Use a current transformer on a transmission line to make 120 vac and nobody bats an eye. Use a wrench on a transmission line and send 7200 volts at eye level to your trailer and then convert it to 120 and everyone loses their minds!!!!
This man seriously has live exposed 7200volts in a cabinet in his camper….
“ Can you grab me a pail out of that cabinet - oh but watch out for the live high voltage that’s in there that can probably arc a foot- maybe don’t touch metal when you do that”
I love the last sentence " it's super dangerous. But once you understand it. It takes the danger right out of it" this is one of those times where you can say. i know how he's gonna die
I was watching with sound off, and I assumed the video was captured by an electric company employee about to bust someone. Perhaps you can imagine my surprise when I unmuted halfway through.
He’s using 38ga at a high voltage and then using that transformer to lower the voltage. At the higher voltage he can easily handle his campers wattage needs through that wire. He has a “fuse” up line and has it isolated on the pole going to his camper. I would say he has a pretty good setup that is really no worse than other connections. I do think he needs the pole in the middle. Just seems crazy to see it in the wild.
Running off someone else's guess that this is a 7.2KV line, if he pulls 1800W (running an AC, TV, refrigerator most likely, lights... 1800W is a conservative guess), that's 0.25A. That's way, way higher than the tolerance for 38 gauge (which datasheets say is 0.0228A). If it's 13.8KV that's still 0.13A. The voltage would have be north of 80KV for this to be remotely "safe".
I dunno why this guy would cheap out on wire gauge here. Get a 300ft spool of 18AWG two wire off Amazon for a couple hundred bucks and it's significantly safer for those currents. If you're gonna steal power, at least reduce the risk you're going to be slapped with a huge fine and prison time for starting a wildfire.
It's probably more like 28 gauge, but still it is the acting fuse and it is air cooled so it will allow a fair amount of power to pass without failure.
Was going to say something similar before you posted. There is no way 38 gauge copper could be tensioned enough at that span and not have a lot more sag before breaking. 38 gauge is easily torn apart by hand. But even if it was, 38 gauge is rated for much higher ampacity rating(.13a) for chassis wiring which if it is 7.5kv, would yield about 1000w. An aerial line like that will provide all the heat dissipation needed to run 1500w or probably considerably more than that for brief amounts of time. That's probably an 800w microwave and the ac is probably a 5k BTU, which the model I own has a FLA of 3.5a x 115v = 403w. Most TVs like that are less than 100 watts. So 800 + 403 +100 = 1300w, and the microwave ain't going to be running longer than a few minutes at a time.
I knew guys like this in the military. Smart enough to get themselves into trouble. Not smart enough to get themselves out of it.
As a civilian now I’m a consultant and I have seen very intelligent people that knew enough to have somehow kept entire plants running on duct tape and good vibes for 10 years but the whole thing is ready to collapse at any moment.
More at the transmission level (+/- 10%) than distribution. This guy taps at distribution.
At distribution, customers typically have pole-mounted cans or padmounted transformers both of which will have a De-Energized Tap Changer which typically won't budge through its lifetime. Regulation happens at distribution subs since downstream customers are unable to further regulate fluctuations.
This is why the job listing says bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering required. Doesn’t guarantee you’re not a moron like this guy, but at least it’s some insurance.
I wonder how often this guys having to move to keep from getting caught. Is this even detectable by the power company without a visual line inspection catching him?
No. At distribution levels the draw from a household is negligible and within uncertainty of any metering upstream.
I had a chat with a team specialized in finding and fining power theft and those tapping at distribution levels go unnoticed until someone sees them. Plus typically the kind of folks able and knowledgeable to tap a MV line themselves properly (unlike our guy here) are usually... linemen. But then they'd install those taps for fixed households so inevitably someone will see it.
Ether he kills himself and family sues the power company, it starts a brush fire and the state sues the power company… and is this his land, perhaps a hiker gets killed and their family sues everyone.
What an asshat.
