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#144131 10/07/05 03:35 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
We turned out to a fire call this afternoon.
The call came through as a House fire.
When we got there there was nothing showing, as in no smoke or flames.
Upon walking in through the front door you could smell it.
What is it?.
Ozone.
It really gets up your nose.
Turn off the power to the place.
Go to the switch-board, point the fire extinguisher at it and open it, fill it with CO2.
Then tighten the Neutrals.
Good thing this happened in the daytime.
Electricians that can't tighten a simple screw, need to find another career.
This really peeves me, such a simple thing can cause so many problems.

#144132 10/07/05 07:13 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
Ah..... Ozone! [Linked Image]

I smell it more out of the back of TV sets when the EHT has been arcing at the CRT connector or the LOPT. In a darkened room you can see the lovely blue-ish corona discharge too.

The smell also hangs around in parts of the London Underground, particularly on sections where sparking at the conductor rail is prevalent due to the track layout. Always takes me back to riding the trains as a kid! [Linked Image]

#144133 10/09/05 03:31 PM
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
Member
Smells I like;
Bacon frying on a Sunday morning as I'm in the shower; Curry, (in fact all spices); Woodsmoke; The seaside (seaweed); Fresh cotton sheets; Cedarwood.
I'm not so keen on;
French BO (phew!); cheap perfume; anmmonia; cabbage cooking; dung-spreading time; Testosterone-stench at the gym, and (ugghhh!) figs!.

Alan


Wood work but can't!
#144134 10/15/05 12:47 AM
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 806
Member
Nothing like the smell of overheated electrics to give one a start.

Some years back, I visited a client in the Sunset-Vine Tower in Hollywood. Upon boarding the elevator, the smell of hot switchgear just about knocked me out.

A few years later, the building suffered total power loss as the switchgear let go and set thier main transformer on fire. After attempting a patch-bodge job on the switchgear and replacing the transformer, they powered it up again. Result? Another transformer explosion, this time taking out two square blocks of other customers.

The place was abandoned for several years until the entire electrical system was replaced.

I almost felt sorry for the poor fools who had to clean out the refrigerators and freezers of the restaurant on the top floor (After sitting with no power for almost a year!)


Stupid should be painful.
#144135 10/15/05 06:55 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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Quote
I almost felt sorry for the poor fools who had to clean out the refrigerators and freezers of the restaurant on the top floor (After sitting with no power for almost a year!)

Ugh! [Linked Image]

#144136 10/15/05 07:27 PM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
As a Fire-fighter, my nose has become attuned to the smell of different things burning.
I can instantly recognise the substance down to a tee.
Alan,
I must say that Cedarwood is one of my favourite smells!.
Bacon cooking is pretty much up there too!. [Linked Image]

#144137 12/23/05 04:25 AM
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 869
Likes: 4
R
Member
Smell of burning underground cables.

I do a lot of fault finding on LV and HV cables, when the crews dig up the fault then the "aroma" of hot pvc, copper, and xlpe etc. tells you JACKPOT and a succesfull fault location.


The product of rotation, excitation and flux produces electricty.
#144138 12/23/05 02:32 PM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Yeah,
I agree Ray, I've been part of cable fault locations in the past and it's amazing how much heat can be produced.
The Maori part of me would tell me that having all that heat in the ground, in the one spot, would suggest it's time for a Hangi!. [Linked Image]

{BTW, a hangi is a in-ground oven, heated with pre-heated rocks}




[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 12-23-2005).]

#144139 12/29/05 05:14 PM
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 141
B
Member
> Electricians that can't tighten a simple
> screw, need to find another career

Don't be so quick to blame the electrician. The electricity itself can cause terminals to come loose. It's common practice with factories and high-rise building to shut everything down once a year so that all the electrical connections can be checked and tightened.
Also here years ago it was thought to be good practice to solder a wire before putting it in a screw terminal. It was a while before someone finally realized that the solder slowly deforms away from under the screw so it is actually a good way of ensuring that you eventually end up with a bad connection. I've fixed a number of these bad connections caused by electricians who believed at the time that they were doing the right thing.
Another problem is the type of terminals now used on most circuit breakers. If you accidently stick the wire in behind the terminal it will feel like the terminal is tight and the wire secure but a day or 2 later you will have a loose connection. It's very easy to accidently do when you don't have a good view of the terminal.

#144140 12/30/05 11:54 AM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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Quote
Also here years ago it was thought to be good practice to solder a wire before putting it in a screw terminal.

I was at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago and he had one of the home shopping channels on, which at the time was plugging a "household DIY kit." (Isn't it amazing how these stations can spend an entire hour praising a simple piece of equipment? "Here we have a small screwdriver, which you will find very useful around the house for tightening small screws. There's also a larger screwdriver which you might need for, er, larger screws..... [Linked Image] )

Anyway, this particvular kit included a small rechargeable soldering iron. One of the suggested uses was to use it to tin the wires before tightening into the terminals of a 13A plug -- "To get that professional look."


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 12-30-2005).]

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