OT: The sound of exploding transformers

[Ginger]

Fifth of July Fireworks.

Way back when I lived on the farm, there was a transformer on the pole at the edge of the property surrounding the house. We had it placed as far away as possible. This turned out to be prudent because every three or four years lightning would strike the thing. It's a sound you don't really forget. Big electrical explosions...boom. Out go the lights.

Tonight was a lovely evening really, then a small storm front came thru with high winds and blew a transformer off a pole four houses down. Transformers on either side of my house did the whole surge thing, the one closest to the blown transformer throwing sparks. The tree behind the house has wires down in it and has little fireflies of flame in the top. Firefighters have all the fences taped off so no one zaps themselves. Power's been out several times, particularly when that second transformer sparks up.

Do the drill, unplug the big appliances and electronics. Find the flashlights (I love my Light and Motion Arc Lion...not just for night riding any more!) and the candles.

And as I sit here, now that I remember the sound, I can hear a few more transformers blowing up elsewhere in town.

Lovely evening.

At least it's summer!

[Brian Smith]

Transformer combustion, yow.
I have an indelible image in mind of a large transformer I once rode home near in the foggy morning that was arcing up a combustion plume the size of 4 Escalades while 2 linepersons watched from a semi-safe distance. Since moving back to New York, it is much more unusual to have an outage resulting from storms, and it seems like the transformers must be protected by good omens or good network design; they don't seem to get taken out so often.

So, are you on a laptop? At least there are candles!

[jbrainin]

Going to sleep last night, I saw a bright, nearby flash of lightning followed quickly by a sound that I knew meant nothing good, and which didn't mean anything good as all the electronics in the bedroom immediately went black. (Strange how used one becomes to all those led's that stay light in the night.)

I dragged myself out of bed, found a flashlight, retrieved my cell phone and called the power company to report the blown transformer. A truck arrived within an hour (before 2 am). It left and about an hour later a truck (the same one?) returned. Repeat once or twice more until sunrise.

After a feeble night of sleep, my alarm cell phone wakes me at 7 am and I find two trucks in front of the house. I leave at 8 am to go for a ride, still with no power, but with two trucks worth of guys working on the problem. I finish my ride and call home a bit after noon. My wife informs me that the power was finally restored a bit after 9 am.

Fun, ain't it?

[Ginger]

I have power...so do the houses to the east of me...Nah, I'm taking chances...I had to recover some files while I was thinking about it...

Wind has finally died down, the big arcing has is mostly gone, now we just have some flaming trees and electric fences...I keep hearing some anemic popping from the direction of the downed transformer...

We haven't had this sort of problem on this side of the street in over 12 years. Well...except for the "big blackout"
Old town, old electric. Rather than replace poles and whatnot they should just bite the bullet and put it all underground. (I know...and fund it how?)

We used to call the power out on the farm "sunshine service." Wasn't unusual to be out of power once or twice a year for five or six days in a row summer or winter. Ya got used to it. And winter didn't have the problem of what to do with everything in the freezer...

[RPS]

Rather than replace poles and whatnot they should just bite the bullet and put it all underground. (I know...and fund it how?)With what would have been your next bike?

[TimD]

http://205.243.100.155/frames/longarc.htm#Blowup

[Russell]

When the storm from Hurricane Isabelle came through a few years back I could hear the transformers blowing one by one down the street. No electricity for a week. Luckily it was in September so the weather wasn't so bad. Throughout the week the neighbors would get together and grill what ever was defrosting.

Still the sound of a transformer arcing and popping is a surreal sound.

[Tom]

Not five days after we bought our house - first house for both of us, as you might imagine we're scared, happy, all of those things - when I woke up on an otherwise calm July night wondering "What the hell are those cats doing now..." but then it got louder and louder and I looked out the back just in time to see a big blue flash as a large poplar gave up the ghost and came down taking out the power lines and a car parked in the driveway of the apartments behind us.

I called NiMo to report it. They seemed reluctant to come out but then asked "Are there lines on the ground?" By now people from the apartments are milling around back there, one lamented "I knew I should have parked in the garage tonight!"

I told the lady from NiMo "No, the wires aren't on the ground, but the wires are on Fred and Fred's on the ground. Does that count?"

