A closer look at Padmount Transformers
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2022
- Hey Everyone!
⚠️ First off... This stuff is absolutely not to be touched by anyone other then a representative from your power company whom is both trained and authorized to do so.
** These video's are NOT intended for training or D.I.Y. Only properly trained and authorized personal are allowed to work on this equipment. Always adhere to work methods and procedures particular to the company you are working for. **
These things come in many shapes and sizes! I did manage to find an old clip showing how to remove the high voltage fuse and will be sure to make a video in the future showing how to actually change the fuse link.
Be safe Everyone. Cheers! 🥂
Don't forget to drop a 👊 along with where you're watching
➡ / bobsdecline
#Bobsdecline, #Beingalineman, #Lineman
⚠️ First off... This stuff is absolutely not to be touched by anyone other then a representative from your power company whom is both trained and authorized to do so.
I filmed this one last year and never got around to doing any editing with it. I've since captured a clip while I was removing the fuse cartridge to do work on the secondary bushings but didn't show how to change the actual fuse link. I'll be sure to post a vid changing the fuse link in the near future!
Cheers all!
Only line men can open the mmmmm doors
@@hughsgarbagetrucks Some idiots will force their way in.
You should maybe pin this comment atleast for the safety info in the first paragraph.
Thanks for the reminder Doug! I had intended to do that when initially posted 👊👊
@@Bobsdecline it's Dev actually not Doug. No problem, glad I could help
As an EE that sits at a desk and drinks coffee, I have mad respect for people that do this work.
Interesting because as a former electrician, they hate yall. Desk jockeys that know what they were taught in school but don't know crap about the real world. Just in case you ever wondered
@@Splizacular The only reason this stuff exists in the real world (and you have a career) is because of "desk jockeys" like him. He's showing you respect so how about you do the same instead of being an insecure asshole.
@@Splizacular we dont hate them just think some of them are ghey, so i rip on my best friend for being an EE and he calls me a hammer swinging knuckle dragger, its great
@@Splizacular I worked in commercial construction as an electrician and we didn't hate them. But we cussed'em a lot.
Excellent explanation of what's inside the humming green box.
A few things that should also be mentioned: Never place bushes, trees or anything closer than 6 feet from the doors and 3 feet from any side. Crews need the space to work safely. Do not ever paint or attach anything to a padmount. Do not attempt to drill into or cut open a padmont. Do not cover a padmount with dirt or anything else. Instruct you kids not to play on or near any power equipment. (Padmounts can run hot and failures, while extremely rare, can happen.) Also, call the power company immediately and give the location and equipment numbers if any padmount is leaking, making loud noises, smoking or is damaged or shifted on the pad. NEVER approach any padmount or other equipment that is leaking, making loud noises, smoking or damaged. Stay at least 30 feet or more from it.
True story: Was working with one of four electrical contractors on a commercial service upgrade (800 to 2000 amp services.) A competitor had finished well before us, and was having the service energized by the power company.
They had screwed up the secondary wiring creating a dead short on the brand new transformer (which did not have internal fuses like the one in this video.) The power company closed in all three cutouts in rapid succession, and that padmount literally blew apart in a matter of seconds. Total damages were in excess of a million dollars.
I remember walking past the padmount in my parents back yard every day to hop on the school bus. I also mowed the grass around it. When there was service, I saw it opened. One end was the 10kV side with removable high voltage fuses that could be used to isolate the next transformer east/west/south, the other end of the box was the 400V side powering the neighborhood with much smaller isolation distances and heavy gauge cables to the various roads. It is on my parents lot because the house was electrically heated, thus being on a contract which allowed the power company to do that without leasing or buying the 100+ ft² of land for pad and access. In recent years, it was replaced with a new model that I never saw inside, probably because it was over 30 years old. I did however see some of the underground cables which were similar gauge on both sides, probably to allow energy passing through on the high side.
Despite all those observations, I never saw them use side access for cover operating with hot sticks. Until seeing the fuse clip in this video, I always associated hot sticks with work on the 132kV and higher long distance overhead lines.
I know a guy who is banned from our property. He had a 3 phase 120/208 wye padmount failure job so just had to do an in and out. Replace the padmount. We’ll he did but he never read the name plate on the new unit. When the apprentice close in first cut out he heard popping and buzzing noises coming from the building. So he stopped. And the foreman said shut them all in it’s getting late. Long story short the installed a 277/480 padmount and sent 277/480 into a building that only needed 120/208. I’m sure that was a big bill for the company. People are idiots. Read your name plates on existing and new pots, take rotation of an existing rotation is known or find a piece of equipment that can be checked before fully sending to entire building. On a padmount I’ll leave secondary leads off then energize the unit check my rotation and voltages on the ferrils. De energize and make my connections then send it. Same on an overhead pot. Never assume that someone in the factory or the shop did their job right. As a lineman I am the last stop before sending the power into the building. So it’s up to me to verify and be certain that I am sending proper voltage and rotation into a customer. That’s why we get paid the big bucks. Any idiot can plug wires into bushings, it’s know why and how to do it properly and assuring no damages to the customers property and me and my men go home safe. Bottom fucking line
@@linehandibew6205 Why do you misspell the letter Y that visually describes the wiring of a star configuration transformer?
