On Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:16:42 -0500, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

Tim Wescott fired this volley in news:dNmdnXeDZ_
:

And perhaps talk the
power co. into putting squirrel stops on the line

another idea. But you'd have thought they'd have done that after about the
fifteenth call! Again, I haven't seen those... didn't know they were
available.

LLoyd

If they're out that often, the Power Company should be ready to talk
remediation and avoidance - it probably costs them $500 every time
their phone rings. Some of those HV Fuses are $50 to $100 each.

They make big plastic rings for around the power lines, kinda like the
"Cone Of Shame" for dogs. That kind of stuff will discourage the
squirrels from taking that route.

Then put up some nice 2X2 lumber below the power lines as the Fast
Easy & Safe path for the squirrels to take.

Then get the Power Company to change out those fuses for a circuit
breaker - they do exist, but they usually don't want to spend the
money putting them up for nothing. AND put another of those circuit
breakers out by the road where the line to your property branches off
the main line.

And better yet, they have Radio Remote Control breaker operators for
both the local and remote breakers, you don't have to do anything
other than call them up and tell them it's tripped out.

They can "Pull the Lever, Kronk!" and turn off or reset the breaker
all the way from the Dispatch Office. If you get real popular with
the Linemen, they can kill the remote switch out by the road and kill
the entire line, then you get a clearance number that it's cold...

Then you can safely knock the remains of the squirrel out of your
equipment with a simple fiberglass "Clearance Stick" - and they are a
whole lot less expensive than a full on Hot Stick, meant to make sure
that the drops are high enough where they cross the road.

You call them back and report the short is cleared, and they remotely
reset the breaker by the road, then reset the one out at your end of
the line. All done, lights back on, nobody had to come out. And they
didn't have any Liability concerns about you messing with their fuses.
And even if they left a spare set of fuses up on the pole (for you),
they'd still have to come out and put up more spares before it blew on
you again.

-- Bruce --