3 ms·
Plumbing is like DC electricity. If we used alternating current in the plumbing, that would get complicated too. Electrons leaking out of a poorly sealed wire
by logfromblammo 8y ago
Plumbing is like DC electricity. If we used alternating current in the plumbing, that would get complicated too.
Electrons leaking out of a poorly sealed wire onto your floor is otherwise known as an arc fault. Sediment in your wires is the degradation of the electrical insulator by heat, radiation, chemical solvent, or biological factors such as rodents or insects, followed by moisture infiltration and oxidation in the current-carrying elements.
A junction of aluminum and copper wiring without dielectric protection may eventually burn down the building. That doesn't happen when your plumbing goes from copper to PVC, or PVC to PEX.
- atoav 8y agoYet all the remote mountain cabins I know of usually have less problems with their electricity than with their pipes, drains and such. Especially because they are higher mainrainance during cold winters (expanding ice bursts pipes, while wires just happily work quite independent of temperature if done right)
- logfromblammo 8y agoPlaces with less-cold, less-mountainous winters get more bio-problems, like a nest of fire ants inside the meter or main breaker panel, or squirrels chewing through the telecom/television/Internet cables. If you have a closed-loop circulating-water heating system, with the thermal energy produced by a windmill, its pipes are unlikely to freeze, unless the place gets really cold, without wind. The supply and return lines would probably be buried as deeply as is feasible, too. But yes, hanging an outdoor-rated NM cable between windmill and building, and placing a resistive element inside it, would be cheaper, quieter, and more reliable, even accounting for squirrel mishaps. If you can spare the expense, mineral-insulated cable is a very durable, bio-resistant way to move power.