@@johndododoe1411 because there called wye transformers or a wye delta… do some research, everything will come up as “wye”
@@johndododoe1411 because that’s how it’s actually written out lol. Guess you know nothing about transformer theory? Search transformer connections. Wye/wye wye/delta. It’s actually the proper terminology. Get educated on the terminology before you make criticisms on something you don’t know about bud
Had one of these behind a shop I worked at. One day we noticed there was oil leaking out of it. We called our power company, trying to explain what we were talking about. It took four calls before someone understood what we were saying. Next thing you know, we have FPL, Florida Power and Light, a couple EPA guys asking how it sprung a leak. At least the guys thanked us for letting them know about the leak.
"It took four calls before someone understood what we were saying." That right there is a serious issue. What if that was a downed wire on a car? Or someone being shocked by a downed line? Or that padmount smoking or arcing?
Too many power companies fail miserably in training thier customer service operators in basic terminology on the very service the company provides. This not only wastes manhours but can be an issue that causes loss of lives or property.
You might want to call FPL again, speak to a customer service manager, and refer them to this video and comment thread. It could end up saving someones life or property.
heh, I remember walking somewhere in the city and seeing water come up... I walked over and saw a little cap from city heating. Saw a cop coming by and told that cop that a city heating pipe was leaking there. 2 days later I saw there a whole dig site to solve it. ( such leaking can cause sinkholes, large issues etc)
@@DataStorm1 It's an extremely common problem with almost every customer service department that has gone woke and feels that a person's skin color/whatever mental disorder, rather than their funtionality, is most important in hiring them.
I once called a place only to get run around by such a dimwit that she finally said to call the 800 number online and ask them my questions.
I said, "I did".
She asked what they said and I replied, "You are who picked up the phone and this is that conversation right now.".
@@tcmtech7515 lol, ouch.
The EPA was called out because some of the older transformers contained oil that contained PCB's, which have now been banned because it was found to cause cancer.
As an electrical engineer, this is one thing I would not do. Work on lines. They may not have a PhD, but they know their stuff. Key to staying alive and keeping our world working.
Those are real men doing that work.
most hazardous job in the nation. we lost a brother in my local a few months ago, and one got blown up underground. this happens in our trade. even with 3 layers of fr clothing and arc shield, guy down in the vault still required cadaver burn grafts. ive had guys with engineering degrees get sick of the office and try to hack it in our field that just couldn't make it. it often requires a different type of spatial intelligence that simply cannot be taught
My sister in law is an electrical engineer working on transmission systems. My natural curiosity leads me to ask her a bunch of questions that she doesn't know the answer to. It's cool seeing how much respect she has for the lineman in her company.
How subtle lol. Just had to say they may not have a PhD.... condescending m0r0n.
Degree is meaningless compared to hands on experience these guys have, I guarantee you they have more knowledge than 90% of all electrical engineer PHD or Bachelors holders.
The biggest "is everything in life a lie?" moment Ive ever had was when a linesman came out to work on a transformer that was for a pretty small service. It looked like one of the normal 2-3 foot tall residential type green-box pad mount transformers. He opens the door on it and im looking on from a distance, because why wouldnt I be, not something you see every day. And behind the door when it opened was a small pole-mount transformer sitting in the box. HV running up to the single HV bushing, LV on the sides, like a normal pole-mount transformer install, just with a protective box over it. Not what I was expecting to see.
We used to have those, they definitely aren't ideal. As far as I know, all of them have been replaced in our province. I still see them sometimes on private owned systems. If my memory serves me correctly, we call them transclosures
City of Fort Collins Colorado still has lots of those on their system, really the only thing that needs to be changed is the high side bushing to accept an underground elbow. I know they had a major problem with them burning up in the summer time because they are intended to be hung off a pole and get air cooling, doesn't work as well inside a box or in a vault.
Live front
@@motarted1735 you can actually take a termination for a riser to the HV bushings. So there's no real need to modify the Bushings.
Always wondered what was inside one of these, of course I knew better than to go look inside! There is another youtube video online of a crew working in a rural community working on a smaller padmount transformer. It was deeply disturbing to watch them work with no rubber insulated gloves nor any safety glasses. Your professionalism and attention to safety is very evident in all of your videos, thank you for posting.
When I was a kid in the States, the cartoon character line man was named Ready Kilowatt. I'm not sure if I remember what he looked like -- that was over 65 years ago -- but I believe his message was safety around electrical sockets, fuse boxes, lines, transformers, etc. In my area, the linemen do a great job in every kind of weather. Thank you all for keeping us powered up.
I think that logo was owned by NSP, now part of Xcel energy
In Ontario we have Zap! the safety bird. He is not used anymore except on the warning labels for these green boxes. His depiction is so crude and he is so long forgotten that often people have no idea what he is supposed to be. I encourage you to look up pictures of him because words can't describe how poorly drawn he is.
@@michaelc.3812 Not sure if Ready Kilowatt had copyright or not, but it was used where I grew in metro New York, and by Philadelphia Electric Company when I started with them in 80's.
