On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:30:41 -0500, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

The one time I saw this, the electrician pulled the lead in wire, that had
been from the meter to the panel box. He set the wire on the ground, and
used his Simpson VOM to read from hot to hot -- there was less than
infinity resistance. I didn't see on his meter how many tens or hundreds of
K-ohms, but there would have been current flow, with 220 VAC applied.

That wouldn't be unusual if the wire were wet, for example. PVC insulated wire that
has overheated breaks down and one of the breakdown products is hygroscopic. Thus,
moisture in the conduit would not be unusual.

That resistance wouldn't be dissipating any significant power, however. Consider
10kohms and 240 volts. (10kohms would be a very low resistance for such a
circumstance so consider it an extreme example) P = Vsquared/R or about 6 watts. The
bulk of the heating was simple I^2R losses from the current passing through the
conductors and perhaps some conducted heat from the hot joint.

John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com -- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
If stupidity hurt then they'd be putting morphine in the water supply.