Originally posted by Tom:
Distilled de-ionized water is what is used. On the West coast, fog moving in from the ocean will deposit a layer of salt on the insulators. When I lived on the central coast, at night I could usually see, and hear, some arcing on the insulators. PG&E usually used a large tanker truck & washed them from ground level, no PPE involved.
I'm not going to dig out my old chemistry books, but for water to be acidic or basic, wouldn't it have to have something in it that isn't water?
[This message has been edited by Tom (edited 09-02-2001).]
You should dig out the old chemistry book to make a blanket statement that water doesnt conduct elecctricity, is rediculous. AS I said if the ph is at 7 it will not conduct, going to either side of the neutral point causes it to conduct. Yes of course it would have to have something else in it, minerals appear quite naturally in nature aka hard water, or sulphur smelling water which we have a lot here in Ohio, acidic, tap water will conduct too. Even distilled water left out will become contaminated. As far as washing insulators I have never heard of it but we dont have rolling blackouts either.