Starting in the 1980s they had Louie the Lightning bug as a Public Service Announcement in the United States and Canada aimed at children animated by Bob Kurz and voiced by Jack Sheldon. Ready Kilowatt was just a local one to a specific company, where Louie was nationwide in both USA and Canada.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddy_Kilowatt
Great video! I've been a lineman in the midwest US for 30 years and this gentleman has been well trained and informed. Hopefully the public can learn from videos like this.
I used to work for a gas& electric utility. The company management was pretty self confident and did things the way they wanted, except with things that affected linemen. The linemen they feared, because if they pissed them off, there were going to be real consequences that the company management wasn't going to be able to fic until the linemen said they were fixed.
That represented not only their critical skills, but their solidarity, where an injury to one was understood to be an injury to all.
Wow, I've never seen one of these without a barrier between the primary and secondary compartments. The ones my company uses, even the old live front ones, all have a steel separator between the doors.
that's why it's called a widowmaker
Our live fronts all have barriers, as well as a barrier between the the cable and the doors
This one on the video is a CSA unit (canadian standard), no barriers between compartments. Padmount transformers designs in the US (IEEE/ANSI standards) do require the barrier between compartments.
Keep up the good work .As a master electrician I appreciate what the linesmen do !Dangerous and heavy work .You have my respect and gratitude !
My step uncle was a lineman in Virginia for decades. Thanks for the work you do!
Mine was a lineman too. In Kansas. Wichita, specifically. He drove the main road.
Looks the same as the ones I've installed as an electrician here in Maine. Other than we use Black, Red, Blue for 120Y208 and don't use 347Y600. We only go up to 277Y480, unless it's for very large industries where 4160 is fed to some equipment.
😲 The only things I thought I knew about the “green boxes” were that they hurt my shins when I accidentally trip over them and that they change the voltage for different load. But, even if I were tempted to ever get into one, I now understand that I have no idea how technical and complicated they are inside. I had no idea they had oil in them. I love the insight into the complexity of tapping into an underground line. I expect that that translates into the cost of tapping into power for new construction, which means that opening a new business or building a new home gets more expensive.
Fun fact, Africans in Africa steal the oil and cook with it
I was doing some work at a JEA facility in Jacksonville FL. All my employees and myself had to take a 2 day training class. At the end of the 2nd day they took us outside to show us why the rules must be followed at all times. We stood where we were told and a horn blew. Then 4 big aluminum arms started to rotate towards some gray boxes that were about 15ft tall. As the rods moved from right to left electricity streamed out then stopped. Then when the arms got about 75° away from the boxes on the left we heard and felt 2 loud bangs. Then the electricity was dancing all over between the rods and boxes.
It was amazing and a little scary I must admit.
Jacksonville represent! The workers for JEA are top notch!
@@JHolderman0 I can agree. I own a small business that does contract work for Power companies all over the south east. JEA is impressive in every aspect. The culture of JEA employees is the same all over north FL. Somehow they have achieved a high level of professionalism and keep a welcoming atmosphere.
It was asinine that they would purposely short out their equipment like that. That demonstration probably cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars! If they really need to demonstrate that, do it once, record it onto video and use the video to train new employees.
@@mharris5047 they probably weren't shorting it out, but turning it off. The arcs will dance for a while as the air switch operates. Lots of cool vids on it.
Huge respect for professional electrical industry personnel at any level. in 28+ years as a LEO I saw the results of a few electrocutions by people NOT trained and doing improper pirating of electric power. Terrible, Horrible.
Many years ago, a friend of mine reached inside on of these transformers, except this one was almost 3 times as large and it was to distribute the power in a park with a baseball fields with large lights, tennis courts, basketball courts etc, .... how? well, in those days for some reason, this particular transformer had a viewing window (smalll oval, but, nonetheless a glass oval). Someone had broken the glass and my friend reached inside....
I had left him about 5 minutes previously to go home. I heard an explosion, I ran out of the house and looked in the direction and saw my friend on the ground. I ran to him and he was burned, bleeding and disoriented, his sneakers off his feet. I was petrified and did not dare to touch him for fear of being electrocuted myself. I ran to his house told his mother and from there, EMS showed. I visited him in the hospital and his right arm was extended and bandaged....he did not seem too coherent. He survived, but was not the same kid again. A steel plate was welded on afterwards on to the transformer.
whât yôuř frênd wãs rêĕchinğ fõr
@@MeaHeaR
Maybe to open the door from inside? Like on a car door? Maybe?
@@uploadJ yes true 👍 I never thought of that thanxx
@@MeaHeaR The afterlife apparently
@Version 33 Typical Internet fake bullshit.
I work at a company that builds tanks and various junction boxes and compartments for transformers.
It's fun that, although it is not a model I'm familiar with, I can finally see one completed with doors opened.
Very cool to see inside of one of those. Thank you for showing that. A lot of people don't understand that underground cable can be very vulnerable to lightning damage and is much more difficult to repair. University of Florida has a rocket triggered lightning testing ground that has proven how much damage can be done to underground. Thank you for the great video! Stay safe and God bless.
I've seen a bunch of firefighter or fire buff videos from places like NY, and seeing them responding to wires arcing underground or through manholes is crazy! The sights and sounds are insane!
