Electrical Wire Fire
I was awakened by a strong electrical burning odor around 2:am. The inside of the RV Travel Trailer was filled with smoke. The smoke detectors seem to be working, however, they didn't go off that nigh...
Forum Discussion
That much potential in the skin would have caused a hysterical reaction in all 120 volt devices that were connected. I have seen far too much lightning strike damage to believe the potential was ten million to one selective in how it decided to traverse the system.
Here is what a lightning strike does. Passes from earth on an ionized path, finds the point of least resistance most favorable path to opposite potential. I know of no electrical apparatus likely to be found in an RV that could withstand a minimum of a 10KV potential between earth ground and neutral connection in a transformer or phase leg. Usually every integrated circuit fails, as well as power FET's. It gets worse. Inductive or reactive points suffer horrendous damage - transformers, stator windings, rotors blown completely out of their lamination's.
A full potential passage can bore a foot wide hole through two feet thick of concrete, then split a hundred plus ton granite boulder (Angora Lakes Strikes USFS Angora Lakes station California), split wide open a 2" diameter 1/8" wall iron water pipe, travel for four hundred feet and then discharge into the clouds.
Ionization with corona is incredibly rare when it is not followed by a full fledged discharge. Air compression (fracturing) shatters windows and delicate substrates.
What seems to be more likely is that a major feeder artery gradually became hotter and hotter, degrading the tin plating on the buss. The rate of degradation went from linear to the square of resistance. The buss became a resistance element heating to above 500F. Such heat is transmitted rapidly, through copper and aluminum. The only heat sink that bus had was the copper stranding attached to it.
One of my neurotic habits is to assemble a bus allowing 3/16" wire strands to protrude out the other side of the buss. If the oxide compound looks like it may have heated excessively (dripping) Houston, you have a problem.
I am sneaky. I want to know how much a 1/2 pint can of colloidal copper weighs in grams. Copper is so much heavier than oil.
Strands that enter a bus bar must be absolutely brand new copper penny shiny. Then coated with colloidal copper. After a few weeks of service I'll go back and re-tighten. Checking every so often (believe me it is done far more often when the rig is subjected to rough or washboard road surfaces) eliminates the problem.
Aluminum buss bars were designed for structures without wheels and resultant vibration.
Here is what a lightning strike does. Passes from earth on an ionized path, finds the point of least resistance most favorable path to opposite potential. I know of no electrical apparatus likely to be found in an RV that could withstand a minimum of a 10KV potential between earth ground and neutral connection in a transformer or phase leg. Usually every integrated circuit fails, as well as power FET's. It gets worse. Inductive or reactive points suffer horrendous damage - transformers, stator windings, rotors blown completely out of their lamination's.
A full potential passage can bore a foot wide hole through two feet thick of concrete, then split a hundred plus ton granite boulder (Angora Lakes Strikes USFS Angora Lakes station California), split wide open a 2" diameter 1/8" wall iron water pipe, travel for four hundred feet and then discharge into the clouds.
Ionization with corona is incredibly rare when it is not followed by a full fledged discharge. Air compression (fracturing) shatters windows and delicate substrates.
What seems to be more likely is that a major feeder artery gradually became hotter and hotter, degrading the tin plating on the buss. The rate of degradation went from linear to the square of resistance. The buss became a resistance element heating to above 500F. Such heat is transmitted rapidly, through copper and aluminum. The only heat sink that bus had was the copper stranding attached to it.
One of my neurotic habits is to assemble a bus allowing 3/16" wire strands to protrude out the other side of the buss. If the oxide compound looks like it may have heated excessively (dripping) Houston, you have a problem.
I am sneaky. I want to know how much a 1/2 pint can of colloidal copper weighs in grams. Copper is so much heavier than oil.
Strands that enter a bus bar must be absolutely brand new copper penny shiny. Then coated with colloidal copper. After a few weeks of service I'll go back and re-tighten. Checking every so often (believe me it is done far more often when the rig is subjected to rough or washboard road surfaces) eliminates the problem.
Aluminum buss bars were designed for structures without wheels and resultant vibration.
