I was repairing some landscaping lighting, and when I took the cover off of the outdoor junction box, water came out. Don't know how much was in there, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup. I'm guessing it wasn't enough to reach the wiring connections, held together by wire nuts, or maybe it did.
Because if it had, the breaker would have tripped, right?
Not unless it is a GFCI breaker. Outdoor splice boxes and underground splices are always wet, from condensation if not direct water entry. If the type of box you have has threaded knockouts, try putting silicone around the threads.
not necessarily, water is not conductive.
How did the water get in?
Only if it had a GFCI and the water caused current flow in the ground wire.
Hi, If it is not GFCI, and pure water is not a good conductor. You should have drain holes on the box and liberal use of silicon sealant to minimize water/moisture build up.
It may or may not trip the breaker. Water is not a very good conductor and small ammounts can just cause a small current flow. It may even heat up the water. Had a water heater that the element cracked and was causing the water to heat up way too much. That was casude by some of the current bypassing the thermostat and directly heating the water. Still did not trip the breaker.
When underground wiring insulation fails the failure in manifested by a chemical reaction between the conductor and the surrounding earth. With Al wire, this happens quickly. With Cu it's relatively slow. Basically speaking the cable is eaten away and fails "open." In proportion to the current the wire normally delivers to the load, the earth leakage is minor so it will not trip a breaker (except for ground fault, of course.).
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pure water isn't conductive, but when was the last time you saw any pure water?
Should he seal the drain holes, or use drain-only holes?
No? Well wet your fingers and stick them in a socket.
The current flow does not have to be in the ground wire. In fact, a GFCI doesn't need a ground wire at all to work. The GFCI trips when it senses an imbalance between the currents in the hot and neutral, meaning some current is going somewhere else. In this case, it would trip if current was flowing from a wet connection to earth.
That's also how some of the vaporizers that they sell in the drug stores to use when you have a cold work. They heat the water by just using 2 electrodes near each other submerged in a plastic tank of water.
*You reminded me of a commercial kitchen that I serviced many years ago. One time the manager complained that it was taking a long time for the coffee urn to heat the water. No problem with the temperature, but it took a few hours to get hot. I knew that there was a 2000 watt element in the urn so it should have heated up faster. I took the unit apart and found that the element had practically disintegrated. The water was being heated by the current flowing through it.
You only need to add salt if the water is low in minerals. Most tap waters work fine. I've had various vaporizers of that type and never had to add salt. In the directions, they talk about adding a small amount of salt if it doesn't work without it.
The code says raceways and boxes "shall be arranged to drain". They know "wet locations" will eventually accumulate water. You want drain holes in boxes. I have found it is also good to point wirenuts up and keep them in the top of the box.
Water itself isn't very conductive but it IS conductive; it's the impurities (dirt, dissolved stuff, etc.) that makes water conductive so it very well could have been. Even rainwater isn't normally pure enough to not trip a GFCI, for example.
Glad someone pointed that out. A GFCI (so called "Ground fault ...... ) operates when there is an imbalance between the current flowing in the neutral and live wires; of say a 115 volt circuit.
If there IS an imbalance it does not have to be leakage to ground! Although that is a main purpose to protect users of potentially faulty apparatus.
Witnessed a situation where a neutral wire was inadvertently also connected to another circuit in the adjacent living unit.
Every time they plugged into that circuit, next door, the currents were imbalanced and 'this' GFCI tripped!
See another post about whether water conducts! Almost anything will conduct (slightly).
Van.
Correct. If your wet fingers present a resistance of say 20,000 ohms a 'small' current WILL flow.
For example; 115 volts/20,000 ohms =3D 5.75 milliamps. Enough to stop your heart in certain circumstance but not near enough to trip a 15 amp (that's 15,000 milliamps) circuit breaker!
At low voltage if I hold the two leads of a multimeter in my two hands I get something of the order of 100,000 ohms. If my hands were wet or I dig the points of the meter leads into the skin it is possible to get it down to less than 50,000 ohms.
That's how some electricians, dangerously, will test for 115 volts by brushing their fingers quickly across a live lead!
Well we get acid rain and there can also be condensation within boxes and conduits etc. Also variuos impurities/dirt etc. can be present that get dissolved into moisture and conduct slightly. It is true that 'distilled' very pure water only conducts slightly.
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