wheshew disaster averted...

[watson_barrett]

1000, carry 30gallons of water up stairs for tri-weekly water change.

 

1015, begin draining tank.

 

1016, loose ALL power to entire house....What What What, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

1017, stop draining tank, go to breaker, nothing tripped. very confused...so I flip the main breaker from on to off and back to on BOOOM!!! What I think I just p!ssed myself, nope i'm dry. ok more confused...

 

1020, call SMECO

 

1100, SMECO arrives and says my power is fine and that my main breaker must be bad

 

1200, electrician arrives (after making 100 frantic calls)

 

1210, open box, wires and breakers covered in water...hmmm have you had a flod lately, NOPE....wait a minute, i was draining water from my tank when the power went out...

 

turns out the main power wire running into house was just in a piece of PVC piping and wasn't properly filled, so water ran right from drain hose down the main breaker line and into my box....(this was the first time i drain water on this side of my house)

 

so we dry the box real good....

 

130, power restored, whew.....that was a close one.....

[lanman]

OMG! What kept it from killing itself every time it rains hard? And how did you manage to get lucky enough to drain your water RIGHT into that pipe??

 

bob

[Coral Hind]

Yeah that "boom" is always an adrenaline rush. What did you finally seal the conduit with?

[davelin315]

Wow, be careful of those wires - if the saltwater got into them, which obviously it did, then they could corrode and become a fire hazard. Trust me, saltwater and electrical wires don't mix well...

[watson_barrett]

no water IN the wires but everything was wet...a good wipe down and everything was good, electrician said it is nothing to worry about unless there was a problem in the next few hours after it was back on...

 

Well the pipe is about 2 feet off the ground so it would have to be a major rain/flood for it to be an issue; however, if someone was out squirting a hose right at it, obviously that would be a problem.

 

I am planning on picking up some of that expanding foam insulation stuff to fill the holes next time i swing by lowes or HD. That should do the trick...

[Vader]

You really should have that service replaced. Even when dry, if it were megger tested, it would show up bad. Last year, my building had a flood in the main switch gear room and a 1200amp service got wet. Even when it was dry, it was showing up bad.

 

Good luck

[watson_barrett]

I will certainly have the licensed electrician look into it when he comes to wire up my new breakers for my new set-up...

[Vader]

I will certainly have the licensed electrician look into it when he comes to wire up my new breakers for my new set-up...

 

10-4, I would just hate to see something go really bad because something was over looked.

[zobey]

A few years back I had a similar problem. the electrical conduit that runs from my house up tpo my pool for the electrical service for the pump somehow was cracked underground and allowed water to seep in. the water made it all the way to the breaker box. many of the breakers eventually began to corrode and we replaced the entire box. it was costly, but nothing compared to the fire hazard that was just a ticking time bomb. I suggest that you have someone look at this immediately and also think a bit more about how you are going to fill that conduit with foam. the foam will NOT stop water intrusion - it simply soaks up water like a sponge. my advice - replace it all asap! A lot less expensive and less dangerous than the potential fire that could occur.