generated in the faulty contact.

[murdock]

this is why my thermal imager is such a brilliant tool

[mikilianis]

Smoke in the Panel

Here are a few more pics this is a contactor the control circuit is going through a electronic overload unit which failed and caused the contactor to chatter supplies a 22kw motor.
Murdock the thermal imager that you have what are the specs on it and the cost.
Thanks

[murdock]

i have an entry level imager which cost around R60 000 when i got it... but you can buy cheaper and better units nowadays...my imager is part of my tool box used to fault find... fix and verify the problem is solved...its handy because sometime you can find problem you didnt even know you had

[murdock]

there are plenty thermal imaging cameras out there...for around R100 000 you can get a camera with this type of quality...with infusion...picture in picture...every big company should have one of these tools available...even if they use a thermographer to do yearly audits/inpsections...why ...because i have carried out test...had the maintenance team repair the problem while i wait then re tested to find the problem was still not resolved...only after 3 attemps did they get it right...so my question...what is the good of doing a yearly inspection if it is not checked on completion of the repairs...you pretty much wasting your time...or in the case where an inspection is done only to satisfy the insurance company for cover... then i suppose who cares so long as the insurance company covers you.

[mikilianis]

I would never suspect that a coupling could get so hot and it is rubber if I am not mistaken.

[murdock]

I would never suspect that a coupling could get so hot and it is rubber if I am not mistaken.

i have no idea...i just used the picture to illustrate the quality of the picture and infusion...i didnt take the picture...it is one of the samples on my software from fluke.

by the way this is a low severity problem...voltage differences are only between 26 and 32 degrees.

[Dave A]

I would never suspect that a coupling could get so hot and it is rubber if I am not mistaken.

What isn't shown in that picture is the temperature range used, so it might not be all that hot - just warmer than the ambient temperature.

[murdock]

i have no idea...i just used the picture to illustrate the quality of the picture and infusion...i didnt take the picture...it is one of the samples on my software from fluke.

by the way this is a low severity problem...temperature differences are only between 26 and 32 degrees.

"oops not voltage...temperature"