Do not grieve. Soon I shall be one with the Matrix.
New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
51–60 of 173 posts
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#52I have never seen a transformator explosion in Germany or Europe. What is different in the american power grid?
US power distribution is way more distributed than in Europe, in which everything is planned and centralized.
In the US there are transformers everywhere, you can see a house and a small transformer nearby.
In Europe they have this big monsters that cost several million dollars and require a train to move.
In Europe transformers in the city use to be underground and you won't see anything but a blackout of power.
It happened in Madrid some years ago.
Old transformers are very toxic as mineral oil with aromatic rings is burned,which is carcinogenic. New transformers use Hexafluoride SHF6 that are smaller, innocuous and easier to control.
But it cost a lot of money to update your infrastructure.
New York also has experimental superconductor lines.
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
With that sort of light, there clearly was arcing. But most of the billowing smoke was from burning transformer oil. And about radio interference. This is 60 Hz, so I doubt that's an issue.
A spark’s RF interference isn’t limited to the frequency of the power supply. I don’t know the mechanism, but when I was a kid I found I could hold a lightswitch in a halfway state and hear the interference on the nearby FM radio. (Classic FM, so ~101 MHz compared to UK mains at 50 Hz).
OK, fair enough. But I know what arcs look like. And I'm 100% sure that the one in these NYC videos was huge.
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#54Here's a pretty good view from above, from reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/aa632...
I think the battle is lost, but I'm a little bit sad seeing the sky over a city being filmed in vertical video.
I'm sure most people who've clicked the play button on that video have done so on their mobiles in portrait orientation so... sorry gramps
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#55I have never seen a transformator explosion in Germany or Europe. What is different in the american power grid?
Distribution transformers (i.e. the small ones that serve homes or individual businesses) are run-to-failure components and they fail all the time. Most of the time, the failure is not as catastrophic as an explosion, because a protection system isolates the circuit and limits the amount of energy discharged through the fault. For various reasons, it can be impractical or not economic to provide very sensitive, very…
In the UK we don't generally have transformers per home or business, but mainly larger ones that serve a few hundred homes, usually the size of a shed. I have seen one of those fail but it is not common.
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#56Every time something like this happens it's like "Oh, finally! The aliens! No earthly bullshit any more, all the people will unite to fight the common enemy or die a beautiful way..." and then just meh...
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#57How dangerous is that light? I know welding arcs contain a lot of dangerous UV light for example. It should be fine indirectly (clouds would let the UV pass or absorb it), but directly being exposed to it seems dangerous.
It depends on how many excited elements are present that emit UV light. In general arc light is very dangerous to skin from close proximity due to very intense UV radiation per square inch. From afar it could still be dangerous to your eyes when looked at directly.
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
With that sort of light, there clearly was arcing. But most of the billowing smoke was from burning transformer oil. And about radio interference. This is 60 Hz, so I doubt that's an issue.
A spark’s RF interference isn’t limited to the frequency of the power supply. I don’t know the mechanism, but when I was a kid I found I could hold a lightswitch in a halfway state and hear the interference on the nearby FM radio. (Classic FM, so ~101 MHz compared to UK mains at 50 Hz).
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#59I live about two blocks away. The lights dimmed and one of our breakers flipped. Then it got bad. My phone suddenly lit up, brighter than the night's electric blue sky, as everyone I've ever known called and texted to ask about what was going on. Nothing interesting. Astoria is a pretty great neighborhood tho. We have a 24-hour fruit market next to another 24-hour fruit market.
What's the difference between the fruit stores? Is one better than the other or are they not directly comparable?
It's questions like this that keep me coming back to hn :-)
Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
#60Once as a teenage (somewhere in the early 90s) I was watching a thunderstorm in suburban Sydney. I saw lightning strike (probably 5-10km) away, then a couple of seconds after the strike from about where the lightning hit, a blue 'bubble' (though with diffuse edges) rose (as though inflating) then fell/deflated over the course of a few seconds.
I've never gotten a good explanation for what it was, though this picture makes me think lightning struck an electricity sub station, caused a brief electrical fire which lit up the sky as it got more intense, then died off.