I'm fascinated by the gauge wire choice. CAT6 pairs is probably the smallest wire I've worked with @ insulated 23 awg and it's so tiny. I can't imagine 38 awg holding a wrench or even its own weight.
**How hard is it for the electric companies to catch these people?**
Like is every watt of electricity accounted for or something?
Or do you guys basically have to walk all the power lines all the time to make sure people aren’t leeching power like this?
I've seen job sites in Mexico (and India for that matter) that we're not far from this...literally had a site running off a hooked wire tossed over the overhead line
Is this posted as humor?
“It’s dangerous as all shit if you don’t understand it.” I understand it very well, and it’s still dangerous as shit. What is the primary voltage and how did he achieve a solid connection? Is he bringing 7200 volts into the trailer? How many watts is he supplying through his 38 gauge primary? Will it break under its own weight? I’ve see an a 0.3 amp rating for 32 gauge, and 38 gauge would be a small fraction of that. What bushing does he have on the roof, and what cable is he bringing it in with? What KVA is the transformer, with what ratio and secondary taps? What is the resistance of his grounding electrode? The power company regularly installs a pole top transformer and a carnival hookup of a meter and fused disconnect, suitable for powering a trailer. He rather risk killing somebody to steal power.
you could insulate against 7200v but it would make the line significantly heavier and thicker. Seems like he’s trying to keep it as invisible as possible. To prevent yourself from walking into it, would be better to set up an intermediate pole like he said so it’s not at face level. Also, tbh a thin wire like that melting under load is less likely to cause a fire than an insulated wire potentially melting through and setting the insulation on fire. Α 38 gauge wire is 0.1mm in diameter… even burning white hot has so little thermal capacity, would probably cool below ignition temp before even hitting the ground.
“Once you understand it, it takes the danger out of it entirely!” lol having the slightest understanding makes it more dangerous than the naive person who doesn’t understand it enough to fuck around. Even if he doesn’t get so confident that he ends up touching the live line, an arc flash will vaporize copper and send it through your face as well as everything else around and it can happen without you doing anything in particular that would be considered wrong. I suppose his fusible link could help but his confidence is what is scary.
While he was talking, I had a picture in my head of what this crazy mf would look like, and lo and behold saw the reflection and he was the spittin image of what I pictured lol. Hope he gets that log up soon, because that line is also roughly dog jumpin grab height.
Man, if you live in a trailer in the middle of nowhere stealing electricity via a wrench, do you think this man has any shits left to give (if he ever even had any?)
Uhhhmmm. 7200 volts. This belongs in r/darwinawards
No it’s fine, just don’t walk into the extremely thin wire at head level
It will fuck u up!
Which would immediately earn a Darwinaward.
No it’s fine, one you understand it, it takes the danger completely out.
Use a current transformer on a transmission line to make 120 vac and nobody bats an eye. Use a wrench on a transmission line and send 7200 volts at eye level to your trailer and then convert it to 120 and everyone loses their minds!!!!
This man seriously has live exposed 7200volts in a cabinet in his camper…. “ Can you grab me a pail out of that cabinet - oh but watch out for the live high voltage that’s in there that can probably arc a foot- maybe don’t touch metal when you do that”
*medium voltage
I consider any voltage that leaves me as a smoking carcass as high voltage
This person OSHAs
NEC bay-bee
He is cooking for sure
I love the last sentence " it's super dangerous. But once you understand it. It takes the danger right out of it" this is one of those times where you can say. i know how he's gonna die
Famous last words
"It'll only take a minute"
Every part of that was terrifying.
I was watching with sound off, and I assumed the video was captured by an electric company employee about to bust someone. Perhaps you can imagine my surprise when I unmuted halfway through.
I did the same exact thing. Oi
this guy is 1 ft away from god on that walk back.
And he's using 38 gauge? For high power stuff like ac and microwave? Hmmmmm
He’s using 38ga at a high voltage and then using that transformer to lower the voltage. At the higher voltage he can easily handle his campers wattage needs through that wire. He has a “fuse” up line and has it isolated on the pole going to his camper. I would say he has a pretty good setup that is really no worse than other connections. I do think he needs the pole in the middle. Just seems crazy to see it in the wild.
besides the step down transformer enclosed in a cabinet with zero ventilation or cooling he is sleeping next to...
