• ghterve@lemmy.world
    66·
    5 hours ago

    When this was posted on Reddit recently, someone claimed this was caused by a fallen power line that made contact with a gas line. So, power flowing into the house through gas pipe and back out through equipment grounds, heating up lower resistance gas pipes in the process.

    Photo reportedly taken by fire fighters or gas company employees.

    • Thorry84@feddit.nl
      41·
      1 hour ago

      This makes no sense at all.

      Why would only these two specific pipes get hot, so hot to glow, but not the other lines connected to it? And not the fittings around it? It’s all copper, so even if the power itself doesn’t heat them up, why would being connected to an extremely hot pipe heat it up. Since it’s you know copper and being good at transferring heat is what it’s known for.

      And why would the lower resistance part be the part that get hottest? Low resistance means less loss, so those parts would in fact be the coldest of all.

      Plus thin walled copper pipes can’t get so hot they glow without melting or at the very least lose all structural integrity and break.

      And a downed power line with a short to ground would almost immediately turn off. It’s when there isn’t a direct line to ground those things are dangerous. As soon as it shorts, it gets turned off at the source to prevent further damage, fire and not cause issues upstream.

      Either it’s Photoshop or someone has wrapped led lighting around some pipes. Also those aren’t gas pipes.

      • friendlycheese@lemmy.world
        4·
        58 minutes ago

        Both of the lines that are lit up are flexible aluminum couplings. They’re required in some areas as the final connections to the appliances. They’re in line with cast iron gas pipe and fittings. They are much more thin and way better at conducting heat.

        Source: former HVAC tech

  • nick@midwest.social
    83·
    6 hours ago

    This happens when the neutral goes out in a house. Usually the waterlines will handle it, but if the house has pex the ground will go through the gas lines.

    Especially if a high voltage line comes down on a gas meter for whatever reason.

    Definitely run away and call professional… everyone i guess.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
      1·
      55 minutes ago

      We found out a while ago that plumbing pipes aren’t the best way to ground a house for a variety of reasons, and this is why ufers (grounding to foundation steel) and ground rods are now the NEC standard. Also, this is why bonding wires are important as well. If the plumbing were bonded to a proper dwelling ground system, the current would find a direct path to ground and trip the responsible breaker, instead of using the gas lines as a big ass resistor and creating the light show we see here.

    • David_Eight@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 hours ago

      I’ve never seen pex running into a house from the street/ground. It’s always been copper up to the water meter at the very least and it’s code (in NJ at least) to put grounding wire there.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      10·
      5 hours ago

      Would killing the main breaker at least prevent the heating of the pipes so that the expert isn’t walking into a potentially dangerous situation?

      • ghterve@lemmy.world
        10·
        4 hours ago

        I think in this case the power heating the pipes is not coming from this house’s electrical service, so killing the main breaker probably won’t help.

      • carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        9·
        5 hours ago

        I’m a little concerned killing the main breaker might result in a sudden temperature change that might fracture the gas line. Of course if you turn the gas off you might get fried.

    • Anivia@feddit.org
      1·
      3 hours ago

      This would have also been prevented if the electrical install included an RCD. It would have tripped instantly when the neutral gets disconnected

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Better yet to just have a bond to the gas and water pipes. In this instance, any current introduced to the plumbing has a direct connection to ground, which will allow current to flow freely and trip the breaker.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
    64·
    6 hours ago

    “Home is equipped with a 50 Gallon gas water heater upgraded with RGB lines for an extra 10 FPS.”

  • enkers@sh.itjust.works
    13·
    5 hours ago

    While it looks scary as fuck, wouldn’t it not actually explode unless the gas pipe melted through? There’s no oxygen in the fuel, so it can’t combust. I guess as the gas heats up, it’s also possible the for the tank or lines to spring a leak.

    Either way, I’d be nopeing out and calling emergency services.

    • fouloleron@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      6 hours ago

      They look like a gas furnace and a hot water tank. My first thought was "Why are they connected? ", because I thought the tank had its own heating element. My second thought was “Aren’t those water lines? How does a water line become incandescent?”

      • r00ty@kbin.life
        10·
        6 hours ago

        The only way that immediately springs to mind is so unlikely to happen. It requires multiple faults/mistakes.

        1: The chassis of one of the two units became live (connected to “hot” for you Americans) but was also not grounded in any way.
        2: The chassis of the other WAS grounded and created a circuit for the current to flow.
        3: There was no RCD (GFCD or whatever you guys call it) on the circuit.

        In this way, that pipe would be the only thing connecting the two devices, and the resistance is causing a huge amount of heat (just like an incandescent bulb, or a heating element does by design).

        Probably other possibilities, but it’s just the first thing I could think of that could potentially produce this result. But, that’s a lot of safety features to have either failed or just simply not been in place for this to be possible. So, frankly I hope I’m totally wrong.

        • Sparky@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          2·
          4 hours ago

          Even if that happened, wouldn’t the pipe handle a lot more current than normal house wires, or even the main ones connecting the building to the grid. I assume the pipe would be thick enough that the wires in your walls would be glowing long before the pipe itself was.

          • r00ty@kbin.life
            2·
            4 hours ago

            I would have thought so, but I think it depends on how thin the skin of the pipe is. I would also have expected a breaker to trip under that much load. But, based on that happening, I’d not be surprised if there are bypasses and/or broken breakers.

            When we moved into the house we’re in now, the RCD (GFCI) didn’t work at all. I pressed test, nothing. Had the electrician over to change it. He tested the actual actuation using earth leakage. Nothing. So, faults can happen too.

            I want to be wrong, though. Because that’s a pretty bad state to get into, I think.

      • Incandemon@lemmy.ca
        5·
        6 hours ago

        Pretty sure its a natural gas powered water heater, so that would be the gas supply line. As to the incandesance, no clue.

        • bizarroland@fedia.io
          1·
          5 hours ago

          Some part of me believes that water cannot get so hot that it would cause metal to Glow.

          I would be happy to be proven wrong.

          I mean, unless you’re saying that the pipe is heating the water inside of it? Which at that temperature that water would be expanding to over a thousand times its size and would probably blow that line to smithereens.

          • MentalEdge
            6·
            5 hours ago

            Steam has no limit to how hot it can get. Until it eventually transitions into plasma of course. By then the oxygen and hydrogen would have separated, I imagine. Then it’s no longer water.

            Superheated steam was a problem in some steam locomotives, as running the water level too low would allow the boiler to reach temperatures that would compromise the integrity of the metal.

            Only liquid water has the boiling point as a “limit”.

      • Drathro@dormi.zoneEnglish
        11·
        6 hours ago

        Both glowing portions are natural gas pipes. Perhaps it’s somehow ignited inside the pipes and is super heating them but also somehow NOT travelling outside the two glowing sections and burning the house down???

        • fouloleron@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          6 hours ago

          I don’t know, but I’d like to think I would shut everything off and run away until it demonstrably hadn’t exploded rather than take a picture!