This is really interesting, comparing your electrical distribution system to ours is quite intriguing! It's also really interesting that you don't have any switching equipment located with your transformers. In the UK its common for there to be a HV switch that is oil or gas(SF6) filled on every transformer (called a 'Ring Main Unit'). This switch incorporates an earth position to earth down the HV side of the load, and is actually three switches. The switches can generally be operated remotely, and also form an electrical distribution ring with an 'open' point, so that if a fault develops on a cable the open point can be moved to reconnect customers, and this all can be done remotely in a control room.
Same here in India. But don't think they are remotely connected.
same in western australia
In NA we generally avoid ring circuits at all costs, over the distances involved there is nearly certainly going to be a potential and/or phase angle difference between any two given branches even if they are all of the same gross voltage and even if they're all from the same substation transformer, simply due to the different lengths of wire.
@@44R0Ndin It's actually common in the US for Padmount transformers to have a high side switch that will isolate the pass-through connections from the windings. Maybe 70% of the ones I've worked on have had them. The three position ganged-switch, Andy, is present in a separate device that is usually located near the transformer it feeds, which are not always present(as shown in this video). In this case, the fused cut-outs can be pulled to open the circuit from source. But this does not ground the circuit that was opened.
Also, that interior is dirty. Annual cleaning will clear out those spider webs and dust from the semi-con material.
I would also much prefer pulling the loadbreak elbow rather than pulling the bay-o-net fuse on a live transformer. The LB elbow has an arc-interrupting prong that is designed to help extinguish any resultant arcs from breaks during load. The fuse does not.
Did you notice they used the British phase colours on the HV side?
Cool to see inside one of these. Had one in front of my house as a kid and we used to hang out on and around always climbing on it. As kids we used to just call it the voltage box since we didn't then fully understand wtf it was. All we knew it said "Danger high voltage" and made a buzzing noise.
I worked wind turbines and our fields were from the eighties and had all sorts of pad mount transformers. Most were live front and many had a bank of breakers for seperate smaller turbines mounted on right side. Twice a year we did service-cleaning, torquing etc. Yes, a snake across the phases blows the left door wide open! And a re-connect of a shorted gen by an unknown service guy can blow up a padmount in two seconds flat! True tales from the wind farm!
Without a doubt my new favorite channel. Lineman is one of the 3-4 jobs I wish I could have had for a few years but will never get to. Thanks for doing these vids.
Cool! I always wondered what was in those. I used to live in an apartment complex and the power would go out regularly because of the high winds. One day, they turned off the power for the entire day and I noticed that they built a block wall to block the winds from hitting the green box across the street. That was the last time the wind blew the power out.
As a substation p&c engineer my world is very contained within the fences. This channel and its content has been a great resource for my understanding of what is actually out there and how maintenence is done. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Whats the reason they keep you "contained within the fences" where you bad at one time?
@@Ivansgarage He is obviously the guy building the box that's inside the fence. That box is dangerous as explained in the video.
Electrician for 30 years and have always had great respect for the high voltage guys.
I was working a job at this retirement community in Fla, and there was a transformer about that big in a room, and that was the room we locked our tools in. One day I walked in there to get a tool and the thing smelled like a burned up blender. I took my tools and told everyone else to as well. When they came to look at it, they were amazed that it hadn't already blown up.
Thanks for this! I work for a major utility in the office doing system designs on paper, but don't always get the chance to see inside the equipment in the field. :-)
I like sitting on highly loaded peds enjoying a glass of tea. Pondering the sound of 132kv of eddy current.
appreciate all you lineman. Secondary side of that is my world but I love learning what yall work with.
Appreciate the walk thru as always, Aaron! Thank you, stay safe always. God bless brother.
Always something about Electricity that is interesting to learn.
One of my first thoughts when I was planning to leave School, was to become a Linesmen.
Unfortunately I just missed out on the entrance examine to be excepted.
350 people sat the examine over 3 days.
They wanted 10 successful applicants.
I was applicant No 11 ????
Close, but Not close enough.
Maybe it was never to be ??
Thanks for the video, looking forward to watching your channel. 👍
Louie the lightning bug, Smokey the Bear, Mr. Yuck... There were lots of great safety mascots from growing up, LOL.
I just realized that because my house is the closest to the main road that host's the main overhead lines it has an overhead feed from a pole mounted transformer. But all of my neighbors further down the shared driveway are underground/pad mounted feeds. Meanwhile the same situation is mirrored with the houses across the main road from me. I would think that in the case of the transformer being somehow faulty or whatnot it would not only be easier for crews to identify but also for them to repair being in the air, right on the mainline.
Super interesting, I've never actually seen in one of those boxes, I will say ours out here are about 1/3 the physical size of the one you showed. Come to think about it I've always wondered what is under those pads with the grates in them too, haven't seen in one of those either.
Super cool vid Man, Thank You! :)
Thank you for educating us. I have a deep respect for electricity, especially this big big equipment!
We always put lightning arrestors where there are just insulating caps on the pad mount. We have them on the pole as well... Knoxville Tn.
