The sounds of spring are here: birds chirping, ice cracking and sump hoses gurgling to life. For houses with padmount transformers in their yards, it’s very important to safely direct those sump hoses away from our equipment so they don’t cause outages.
Our crews have seen several padmount transformers (the green electrical boxes you sometimes see in yards) with large puddles around them this year. If a puddle gets deep enough, standing water can corrode equipment, requiring costly repairs and causing power outages.
Standing water can corrode equipment inside a padmount transformer and cause power outages.
Padmount transformers are designed to be safe even when wet, and they’re raised above the ground with fibreglass or concrete pads to stay dry. But if your sump hose is going all the time, it’s best to direct the water elsewhere before the transformer turns into a green metal island.
When the area is dry, it may also be a good idea to landscape so water flows away from the transformer during the spring melt. Be sure to Click Before You Dig like you would with any other landscaping project.
Read our guidelines for properly landscaping around electrical equipment.
We use padmount transformers in areas with underground electrical cables. Transformers safely reduce the voltage of electricity before it goes into nearby homes.
