High Voltage Cable Inspection

[Bill Macrae]

When I was about 12 (and that's almost lost in the mists of time as it was

40 years ago) I remember seeing a book that was all about HV working and I'm almost sure it mentioned the practice of "live washing" and had a photo of a guy in a sort of "wet-suit" type thingy with a hosepipe spraying the live equipment in a substation.

This really sounds and seems so ridiculous that maybe I made it all up of dreamed about it (Googling brings up live washing of overhead lines but I'm almost sure that the photos in the book were of the inside of a substation building - maybe around 1953?). Anyway, anyone ever heard of something like that?

Bill

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hosing down insulators that have conductive salts on them is not unheard of I believe.

[Clive Mitchell]

In message , Bill Macrae writes

The water is fired as a series of pulses from a high enough distance that no flashback can occur.

There are also dry systems that fire ground walnut shell to abrade the dirt from the insulators.