I worked for ABB for 10 years in their transmission department building step down transformers. I built so many pad mounts in those days...
Which of their many factories?
@@johndododoe1411 Australia 👍
I got the chance to see inside one of these once. I work at a place on a cul-de-sac. The power is under ground and we have a pad mount. A neighboring business was installing a security fence. They didn't call miss dig. Sure enough, they hit the power with the skid steer auger. There are switch boxes for every business, I believe. The local power Co was able to isolate the problem and feed the street from both directions to keep everyone with power. I was at work on a Saturday when they repaired the damaged cables and switched us back over. The pad mount was on the other side of the wall from me. When they switched it over our xformer growled like you can't believe. I drove down to where they were working and told them that I thought that they were single phasing us. They came down, opened up the xformer, and checked with their voltage stick. They said, "Yep, we are. We'll switch it back to the temporary connection and come back another day to fix it."
I work for Bonneville Power Administration (in the office). Tremendous respect for our linemen and what they do! There's a reason why they're the highest paid workers at BPA - they make more than the Administrator (our CEO)!
The insulation on the high side cables looks thinner than I would have expected.
Big props to using proper planning, procedures, and ppe! I'm a fan. And curious about this stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Nice video, specially when we in Scandinavia got another power system. We got 230Volt between Neutral and Phase, and 400Volt between phases. We also got digging all of our pole cables down to the earth due to thunder/outtakes, so its nice to see you still got those "over there"
a 347/600 volt system is actually quite rare in North America, I think only Canada uses it and even then parts of Canada use 277/480. But in both Canada and the US the 347/600 and 277/480 systems are only used in commercial and industrial installations. Residential systems use either 120/240 for split phase power or 120/208 systems for three phase power. Most Residential settings use the 120/240 split phase systems, but occasionally a farm house or more commonly, a large scale apartment block will have 120/208.
@@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818 depending on where you are, you can also get a 3phase 240V Delta, with a 120V tap. Very common in Chicago and the surrounding areas.
@@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818 347/600 volt is apparently used by textile mills in the Southern USA. I know that I purchased a small 1kVA step-down transformer on Ebay with a 600V primary and a 120/240V secondary from a US seller, so someone, somewhere in the USA did or does use 600V.
@@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818 Unless you are in NYC I am surprised that you have run into 208 volt electrical systems. From what I have heard the rest of the country has residential buildings on 240.
@@mharris5047 Most larger apartment blocks are supplied with 120/208 overall with individual units using two out of three phases. And yes occasionally a Farm will use three phase power, though it is actually quite common for farm irrigation systems to use an open delta 208 supply. Also depending on the Power Company, residential Three phase power can be requested.
The company I work for had “Lester the Lightbulb” growing up. Great video Aaron. Padmounts are a different animal but the one in this video was pretty straightforward delta/wye setup.
Funny story, after watching your video the other night, I got flagged down by a customer for part power at their factory. Primary tested good, turns out the had a blown fuse inside the padmount. I watched the troubleshooter open the fuses just as you explained. For the record, I’m in Substation Ops and the padmount is “outside the fence”. OHL works on padmounts.
As a kid, Owen County RECC had Reddy Kilowatt.
Back in the late 80's I helped build these things. Worked for Square D in Monroe, NC in the metal fabrication dept. Thanks for the video!
You can't pay me enough to do this, even though where I work, I have to deal with the unpredictability of the ocean. High voltage and amps are a completely different beast that I personally don't want to deal with. Big respect to you for doing this for a living.
Very informative video. It seems like power companies should do PSAs about what's inside those green boxes. I've heard of people doing stupid stuff around them or even on them. It's scary seeing those open connections in the box and if the companies showed what's inside, maybe people would stay away.
Probably plenty of would-be copper thieves have met their end across the terminals of one of these (in one way or another).
The buzz from the boxes make me avoid no different than when I hear a tree start buzzing. I just start skipping out.
The buzz the transformer reacting to the 60 Hz or 50 Hz electrical frequency (depending on the standard in your country). The core changes its magnetic field at 60 cycles per second, which causes it to vibrate relative to the steel cabinet.
I use to work making pad mount transformers at GE . I cleaned up the welders slag and shaped the tank with an air grinder
We used to call them "pimple chasers" as it was an entry level manufacturing job. I was one. We built large GE transformers in Pittsfield, Ma.
Thank you so much for this run down. I’m new to construction management and this helps me understand what the utility company is talking about.
You could have also mentioned that this particular transformer had a 3-phase connection configuration of Delta Primary(High Voltage Side) and Wye(Star) Secondary(Low Voltage Side). This information can be found on the Transformer Data Plate.
What determines using Delta or Wye on the primary vs secondary? It seems like the Delta / Wye is the most common configuration, I don't recall seeing many Delta / Delta or Wye / Wye transformers. I'm curious of what the advantage is.
This unit appears to be a GrdY (internally grounded Wye) primary. Not delta.
You can see the H0 decal beside ground bus bar.
@@joegutteridge4317 You are right, I stand corrected. Good eye!!
