~e; Fwd: Electrical Wire Safety

[brian carroll <human@electronetwork.org>]

  forwarded with permission:

> From: fred bucheit <fbucheit (at) HOTMAIL.COM>
> Date: Thu Mar 11, 2004  6:44:21 PM US/Central
> To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> Subject: Re: Electrical Wire Safety
> Reply-To: Forum for Physics Educators <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
>
>       The voltage in the power grid is likely to vary with time 
> because the
> load on the system varies and the power company can't anticipate it. 
> But, I
> wonder if they sometimes boost the voltage a bit just to sell more 
> energy. A
> few volts can probably mean millions of dollars of increased income.
>      It is interesting to note that the power companies decided long 
> ago to
> make the system a grounded system. That is equivalent to making the 
> entire
> earth one pole of the generator. (they run a wire from one pole deep 
> into
> the earth). If they had not done that, thousands of lives would have 
> been
> saved over the years. If they had not done that, you could stand on the
> ground and reach up with an aluminum ladder or a metal pipe or even a 
> damp
> kite string and touch the high voltage lines and you would not get an
> electrical shock.
>     They put isolation transformers on pool lights for safety. If they 
> did
> away with the grounded system, it would be the same as providing our 
> power
> with an isolation transformer....and many lives would be saved.
>
> Fred Bucheit    retired...

  the electromagnetic internetwork-list
  electromagnetism / infrastructure / civilization
  archives.openflows.org/electronetwork-l
  http://www.electronetwork.org/list/