At what pH level does Water become an insulator and from what pH level does it conduct electricity?
Water at a certain pH level is use to wash insulators on Transmission Lines whilst electrical power is still on it. But it does not conduct.
Actually the conductive properties of water that is less than absolutely pure and free from contamination is handled differently. See the patent below it has details on how this is done.
For further information this patent will lead you to others that explain the process and how to do it safely.
Niel
The helicopter scheme for washing high tension insulators is ingenious but weird. It reminds me of an incident a few years back. An ice storm had knocked out power lines in back of my house and some kid had dumped paper on a live line lying in the alley, and started a good size fire. I got a bucket of water and standing some distance from the fire threw the water on it. I got the shock of my life! There must have been an unbroken stream of water between me and the line for an instant. The warning “never throw water on an electrical fire” suddenly acquired life and death meaning.
Another answer to the question of pH of water:
To be minimally conductive there must be no dissolved salts in the water, a condition very hard to achieve. Even multiply distilled water has some salts due to leaching elements from the distilling apparatus. The least conductive pH is pH 7 which tells you that the there is a minimum of OH- and H+ ions in the water but doesn’t tell you that other ions are not present which may not be due to the acidity or basicity of the water. There could be table salt or any of innumerable other salts in the water at pH 7 or any pH. If the pH is other than 7 there are always other ions present for example CL- if the water is acidic due to hydrochloric acid or Na+ if the water is basic due to sodium hydroxide.