Cool! Been around these a few times as an electrician with the lineman. I actually was also with a lineman in a vault while live. it was really cool. I was wondering if you could do a video on a vault with a switch outside (gas filled one to surprise the arc) it’s pretty cool shit! Awesome video and thanks
Me too. I was usually standing there with a 2x4 to knock him loose if he got hung up (electrocuted!)
My first stop on your channel and I found your video very informative. It solved a lifetime curiosity I have had about those green boxes. A well articulated overview. 👍
The big park in my town has one of these green boxes situated right next to the pedestrian plaza between the baseball and soccer fields. It takes a 13.8kV distribution line and steps it down to several 120/240/480 volt drops for the field lighting systems and concession stands. That box has been sitting there for some 20-odd years with hundreds of people walking by it per week during summer games. It's amazing how close we can bring such high voltages to people, and do so safely.
Very cool! I remember Louie the Lightning bug from my youth in the mid to late 80s. I have always wondered what was inside those green containers. I always thought it was a bunch of various wires and fuses of different ratings.
If there is any kind of damage, would you recommend notifying police or power company that it belongs to first?
Thanks for video! 👊
Power company only. Police can't do anything without their assistance, and as equipment owners, they would be the victim in any formal police report.
The one time where contacting the police would be a good idea: if you need assistance with crowd control, to keep people away from the danger.
Louie looks much cooler than the bird thing we got in Ontario!
I would love to see more about replacement of the pad fuses. When fuses are changed, does the transformer need to re-pressurized or is the pressure a result of normal operation?
I get some more content on the fuses for sure! It would be more accurate to say the pressure is more a result of abnormal operation... While pressure is expected, it's a result of air expansion with heat and off gassing. Too much pressure may be an indication of a problem
Way back in the day I worked for a company that builds transformers. The pole mount units we charged with nitrogen, 5psi if I recall not much. I do not know if the pad mount units were also but I think they were.
@@Bobsdecline some transformers have a nitrogen blanket on top of the oil in the head space usually 0-5 psi.
Like to see. Copper bandits hit that one
Thank you, very informative. I teach a class on power distribution for wind farms. I often get questions about pad mount transformers. I'll share this video when I do.
Good friend of mine was electrocuted while at work, he was adding lines or doing maintenance on the transformer. He was dead for about 5 minutes luckily crew members where right there to give cpr and use a AED to bring him back. He was blind for the first few days and couldn’t remember anything for about 2 weeks. He has now since had skin graph surgery for his 3 degree burns. He’s a very very lucky man right now to be here. Very dangerous job and I appreciate the men and woman who work on power lines.
Makes me wonder what PhotonicInduction could do with one of these bad boys.
as an electrical engineer myself, I always shut people up at site or at client meetings because of how little they know. But whenever I work with a linesman on the high voltage side, I don't say a single word, not because I don't know less than them, it's simply because of respect. If a linesman says its gotta be done this way, I don't challenge that, I just stfu and do it his way. No questions asked !!!!
I have never watched the details of Transformer although it is around my house always. In my opinion, it is important to know about that because it is essential to our happy life. Hope you are always safe during work.
Quite interesting! Big electrical power has always been pretty spooky to me- thanks to pro's like you, we enjoy a comfortable life with electricity.
where i live, we have all the medium voltage in underground cables. But we also have the ability to energize the line from 2 ends, and disconnect in every substation, so we have the ability to work at one section of cable, while the rest of the line is energized. We also have a 3 phase 400/230 volt system, which enables smaller wire sizes. we only use 25, 50 or 63 amps main fuses. if we use a 25 Amp fuse for a house, at 400 volt, a 120 volt splitphase system requires over 100 amps.
I assume you mean 25A 400V 3 Phase? If that's the case, it is 17.3kVA. That's equivalent to 72A at 240V.
North America is really 240V: ruclips.net/video/jMmUoZh3Hq4/видео.html
@@matthewbeasley7765 On split phase, the equivalent of 3x25A on 3x230V is 2x75A on 2x115V. Which might round to 72A if that's their standard fuse size.
@@johndododoe1411 Do it again, but use 240/120V instead of 230/115V. The standard nominal voltage is 120V, not 115V in North America.
They really should put warning labels stating "Do not touch - not only will this kill you it will hurt the whole time you are dying"
for some odd reason people get entice when they see danger sign and they will break in, versus a green box.
This channel recently got recommended to me and it’s cool to see the stuff I deal with assembled.. I work with OG&E dealing with all the returns from the field.
I just found your channel it's great. I'm in the UK and systems are remarkably similar. We don't tend to have the 120 volt centre tap here, it's just 240 but still teaches me a lot.
I noticed there were different types of cables on the secondary side. Any chance you can talk through copper vs other conductors for your role?
@5:31 you can see the three incoming MV shielded cables on the left. In this case it looks like they are using the copper shield to directly bond to ground. In most cases they will spring on an AL braid onto the shield under the termination and bring that out to bond to ground. In both cases they have a drain line brought up to loop onto the semi-con of the Load-Break elbow bushing's dedicated drain line hole. It's hard to see on these because the tags hanging from the capacitive tap cover.
On the B side of the High side the bushing covers have AL or Copper drain lines grounded on the copper bus that runs horizontal on the middle bottom of the XFRM.
