Saved a House Quite Luckily!

Finding the right breaker isn't hard. Just flip one, go up and hold the wire; flip the next one, go up and hold the wire; . . . and repeat until successful.

Could've just shorted the wire. That would've popped the right breaker. Hopefully. With the main breaker turned off, the pipes might freeze.

Felix

Mehdi, do you find shorts or do they find you? I'm starting to wonder. Thanks for the demo. It was specially effective seeing arcing right on the face of the lumber - perfect display of trouble.

Craig Larson

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean he should short it out the way he usually shorts things out on the channel. Trip the main breaker, dig some of that cable out, actually wire it properly into something which shorts it with good contact and good insulation, then reset the main breaker.

Benjamin Tayehanpour

Incredible! Great instincts!

Good catch, and good call on killing the power. If it wasn't for the water it may not have been noticed until it was to late. I'm just surprised it wasn't noticed by a big pop and bright flash when it got cut. People really need to pay attention.

You could but its dangerous. Not knowing what size of breaker feeds that line. Could be up to 20 apms if it is for lights and/or outlets. Doing so could not only blind you but it you were to grab it where the insulation is cracked or broken it could kill you. If you did it successfully it has a high probability of disintegrating the wire at contact as an explosion, sending copper particles and chunks in every direction including your face. Such an arch flash could produce heat higher then the temperature of the sun. So could you? Yes. Is it safe or recommended? Absolutely not.

*Sparky here* If there were an RCD (earth leakage device as they say) it would have tripped and stayed off. But may be a house fire scenario. If the arcs are less amps than the breaker then she'll burn for days m8 until the copper gets charred enough to create resistance, in my experience. It's only when there's a load that the arcs will become more aggressive trying to get through the circuit.

Couldn't you just short it out completely and see which breaker trips?

Benjamin Tayehanpour

Cheese'n'rice-whose house is this?

Jason Hoffman

🎼 Like a good neighbor Mehdi was there.... 🎶

This reminds me of a situation in my parents' house. One (late) night, a circuit breaker tripped, apparently for no good reason. When I went to the fuse box and reactivated the breaker, I heard something arcing. Long story short, the previous owners of the house had wanted to install a lamp next to the front door, and they had the ingenious idea to simply take a very long drill bit and drill through the entire wall. This wall also happened to include the drain (lead pipe) of a toilet on the first floor. I still don't quite understand what they had been thinking, but their eventual solution was to route the cable for the lamp *through* the pipe and patch the whole thing with duct tape or something. Eventually this tape leaked and yes indeed, each time someone flushed, a tiny bit of ‘juice’ trickled down the wire which eventually lead to the breaker box. I had to make some holes to drain all the sh*t out of the tube containing the wire, and then let it dry until the arcing stopped. This took me until about 2 after midnight, good times. I suspect this was also the reason why a few months earlier, I witnessed a lamp pulsate regularly despite the fact that its breaker was open. It seems the ‘juice’ with all the electrolytes in it had somehow created an oscillating AC circuit. It was as if the thing was haunted.

Alexander Thomas

Well, if it doesn't burn down we will move I to it when it is renovated!

ElectroBOOM [Mehdi Sadaghdar]

I'm not sure which breaker fed into it. But it seems since it wasn't a dead short, it stayed below the level and intermittent, but still pretty high to arc

ElectroBOOM [Mehdi Sadaghdar]

Why didn't the fuse blow? Is there no calculations and measurement to make sure the electrical installation is safe, a C 16A circuit breaker needs at worst case 160A to trip immediately, so we measure (or calculate) at the end of the circuit that we have at least 160A short circuit current to make the circuit breaker trip, if the cable is too long or too thin, we must use a faster or/and smaller rating circuit breaker

Thomas Eriksen

YIKES!!

Up to NEC standards!

What is that place? How'd you stumble across it? lol

PseudsPie

This remings me of a friend of mine who moved into a... well, lets say, rather inpropperly built flat. the guy doing the renovation must have missed a seal for the toilet plumbing since as he flushed the toilet his neighbor came running upstairs telling him to stop whatever he is doing, it is raining stinking water from her living room lamp straight onto her sofa.

Ysjoelfir

hmmm 2 thoughts ...this is your new studio ...and has your spirit already (to blow things up) second ...when is water dripping from a wall plug (or in your case ceiling light) ...you call for electrician or plumber?

A kingdom for an AFDD

Jens Keller

you forgot to accidentally touch the live wire

kuraz

I wonder how long it was like that? Does anyone know if this is a common house fire scenario? Or would this have just sparked and smoked for days, unlikely causing any damage?

Vegasguy

The new EletroBOOM studio is getting a head start.

Not All Heroes Wear Capes :)

The important thing is that nobody got hurt!

Vegasguy

"A house" is a bit vague, but cool that you spottet it, though the question of why you were in the house is one i am curious about. If you can reveal anything that is.

Martin Nielsen

Wow! Is that your house? What a lucky time to walk in! Insurance would have found a way to deny coverage... The contractor should have... Or find an obscure clause that makes them not culpable for the damage.

Vegasguy

Leave a note:)

1st!