It started raining hard outside. After a short time, I heard the distinct sound of drip, drip, dripping water on the basement floor. I thought, "Wha-a-a-at ?!" Our roof was only about 15 years old at that point, and had 30 year tiles.
I checked around the furnace, next to the base of the chimney, because the flashing around the chimney at the roof line is frequently rain's first point of entry into a roof. Nothing. Dry as a bone.
I went upstairs to make sure that no water was overflowing inside the house -- from a running toilet, or an overfilled sink. Nothing. All was quiet and stable.
I returned to the basement and listened again. There it was. The distinct drip, drip, dripping sound. There was no doubt about it, we had rain water dripping into the basement somehow -- but where?
I went back to work in the basement, listening carefully, and finally figured out where the sound was coming from -- the corner where the sump pump was located, just below the breaker box supplying electricity to the entire house.
I thought that maybe water was dripping out of the corrugated "roach trap pipe" under the perimeter of the basement floor into the sump pump well, or maybe that water trapped in the sump pump effluent pipe above the check valve might be leaking back into the basement out of an aging rubber grommet at the point of the check valve.
I grabbed a flashlight and got down on my hands and knees and peered into the sump pump well. Absolutely dry. The sump pump system was uninvolved in the dripping sound.
Just then -- drip -- a drop of cold water splashed into the back of my head as I peered down into the sump pump well. I thought, "Wha-a-a-a-at ??? The only thing above my head at that point was the ..."
I thought, "What in Heaven's Holy Name is water doing coming out of the circuit breaker box ???!!!"
I stood, and pointed my flashlight at the bottom of the breaker box, and there it was -- water dripping from the bottom !!!
I thought, "How is this possible ???!!!" I checked the basement wall above and behind the breaker box -- as dry as a bone !!! Where was the water coming from ?
I put on a pair of dry, heavy rubber utility gloves, and carefully screwed the face plate off the breaker box, and saw that the bottom of the metal box, inside, was covered with water. Further, breakers on one side of the box were soaked, with water dripping off them, and corroded beyond usefulness. I tried individual breaker switches on that side, with the gloves still on. They were all so completely corroded by water that they could not trip open ! One half of the breakers would have allowed an overloaded line to burn down my house !
But where was the water coming from ?
And then I noticed something inside the box -- the bare braided ground wire from the service head outside the house at the roof ...
I thought, "Wha-a-a-a-a-at ???!!! The ground wire in the main cable into my house is actually somehow piping rain water down the inside of the main cable to the electric meter outside ...
... and through the electric meter inside the cable through my wall and into my breaker box, where it soaked, corroded, froze-up and so destroyed all of my breakers on one side !!!"
Some idiot somehow designed my electric system to collect and pipe rainwater into my basement breaker box !!!
A few amps too many on a single line would have burned down my house !!!
The law calls a set-up like this a res ipsa loquitor case [correctly pronounced rez ip-sah low-kwee-tour, but incorrectly rendered rez ip-sah lock-it-her in court by non-Latin-speaking lawyers]. The term means that the negligence by the installers is undeniable because the fact that the problem is occurring "speaks for itself." No other proof of negligence is needed. Rain water just doesn't belong in a circuit breaker box.
So, who screwed up? Who managed to set up our electric when our fire-destroyed house was rebuilt in 1982 and reconnected to the wires from the pole outside so that the ground wire was taking-in rain water, carrying it through the cable right down to our breaker box inside?
We called an electrician, who heard my story on the telephone, drove up to our house, got out of his truck, looked up at our service head, and said, "PSE&G did it, when your house was re-connected to the pole after your 1982 fire."
He said, "Here is what happened."
He drew us a picture, with the telephone pole across the street on the right, and our house on the left -- something like the following ...
"If metal conducts electricity well, it usually attracts water molecules for the same reason. The bare, braided ground wire from the pole to your house really attracts and holds onto water. Do you see how the wire from the pole to your house is higher at the pole end? Well, as rain falls upon it, the braided ground wire holds onto the rain water molecules, but gravity causes the rain water being held to flow downhill from the pole toward your house, and then, after it passes the low point, the water in the braided ground wire actually flows uphill toward your house, because the adhesionary attraction of the rainwater for the braided ground wire exceeds the pull downwards toward the ground of the force of gravity, while the pressure of the force of the flow from the pole exceeds the pressure of the force of the flow from the house, because the pole connection is higher. The three forces together actually net-out to a kind of a river of rainwater in the wire uphill toward your house. Get that?"