For the Secondary of the XFMR, they are using White, Red, Black and Blue to denote Neutral, and each phase.
You can also peek the X0 ground strap between X0 and X1 cables (white and red marked). Also another frame ground strap in the bottom right.
The bare coppers are your leads to a ground rod, or part of a bare copper ground grid or to UFER. This is the far bottom left. The insulated copper on the bottom right that is hard to see is brought out with the other low side conductors. It looks insulated, but could be the shadow.
Since you said that rodents getting into these pad mount transformers is common in the area you operate in, I'd like to mention an unusual but interesting fact that you probably already knew intuitively, but that your viewers may not have caught on to:
Roughly 10-20% of all power outages are caused by squirrels and other animals. However the good news is that unlike outages caused by something like storm damage or a vehicle taking out something important like a power pole, animal-induced outages are relatively simple to fix.
I'd personally like to see a video where you talk in more detail about the various ways you've encountered animals inducing power outages, as well as perhaps detailing the methods used to prevent them from causing such damage in the first place, because I'm sure you have plenty of material for such a video.
That's an excellent idea for a video! An great information to cover! Def gonna do that👊👊. I took a screen shot of this also and will cred the idea. 🍻 Cheers!
@@Bobsdecline Thanks so much, I'm sure there's more to it than I can think of on my own, since I'm just an auto mechanic.
EDIT:
Oh and I'm sure you already know this too, but rodents especially cause plenty of chaos in the engine bay of a vehicle too, simply because of their instinctual desire (and physical need) to gnaw on just about anything in order to keep their teeth trimmed back. Either Honda or Toyota even makes special electrical tape (pretty standard 600 volts rated stuff) with capsaicin in the plastic and adhesive in order to deter rodents from chewing on the wires, great thing is that it will work on any vehicle since other than the spicy chemical it's just ordinary electrical tape.
END EDIT
The closest thing I get to working with that kind of high voltage is the secondary side of the ignition coils on a gasoline engine, or the occasional hybrid vehicle.
So far I've never really had reason to actually get into the high-power electrical side of a hybrid vehicle, all I usually need to do to them is brakes, suspension, and oil changes and for that you don't really need to disconnect the battery pack or anything like that, but if/when I do I'm gonna do it right and wear the recommended PPE for it. Full EV's and plug-in hybrids are also getting more and more common, eventually I'm probably gonna have to start working on those too, but the same approach applies, I'm gonna protect myself appropriately to do the job the right way.
Oh I can tell you all about outages from suicidal squirrels. We have an average of 1-2 a year here because they love to climb on the pole pig in our backyard. For whatever reason the transformers on the spur that feeds the three block cul-de-sac I live on are fused so anytime a squirrel meets its maker the whole whole line trips out. Makes a lovely smell too and sometimes like last time a mess when it happens. Mentioned to the lineman last couple times that either fusing the pigs or putting squirrel guards on them might not be a bad idea but nothing has been done.
You'd think in the year 2022, we'd have figured out how to outsmart the squirrels by now... every time I hear that, it sounds like a lame excuse / cover up for "we don't do any preventative maintenance, only reactive maintenance after something broke - just blame it on a squirrel - people still buy that line"
@@gorak9000 What rodents lack in intelligence they more than make up for in determination. Hard metals and concrete are just about the only two things that can truly keep out a rodent, because they're literally able to (eventually) chew thru pretty much anything else, given enough time.
thankyou for the videos! its great to see this work. so safe but so dangerous! i love it!!!. (2nd year apprentice)
I wish I found this stuff a long time ago. Super helpful as an Aux operator
Hey Bob great video. I also live in the Maritimes! I have a quick question about your job if you don't mind.
I'm a 2nd year Electrical Apprentice in Nova Scotia with mainly Residential experience. I find careers like yours fascinating and was wondering how would you recommend transitioning into a field like yours?
Did you start as a Lineman first?
Thanks!
Always looking for new people in this field of work. Check Eaton, Siemens, ABB or Schneider websites, for jobs. All training and security stuff is included.
Nice peek inside for those that have never seen inside a padmount before. You should do some padmout switches if you can too to show people as well. Interesting, is that normal for your system to have the LV side Red/Black/Blue? I'm used to Black/Red/Blue here in the US. For the HV side I've seen mostly Red/White/Blue (yeah, yeah... colors of the US flag, makes it easy to remember, for 'Mericans anyway) . Been doing a lot of padmount testing with my new job, but don't recall seeing any without the HV /LV partition in them, like your example here. My new job is very interesting, without saying where it is, you can look at my recent uploads and figure it out! Not many places in the world launch rockets on just about on a weekly basis. Definitely seeing some cool stuff around, work inside some very interesting buildings with really interesting pieces of hardware inside. Not to mention hooking up the "shore power" to some of the mobile launch platforms.
Keep up the informative videos and work safe.
Canada is Red/Black/Blue for L1, L2, and L3. USA is Black/Red/Blue for 208Y120.
@@brnmcc01 Thanks. Even though there is no listed standard in the US, most would do it black/red/blue and figured Canada the same, guess not.
