Can electricity conduct through a fine spray of water?

[Commander Kinsey]

If there was a fine mist being sprayed (like you get from something you spray plants with), and there was a live wire somewhere in the mist, could it jump through the spray to a grounded point?

[Mark Carver]

Well.....

[Brian Gaff]

Not very well. There was a myth busters covering this, the myth that pissing on a live third rail could kill you, it did not as the water was droplets in the air and hence needed a higher voltage to bridge the gaps. Also of course all water is not the same, conductivity wise. So if you have say a tesla coil giving very high voltages, spray would tend to help conduction, as you can often hear near pylons on foggy damp days. Brian

[Carlos E.R.]

What happens when the entire glass insulator is wet? :-?

[alan_m]

High voltage electric pylons and torrential rain?

[Rod Speed]

Nothing special, most obviously wih the glass insulators on 350KV and 500KV transmission lines.

[Carlos E.R.]

Don't they become surface conductive to ground?

[John Walliker]

They invariably have a corrugated underside so it is very difficult for water to form a coherent layer on all of the surface. John

[Colin Bignell]

Water mist fire suppression systems claim to be suitable for all forms of domestic fire, including those involving electrical equipment.

[micky]

I would think it's possible, but my own somewhat related experience has been: I have an electric lawn mower with a 100' extension cord that I no longer pull in when I'm done mowing the lawn or weed-wacking. It lies in the grass all year, even in the rain, even under the snow. After the grass grows even a little, it's hidden by the grass.

I have a GFI circuit breaker on that circuit and if current wwere going to ground and not back though the neutral wire, the breaker would trip, but it's only tripped 3 times in about 20 years, and since the bat hroom and kitchen sink receptacles are on the same breaker, I'm not positive it's the extension cord that did those.

I'm cautious in that if it's damp, I pick up the cord 6 feet from the end, but I've never had even a tingle.

[Chris Hogg]

People ask a similar question as to whether you can get electrocuted by the spray from an electric shower if some sort of fault developed in the heater, and the flow of water becomes electrified.

AIUI no, you can't get electrocuted under normal circumstances, because surface tension almost instantaneously breaks up the jets of water that emerge from the shower head into a stream of individual droplets, which renders the jet of water non-conducting.

[John Larkin]

Sure, with a lot of voltage, ballpark a megavolt/meter.

There could be a tiny current from droplet drift, too.

[micky]

This is what we wash 400KV live line.Hot Line Washing is a process of cleaning of insulators with the help of DM water /normal water, conductivity below 200 Micr0-mh0s, under live condition, without asking for shut down. Factors like salt, cement/lime, smog, vehicular emissions etc. affect insulator performance.

[Rod Speed]

Nope, if they did, the line would shut down.

[Carlos E.R.]

But I don't understand how it doesn't happen. They are throwing water spray to them, a lot of water, from below. The entire surface of the glass must be getting wet.

[Andrew]

Walk past any major substation during hot humid weather and the buzzing is quite alarming.

[Rod Speed]

That's not due to surface conductive to ground, thats due to the transformer laminations.

[Rod Speed]

No it doesnt with the inner vertical surfaces with the massive great insulators used on 350KV and 500KV transmission lines.

[Colin Bignell]

Water by itself is not that conductive. It is impurities in it that make it conductive. Ultra-pure water has a resistance of up to 18 megohm per cm. They won't be using that, but apparently use de-ionised water, which is fairly free from impurities and thus not particularly conductive.

[Carlos E.R.]

Ok, that makes sense.