Well, I didn't but I wanted to.

[davids]

I'm writing this from the camp in Maine. About an hour ago, I was getting ready to do some rowing in a 4-man scull. Then we heard some distant thunder - "Everyone out - The waterfront is closed for the next 30 minutes!" We made some jokes about it actually being a distant truck. About 10 minutes later, the sky clouded over, and a few raindrop fell. Then a few more. Suddenly thunder crashed nearby. In about three minutes, we'd cleared everyone from the beach, and I was accomanying a barefoot 12 year old girl up the swimpath through the woods, gently hurrying her as the thunder grew louder.

Soon, the rain came. I retreated to our cabin for some reading. A few minutes after I picked up my book, the skies opened. And then things got interesting. The wind picked up - The sound of it in the trees was like a whoosh of a jet. The skies darkened almost to black. And the rain pounded on the roof.

It let up as quickly as it started. The thunder is moving off to the east, and the rain is now a drizzle.

...I'm glad I went for a ride this morning!

[Ginger]

I'm writing this from the camp in Maine. About an hour ago, I was getting ready to do some rowing in a 4-man scull. Then we heard some distant thunder - "Everyone out - The waterfront is closed for the next 30 minutes!" We made some jokes about it actually being a distant truck. About 10 minutes later, the sky clouded over, and a few raindrop fell. Then a few more. Suddenly thunder crashed nearby. In about three minutes, we'd cleared everyone from the beach, and I was accomanying a barefoot 12 year old girl up the swimpath through the woods, gently hurrying her as the thunder grew louder.

Soon, the rain came. I retreated to our cabin for some reading. A few minutes after I picked up my book, the skies opened. And then things got interesting. The wind picked up - The sound of it in the trees was like a whoosh of a jet. The skies darkened almost to black. And the rain pounded on the roof.

It let up as quickly as it started. The thunder is moving off to the east, and the rain is now a drizzle.

...I'm glad I went for a ride this morning!

That sounds like the exact same front that came through Detroit...of course, we've decided that's how that works, right? Want me to call you next time? Give you a day notice? :)

[72gmc]

One sunny day in college, I was blinded by a bright flash during an outdoor basketball game. Turns out a seagull had landed on the transformer behind our house. Somehow it became a seagull-shaped conductor for that brief blazing moment. Big kaboom. Little feathery bits.

Seagulls are so common around here I didn't even feel bad for the unlucky flying poop machine.

[Ginger]

I rode home from work to a house without electricity. Evidently the booms I heard last night *were* other tranformers doing a domino effect thing that finally took down the entire section of the grid at around 10 this morning.

Roaming Edison information person said power back Sunday.
Edison information line said *maybe* Sunday night.
Edison worker dudes? First they said around 2...then they saw the mess in my neighbor's back yard...it became:
"Maybe late tonight, but tonight....11pm"
Power came back on at 9pm.

The circus just rolled out of the neighborhood...a good 10 if not more big service trucks/cherry pickers, etc.

Thanks guys!

[Korn Julio]

Oooooops. I opened this thread expecting to read about Optimus Prime and his Autobots doing battle against Megatron and his Decepticons. So sorry... :crap:

[davep]

Every time we get a tropical storm or hurricane we can sit on our front porch (depending on wind direction) and listen to the transformers in the neighborhood explode. If its dark, they also make a blue glow that is pretty spectacular.

[RPS]

This thread reminded me of an incident that occurred a long time ago when I worked at a chemical plant right out of school; which played a major role in convincing me to seek employment in a safer industry.

One day a minor process malfunction started a chain of events that ended up with the main electrical feed to the plant (direct from a nearby power plant at a very high voltage) grounding by arcing over 200 feet across the sky to the top of a distillation tower.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the sudden loss of electrical power to the entire facility forced an instantaneous emergency shut down which included the purging of reactors by use of very high pressure nitrogen gas; creating a noise that registered at over 130 dB inside a distant maintenance shop.

During the deafening reactor purging, the power company reapplied juice to the main feed a few times, resulting in more overhead arcing across much of the facility. Fortunately the only injuries were relatively minor; all related to operators trying to escape to safety thinking the plant was about to blow (and they weren’t far from right).