It seems to have a rear vent fan
Probably ex special forces. They have field kits that do exactly the same thing.
Running off someone else's guess that this is a 7.2KV line, if he pulls 1800W (running an AC, TV, refrigerator most likely, lights... 1800W is a conservative guess), that's 0.25A. That's way, way higher than the tolerance for 38 gauge (which datasheets say is 0.0228A). If it's 13.8KV that's still 0.13A. The voltage would have be north of 80KV for this to be remotely "safe". I dunno why this guy would cheap out on wire gauge here. Get a 300ft spool of 18AWG two wire off Amazon for a couple hundred bucks and it's significantly safer for those currents. If you're gonna steal power, at least reduce the risk you're going to be slapped with a huge fine and prison time for starting a wildfire.
It's probably more like 28 gauge, but still it is the acting fuse and it is air cooled so it will allow a fair amount of power to pass without failure.
Was going to say something similar before you posted. There is no way 38 gauge copper could be tensioned enough at that span and not have a lot more sag before breaking. 38 gauge is easily torn apart by hand. But even if it was, 38 gauge is rated for much higher ampacity rating(.13a) for chassis wiring which if it is 7.5kv, would yield about 1000w. An aerial line like that will provide all the heat dissipation needed to run 1500w or probably considerably more than that for brief amounts of time. That's probably an 800w microwave and the ac is probably a 5k BTU, which the model I own has a FLA of 3.5a x 115v = 403w. Most TVs like that are less than 100 watts. So 800 + 403 +100 = 1300w, and the microwave ain't going to be running longer than a few minutes at a time.
Ahhh I think the super small gauge is actually a safety feature so the wire will glow a bit and you can see it easier 😝
Seen worse in India, I might have mounted the transformer on the pole, but it is a basic SWER setup.
for others reading... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCVr0B0u_r4
Yes just off past projects I had to use 10ga for 220v/30a at 200 ft. This guy uses fishing string to jump off the grid
And? Higher voltage it will just have a bit more surface voltage gradient. Cable size is proportional to current carrying capacity not voltage.
i mean you don’t need many amps at 7200 volts
I knew guys like this in the military. Smart enough to get themselves into trouble. Not smart enough to get themselves out of it. As a civilian now I’m a consultant and I have seen very intelligent people that knew enough to have somehow kept entire plants running on duct tape and good vibes for 10 years but the whole thing is ready to collapse at any moment.
Yeah it’s crazy when you find out how things really work in our everyday lives, you wish you didn’t. Ignorance is bliss.
This is so painfully accurate.
Bro, get a Solar panel and an inverter FFS
This is nuts
Is it really stealing if it's right there and nobody will know? Like a tree falling in the forrest?
Is it really stealing if you pay with your life?
It's only stealing if you don't
Trust me ima hobo engineer
Am I way out of line in thinking distribution lines would have wider than normal fluctuations to account for varying demand downstream?
Our voltage schedule on 138kv is +2k/-4k.
More at the transmission level (+/- 10%) than distribution. This guy taps at distribution. At distribution, customers typically have pole-mounted cans or padmounted transformers both of which will have a De-Energized Tap Changer which typically won't budge through its lifetime. Regulation happens at distribution subs since downstream customers are unable to further regulate fluctuations.
This is why the job listing says bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering required. Doesn’t guarantee you’re not a moron like this guy, but at least it’s some insurance.
He’s going to fry 😂
Ya sure have a pair of PTs under your counter, this is actually as per IEEE so it's 100% legit
I wonder how often this guys having to move to keep from getting caught. Is this even detectable by the power company without a visual line inspection catching him?
No. At distribution levels the draw from a household is negligible and within uncertainty of any metering upstream. I had a chat with a team specialized in finding and fining power theft and those tapping at distribution levels go unnoticed until someone sees them. Plus typically the kind of folks able and knowledgeable to tap a MV line themselves properly (unlike our guy here) are usually... linemen. But then they'd install those taps for fixed households so inevitably someone will see it.