Nice. We have about the same equipment in our country. We still have the old style transformers in transformer houses, with the high voltage junction and low voltage distribution in seperate rooms on both sides of the transformer, behind metal doors. 2 times I had heard the high voltage fuse blow. Man, was that loud. Like a canon. The fuses were rebuild on the spot, which looks like a 1/4" strand of wire rope.
I've often wondered what those were and were for. I'm tickled to know it. THANK YOU !!!
I was at an abandoned ski hill a year ago and the electrical boxes were de-energized and pilfered for any metal that was there. I kept my hands in my pockets just the same.
I imagine that wildlife is fond of building homes inside the transformer box - I've heard of families of squirrels, and eventually one of them shorts out the high voltage, annoying the customer.
Generally that's a self-clearing fault if across the HV terminals. Dang squirrel gets vaporized.
“Low voltage comes out” - i know it’s all relative, but your low voltage still scares the sht out of me! Thanks for all you do, much respect.
So neat to see the labels, always wondered what those meant from a scada system
5:58 how about refering to them as L1, L2 and L3 (like the rest of the world ;))
Standards organizations like those numbered labels, notice the inside panel uses them. But for practical work, single letters are easier to get right. I was raised with phases being R, S and T, while the other ends of motor windings being U, V and W. color coding has been inconsistent my whole life, with new standards being arbitrarily changed multiple times in the 50+ year lifetime of installed cables.
In Australia they call them after colors, red blue and yellow phase iirc. So there is no “world standard”
@@Engineer9736 Fun fact: There is - it‘s the british (colonial) countries and the rest of the world…
We had some safety exams about working clearances to hi voltage lines. I made it clear to my boss, I would be pleased to watch from down the block
Somewhere, while the PROS worked on it. He was most understanding and agreeable.
Many years ago, the local supply company built these in-house. I had a holiday job drilling endless holes in metal for frames holding fuses for each of the low voltage cables feeding out to the consumers. I see in this design all cables are connected directly to the secondary terminals - a cable fault could prove interesting! The bigger fuse frames had maximum demand metering as well. Designs have certainly changed...
I've not been curious since I was 19. I worked disassembling them at a re-manufacturer in the US. We did little 3.5KVA single phase up to 5000KVA 3 phase. Y-tap. J-tap. Inverse? (for Boundary Electric in Canada). Was a good job for a kid.
Cheers to you for not just saying "I'll have to make a video about these later" and making it it's own video
Subscribed. I work as a design engineer for water systems and while electrical systems are a little beyond me, i still need to be aware of the applicable codes when placing the panels in my drawings. I always love to see whats inside the boxes, since our electrical team does the reviewal on shop drawings
I remember Ready Kilowatt and Louie the Lighting Bug.. Always solid advice to follow.
New sub found.
I'm an underground utility locator in Wyoming. I learned more about the electric facilities I locate in this 8 minute clip than I have in the last five years of locating and working with the power company.
Awesome stuff.
Awesome! Thanks for the sub Allan!
👊👊
My respect to you. Thanks for doing what you do.
Thank you- very informative video for my Electrical Installation students
That's quite funny you mention that cartoon character. In Australia, in the 80's we had an ad for Mortein Fly Spray and the fly's name was Louie.
When I first saw it that picture, I thought of the ad.
Overhead lines are antiquated. Trees fall an take them out. Cars too. Put in UG. If a customer wants a tap then run/add it to a tap point. Thanks for the vids. Learning a lot
In an urban area, absolutely! Rural..... There would be thousands of unused tap points that still wouldn't cover every possible build zone. We've got a lot of wide open space around here! Thanks for the comments and for watching! 🍻
Awesome! We need more videos of Padmounts! Keep it up!
This is really cool. Thanks for the show.
Awesome video and tour. Thank you
Thanks for showing us and reminding everyone that these boxes should never be opened by anyone. Where I live we also have those do not open stickers but instead they feature a cartoon bird wearing a red ball cap.
I remember Reddy Kilowatt growing up in CA in the 60s. Used yo be on a lot of PG&E trucks and literature as I recall. You can still buy stuff like T Shirts with Reddy's picture--just Google him.
I dont know wjy, but I find this stuff really interesting and I appreciate you taking us along on your service calls.
I used to do basic power routines at AT&T. I helped maintain 24v plant with large Lead acid cell batteries. We had a big fire in our Los Angeles central office I suspect caused by someone doing maintenance and not using insulated tools.
Really interesting video, thanks. Down hear in New Zealand we refer to these as 'berm subs' as they usually sit on a concrete pad on a grass berm in residential areas.
As a 50 y.o. NZer I have to say I've never heard them called that. You must be a Mainlander.
@@TonyRule Tony, I am from Wellington. I had a school holiday job painting 'berm subs', working for the Hutt Valley Energy Board (RIP) back in the 70's. That was certainly what they were called in the Hutt Valley at the time.
Great information. At my work, someone came by one night we think to steal one of these transformers, with chains had pulled open the HV door! Was open the next morning when we came in to work. All while energized. Surprised we didn't find a charred body there.
Thank you for sharing the video, I really appreciate it.
This is fascinating - thanks for the demo and explanation :)
thank you for the response. My padmounted transformer is on a cement pad that is at ground level 0 clearence maybe a little underground.