So one of my coworkers was just explaining a DIY fix he did at his house that has me concerned. Figured I’d ask NYSpeed’s opinion.
Problem: The line running from the pole to his house sways in high winds (he’s on the lake) and makes a lot of noise right where it connects to his house. Opposite that connection on the inside of the house is his newborn’s room so the noise is a big problem.
His DIY Solution: Take two 15’ dock lines (basically cotton ropes), tie them together, and toss them over the power line. Pull them slightly taught and tie them off to his gas meter so it stops the line from swaying.
My issue: While cotton doesn’t conduct electricity, it does absorb water, and water does conduct electricity. To make matters worse he’s now made a path to ground through a metal object full of explosive natural gas.
His logic: The line is coated so it’s not an exposed conductor.
My logic: The power company spends lots of money putting out warnings about using ladders around your power line, so obviously they don’t have a whole lot of faith in that coating as a 100% effective insulator.
I’m no electrician but your logic seems pretty sound to me. I don’t think the gas meter is a real concern for ignition but it just seems like a dopey idea to me in any event.
Why not call the power company and ask them to tighten it up some?
Good lord. This is why some people just shouldn’t work on their own house. LOL this one has me smashing my keyboard.
The wire isn’t squeaking, the anchor on his house is. If it’s squeaking that means its loose, and he’s now added additional load on the already loose anchor by pretensioning the wire. He’s going to wake up to the wire laying in his yard.
As far as grounding the power line to his gas line with a wet rope, yeah that’s fucking retarded.
I am pretty speechless. Tell him to undo the rope before someone fucking dies. This is a massive fire hazard in more ways than one. If he is adamant about fixing it DIY, then get a new porcelain insulator, and instead of passing the wire through it, he can tension the wire some by using one of these:
Then hooking this to the insulator on the house. He will have to create a drip loop so that any rain water can not run down the inside of the insulation on the se cable attached to the house.