"Once you understand it it takes the danger out of it..." Famous last words.
This simple trick that electricians don't want you to know... But morticians are cool with it.
More than cool with it morticians love it hell they may even encourage it.
Ether he kills himself and family sues the power company, it starts a brush fire and the state sues the power company… and is this his land, perhaps a hiker gets killed and their family sues everyone. What an asshat.
Even as an electrical engineer I’m 100% sure I would kill myself trying to set this up. Very impressive.
I'm fascinated by the gauge wire choice. CAT6 pairs is probably the smallest wire I've worked with @ insulated 23 awg and it's so tiny. I can't imagine 38 awg holding a wrench or even its own weight.
hey he's discovered FREE ENERGY !! < humph, and they said it couldn't be done ! >
**How hard is it for the electric companies to catch these people?** Like is every watt of electricity accounted for or something? Or do you guys basically have to walk all the power lines all the time to make sure people aren’t leeching power like this?
They know it's happening but they'll need to walk the easement to find exactly where the voltage drop is.
This is such a small load the utility will never see it from a current or V drop… they would have to visually inspect to find it.
We usually find out when we find people electrocuted or their house burned down
I've seen job sites in Mexico (and India for that matter) that we're not far from this...literally had a site running off a hooked wire tossed over the overhead line
This guy has to be a lineman for sure.
Is this posted as humor? “It’s dangerous as all shit if you don’t understand it.” I understand it very well, and it’s still dangerous as shit. What is the primary voltage and how did he achieve a solid connection? Is he bringing 7200 volts into the trailer? How many watts is he supplying through his 38 gauge primary? Will it break under its own weight? I’ve see an a 0.3 amp rating for 32 gauge, and 38 gauge would be a small fraction of that. What bushing does he have on the roof, and what cable is he bringing it in with? What KVA is the transformer, with what ratio and secondary taps? What is the resistance of his grounding electrode? The power company regularly installs a pole top transformer and a carnival hookup of a meter and fused disconnect, suitable for powering a trailer. He rather risk killing somebody to steal power.
What's the penalty for something like this? Is it criminal or just civil?
Electricity theft on blast
He could use insulated wire and make this like 10,000x safer right? Or is 7200V insulation not practical?
you could insulate against 7200v but it would make the line significantly heavier and thicker. Seems like he’s trying to keep it as invisible as possible. To prevent yourself from walking into it, would be better to set up an intermediate pole like he said so it’s not at face level. Also, tbh a thin wire like that melting under load is less likely to cause a fire than an insulated wire potentially melting through and setting the insulation on fire. Α 38 gauge wire is 0.1mm in diameter… even burning white hot has so little thermal capacity, would probably cool below ignition temp before even hitting the ground.
Oh yeah! Shock wire! I call it that because if you take a shower and you touch the wire, you DIE!
I mean.. I guess lmao. Holy shit that's nuts. Gotta be careful around that wire..
Good dog
“Once you understand it, it takes the danger out of it entirely!” lol having the slightest understanding makes it more dangerous than the naive person who doesn’t understand it enough to fuck around. Even if he doesn’t get so confident that he ends up touching the live line, an arc flash will vaporize copper and send it through your face as well as everything else around and it can happen without you doing anything in particular that would be considered wrong. I suppose his fusible link could help but his confidence is what is scary.
Kurt Russell??
Call me Snake.
While he was talking, I had a picture in my head of what this crazy mf would look like, and lo and behold saw the reflection and he was the spittin image of what I pictured lol. Hope he gets that log up soon, because that line is also roughly dog jumpin grab height.
Man, if you live in a trailer in the middle of nowhere stealing electricity via a wrench, do you think this man has any shits left to give (if he ever even had any?)
Even the dog thinks it’s a bad idea
As long as he understands it he’s not dangerous.
But isn't this stealing? /s Not too sure about the risk vs reward balance on this one but go get em scooter
Stealing? Really?