I indicated that I understood.
"That is why," he continued, "Every wire coming from the pole to the service head on the side of the house is supposed to have a very serious 'drip loop,' with the point of connection to the service head visibly higher than the point of connection to the wire from the pole, like this ..." He added a "drip loop" to his picture.
"Look at your 'drip loop' up there on your house. It's disgraceful. You don't have a drip loop." I looked up. He was right.
"PSE&G set-up your service head connection so that every single time it rains, water fills the ground wire from the pole, rushes downhill from the pole and uphill into your service head, rushes down the inside of your cable through your electrical meter, through your wall into your breaker box.
"As I was driving through town, I noticed that about one-third of the homes had inadequate drip loops, or no drip loops at all like your house. It's such a common problem in this town that I wouldn't be surprised if PSE&G used inadequate drip loops to save money. I'd bet money that several of the house fires in Magnolia were the fault of PSE&G or their corporate predecessors, when inadequate drip loops piped water into breaker boxes, corroding the breakers, making them inoperative, so that too many appliances on a line start a fire in the wall.
"Your entire set-up, from your service head to your breaker box, inclusive, has to be replaced. It's going to cost you $1,750. If you don't do it, it's only a matter of time before your house burns down."
Some idiot somehow designed my electric system to collect and pipe rainwater into my basement breaker box !!!
A few amps too many on a single line would have burned down my house !!!
The law calls a set-up like this a res ipsa loquitor case [correctly pronounced rez ip-sah low-kwee-tour, but incorrectly rendered rez ip-sah lock-it-her in court by non-Latin-speaking lawyers]. The term means that the negligence by the installers is undeniable because the fact that the problem is occurring "speaks for itself." No other proof of negligence is needed. Rain water just doesn't belong in a circuit breaker box.
So, who screwed up? Who managed to set up our electric when our fire-destroyed house was rebuilt in 1982 and reconnected to the wires from the pole outside so that the ground wire was taking-in rain water, carrying it through the cable right down to our breaker box inside?
We called an electrician, who heard my story on the telephone, drove up to our house, got out of his truck, looked up at our service head, and said, "PSE&G did it, when your house was re-connected to the pole after your 1982 fire."
He said, "Here is what happened."
He drew us a picture, with the telephone pole across the street on the right, and our house on the left -- something like the following ...
"If metal conducts electricity well, it usually attracts water molecules for the same reason. The bare, braided ground wire from the pole to your house really attracts and holds onto water. Do you see how the wire from the pole to your house is higher at the pole end? Well, as rain falls upon it, the braided ground wire holds onto the rain water molecules, but gravity causes the rain water being held to flow downhill from the pole toward your house, and then, after it passes the low point, the water in the braided ground wire actually flows uphill toward your house, because the adhesionary attraction of the rainwater for the braided ground wire exceeds the pull downwards toward the ground of the force of gravity, while the pressure of the force of the flow from the pole exceeds the pressure of the force of the flow from the house, because the pole connection is higher. The three forces together actually net-out to a kind of a river of rainwater in the wire uphill toward your house. Get that?"
I indicated that I understood.
"That is why," he continued, "Every wire coming from the pole to the service head on the side of the house is supposed to have a very serious 'drip loop,' with the point of connection to the service head visibly higher than the point of connection to the wire from the pole, like this ..." He added a "drip loop" to his picture.
"Look at your 'drip loop' up there on your house. It's disgraceful. You don't have a drip loop." I looked up. He was right.
"PSE&G set-up your service head connection so that every single time it rains, water fills the ground wire from the pole, rushes downhill from the pole and uphill into your service head, rushes down the inside of your cable through your electrical meter, through your wall into your breaker box.
"As I was driving through town, I noticed that about one-third of the homes had inadequate drip loops, or no drip loops at all like your house. It's such a common problem in this town that I wouldn't be surprised if PSE&G used inadequate drip loops to save money. I'd bet money that several of the house fires in Magnolia were the fault of PSE&G or their corporate predecessors, when inadequate drip loops piped water into breaker boxes, corroding the breakers, making them inoperative, so that too many appliances on a line start a fire in the wall.
"Your entire set-up, from your service head to your breaker box, inclusive, has to be replaced. It's going to cost you $1,750. If you don't do it, it's only a matter of time before your house burns down."
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