One of the problems my wife was telling me is that a whole lot of Transformers exploded in the storms for some reason. And since this has been happening all over California it might be hard to replace that many transformers to millions of people. A Transformer in this case steps down 1000 volts that is usually the top most line on a telephone pole down to 220 Volts to bring it into a house or business. So, when they go they often are like Hand Grenades because of what happens when they short out (usually from a tree falling or a car or truck hitting a telephone pole. My wife was telling me about a car she saw with pieces of metal stuck in it from an exploding Transformer on a telephone pole, for example. So, in bad weather like we saw it is kind of important NOT to be standing near any transformers in case they explode from the storms for one reason or another. Here where I live transformers explode from the shorting out of the hot wires usually when the 1000 volts are falling and crackling on the ground. This tends to explode the transformers connected to these lines. So, be sure in high winds that you get away from Transformers or at least inside of a house or building so if they go the pieces are stuck into buildings or trees or cars or trucks and not into you.
Today I went to get some regular gas for my generator and I have a fold top on my truck. A man there said it's better to fill your gas containers on the ground and not on the fold top covering the bed of the truck because you aren't properly grounded. I said, "Now That's an idea!" after he told me this and put the cans on the ground to avoid a static spark because likely he is right about that. I never considered this before regarding properly grounding a gas can to the ground. And it's true a car or truck is a Faraday Cage and not grounded to the earth (electrically speaking at least). A Plane is also a Faraday Cage which is why when lightning strikes a jet plane often you are okay as long as your electronics on the plane don't get fried. If they got fried enough the jet plane (or other smaller plane might crash). (if hit by lightning) sort of like in the movie 6 Days and 7"Nights" when the radio to the plane fried so he couldn't ask for help using the radio.
Today was okay. However, I decided about 1:30 AM last night that I needed sleep more than I needed to keep the generator running so I turned it off at 1:30AM and set an alarm for 6 AM to start it up again. But then, after doing that I couldn't sleep so I took a nap from about 9 AM until noon when I drove out to get gasoline for the generator and to fill up my truck with gas too.
Today was okay so far because the sun came out by noon and even though it was only 54 to 56 today I still on my backyard deck was very warm in the sun on lounge chairs that are waterproof while a friend was over talking to us and playing "doggie Soccer" with our dog.
It looks like the rain hits us again by 10 am on Wednesday and rains off and on until Thursday when it's supposed to dry up for awhile and millions (40 million) Californians will be glad to have the time to recover some from the last week or so of Rain that devastated many places in the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment