exploding transformers

[fruitman]

Last week i passed the mall Pin Klao in BKK when i saw a huge lightningflash above the road followed by a very deep bang....it was the transformer on a pole which exploded...a guard came running outside, watched what happened and slowly walked back....people at the busstop just watched up to continue looking if the bus was coming...no panic at all....

 

Yesterday in the street behind us a transformer exploded, also on a pole.

 

Just 5 minutes ago also a blue flash followed to a loud deep bang in another street behind us.

 

Have you ever seen/heard a transformer explode? I mean those big ones on poles above the streets.

 

 

[kannot]

yes maybe they are "best quality"..............something I never saw or heard  of in the Uk happens often here.....maybe the  heat does them in faster

[KittenKong]

It's happened to ones near my condo at least twice in the last 5 years, but there are several in the area. Back in Europe it happened to one near my house once in 20 years, though there was only the one transformer anywhere near my house. Nothing to do with storms in any of those cases.

 

Hell of a bang!

 

Apparently they give off dioxin when they explode so probably best to run upwind.

[fruitman]

I don't understand why they explode, maybe overloaded? But that should happen when all aircons are running i guess, which is not now.

 

Maybe high humidity causes it?

 

At least they stay on the pole after the explosion but it sure is scary. The Thai can't be bothered though, have probably seen it many times.

 

Also thunder/lighting can be extremely loud in Thailand, last week i thought my neighbours house got hit or a huge bomb exploded in the garden but there was nothing to see. They even have an old style tv-antenna on the roof which already got struck by lightning 3 years ago.

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

Transformers don't often explode per-sé.

 

They do go off with a major bang on occasion usually due to a short on the high-voltage side. Snake, monkey or even (as happened whilst we were in India) just dirty insulators and the first rain of the season. The guys in the restaurant we were in at the time knew what was coming, audible hissing before the insulation actually failed, evidently a regular occurance. A high-energy flash and bang (effectively local lightning), scary but little damage caused other than the HV fuses dropping out and needing a man to come and reset.

 

Actual transformer failure would need the beast to be replaced, obviously this would take several hours. And yes, if one does fail catastrophically you don't want to be anywhere near it nasty by-products from burning transformer oil

 

 

[malt25]

" Have you ever seen/heard a transformer explode? I mean those big ones on poles above the streets. "

Nope.... never !

[Ron19]

I was 50 metres from a pole fuse that blew the other day and sounded exactly as described above. This could be what the OP is describing. I have a photo on my comp and will post it when I get back on.

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[dbrenn]

A squirrel climbed onto the insulator of one beside my place once. The transformer survived but it blew the fuses and flash fried the squirrel.

[KittenKong]

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

Actual transformer failure would need the beast to be replaced, obviously this would take several hours.

 

In all the three cases I have personally experienced the transformers did need replacing. I looked at two of them and they looked very damaged to me. No monkeys or tree snakes involved, as far as I know (there are none of either in Europe and they arent common in built-up parts of Jomtien), but I dont know what the actual cause was.

 

Either way, hell of a bang.

[Ron19]

Are you sure it wasn't one of these we are talking about.

I would call this a pole fuse which goes off exactly like the OP described.

This one is the one that went off 50 metres from me the other day.

 

 

[NancyL]

It happens several times a year around our condo in Chiang Mai.  Don't know if it's a transformer or a fuse blowing.  Always the same.  Very loud bang and flash of bright blue-white light.  Then power outage for a several block area.  Amazingly, it's corrected within about two hours, no matter the time of day.  Always hear that some animal was involved, like a squirrel or cat.

 

For several years, we lived in a condo where a small transformer station on a pole was right outside one of our bedroom windows -- literally inches away from the window.  We kept that window covered a thick insulating curtain that we never opened.  Fortunately, that transformer never blew, but others on the soi did.

[Crossy]

5 hours ago, Ron19 said:

Are you sure it wasn't one of these we are talking about.

I would call this a pole fuse which goes off exactly like the OP described.

This one is the one that went off 50 metres from me the other day.

 

We'd normally call that a "drop fuse", they make a very satisfying bang when they open under load.

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=drop+fuse&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gws_rd=cr&ei=v7gZWJetA4nfvgTy7aH4Dg

 

 

[Ron19]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

We'd normally call that a "drop fuse", they make a very satisfying bang when they open under load.

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=drop+fuse&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gws_rd=cr&ei=v7gZWJetA4nfvgTy7aH4Dg

 

 

I suppose different names different countries, Google pole fuse and it will come up with the same thing.

[KittenKong]

The things I saw were more like this:

 

 

It took the electric company hours to replace them.

[fruitman]

Actually i 'm not sure what exploded, the lightning and deep bang came from a pole and i saw a huge transformer there. But nobody got into panic so neither did i.

 

In our moobaan we also had a fried squirrel one day, i lost electricity because of that for some hours.

 

So now i understand it's not always that big transformer who blows, can also be the fuse...i hear those loud deep bangs pretty often and always wondered what it was. Sounds like a tank is firing somewhere near so loud but mostly we keep the electric running.

 

In australia i've seen a tree touching the HV-line and that also caused sparks for an hour or so untill it became flames and the firemen were called. In Thailand at many places i heard sizzling noises from the transformers, also means something is going on.

 

In Europe i've never ever heard or seen something like that..but electric is all underground. 

I've worked for a company who builds/revises huge transformers, they need very special transport (Mammoet cranes and trucks with hundreds of wheels), i wonder what happens if one of those explodes...not sure if those are also in Thailand but they are bigger than a citybus.

 

So the fuse can also blow and that happens often..next time i hear that noise again i'll go outside to see where it was..must be very close in the moobaan. I also hear gunfire often and wonder if that's really a gun which i guess.

 

Happy the powerlines are not infront of our home and sure not those big transformers.

 

 

 

 

[Ron19]

Those do look like transformers.

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[Kwasaki]

 

This would make a bigger bang l guess than the one shown before below. 

 

[IMA_FARANG]

Yes, I was once staying on soi 41 on Sukhumvit Road in a hotel with a view of the BTS in Bangkok

Duering a heavy thunder storm  lightning struck a nearby tree sending a wet tree branch on to the transformer, which then arced and exploded.

We lost the power in the hotel until a crew from the electric department came and replaced the transformer.

No power to several buildings in Sukhumvit soi 41 for about 6 hours.

Nice big blue flash when the transformer shorted out and blew.

This occurred in 2015 October or Novemnber during the rainy season, I believe.

The BTS service was briefly shut down at soi 41 while they used a crane to remove the arced transformer and install the new one.