The Incubation Chat-athon.
Or something like that...lol
Except that it is a Chat-athon with very little about incubating.
Why do people handle live wires like they're venomous snakes? Isn't it easier to flip a breaker first??? That said... I wired my coop yesterday while the power was still on. I took precautionary measures... which amounts to leather gloves while connecting wires inside the junction box. Smart... very smart!!!
When it comes to getting something to work right, my motto is: "When all else fails... read the instructions."
It is easier.
Very rarely does one need to handle wires live. Check with a known working voltmeter first.
I was an industrial electrician many years ago. The leather gloves go on first and then rubber gloves over them. The leather alone will still conduct. Wrap screwdrivers with electrical tape for the inadvertent contact with grounded box housing.
My motto is exactly the same. It's fun to use when someone can't figure out how something goes together.
Well the problems came when I tried to plug the thing in to see if it would work. The first two times I blew the breaker I had created a feedback loop which caused it to overload the system. When I shocked myself, that was mostly me being careless, I got excited that I finally got the thing to work and picked up the outlet I had wired it to. Not the first time I've been shocked, probably won't be the last
When I started in the trade, I was determined to never feel the voltage - desiring to go home after work.
That didn't last long. I was hit with 480 shortly thereafter. If you work with it, you'll eventually feel it. But taking the best precautions go a long way.
I worked with everything from millivolts to 28,000 volts.
The arc flash is more deadly than getting hit with the voltage alone. That's the current that passes through the air when the insulation of the air is no longer sufficient to withstand the voltage.
5-10 arc explosions occur in electrical equipment every day in the US. That number only includes injuries so severe that the victim must be treated at special burn units. It isn't necessary to touch live wires to sustain a flash injury.
Electrical arcs produce the highest temperatures known to occur on earth and can reach 4 times the temperature of the surface of the sun and do so in a fraction of a second.
An arc flash can be caused by a tool, rodent or anything that compromises the space between energized equipment and ground.
Instructions are generally printed in 6 different languages, anyway; none of which are you fluent in.
English included.
Those that translate the instruction into English don't help.
