# Ever been shocked standing in snow?



## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

Sometimes I have to work on hot stuff, as you guys know. Recently I've been doing a lot of car plugs because bobcat drivers hit them. Today, I had to work on 1 that was hot. Of the 4, one was hot.

I found the hot, put a wire nut (marette) whatever you call them and that's done, but I was worried about the wires having nicks in them from being hit.

Needless to say, I was careful.

I wasn't standing in a puddle of water, but in a way, a bunch of snow IS a puddle of water. Is that right? Or being a purer form of water, where ions and such can't freely move, is snow an insulator?


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## den (Mar 28, 2009)

Clean, dry snow can be an insuator. I have seen many 7200 volt lines that were down laying on snow hot. Also have seen them burn thru and arc for a while before tripping ocp device. Flip a quarter if you want to grab a hot wire while on snow


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## sparky105 (Sep 29, 2009)

only while welding not doing electrical work


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## SparkYZ (Jan 20, 2010)

Pure water is also an insulator. Snow generally is pure, as it evaporates into the atmosphere and condenses and falls back down, it is filtered. 

It's all the foreign materials and minerals in water that make it conductive. One of the water pump stations we work on (well, only my dad now) would have problems with their tank level indicators when they would get a lot of snow melt in the reservoirs.


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## ethaninmotion (Sep 28, 2010)

I grabbed our horses electrical fence once when I was 10 or so does that count?


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## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

I was just wondering because I felt "extra" nervous in the snow. I guess I don't really need to be extra nervous, just nervous.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

SparkYZ said:


> Pure water is also an insulator. Snow generally is pure, as it evaporates into the atmosphere and condenses and falls back down, it is filtered.
> 
> It's all the foreign materials and minerals in water that make it conductive. One of the water pump stations we work on (well, only my dad now) would have problems with their tank level indicators when they would get a lot of snow melt in the reservoirs.


Are the level indicators those capacitive probe types or whatever?

You should try to sell them a pressure transducer setup :thumbup: Those work pretty slick and don't depend on foreign materials dissolved in the water.


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