5 Oct
2007
5 Oct
'07
3:26 p.m.
Hi all
Not with one of my screwdriers you don't! I value my tools...
An electircal-engineer friend of mine toaught me the correct procedure.
Firstly, test the meter on a circuit you know is live. Then isolate the
circuit you want to work on, check that the meter shows it to be dead.
Then chekc the meter on a live cirucit again, to be sure it's not failed
between the first 2 tests. After that, for mains volage, (but nothing
higher)!, I'd brush the wiring with the back of my fingers, the idea
being that if by some fluke it is sitll live, the shock would throw me
off, not force me onto the terminals/
Said friend has a voltmeter used for small overhead power lines (up to
11kV or something). In the carrying case is a small 5kV-or-so
battery-operated PSU. You use that to check the meter is working
correctly before and ever seach test to see if a power line is dead.
-tony
From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
A friend of mine was nearly killed due to this. He tested some wiring for
voltage-to-earth and the meter said it was essentially dead. SO he
started workign, alas the meter was malfuctioning, and he got the full
mains volatege across him. He imediately went and bought an expensive mad
reliable neter.
I always short my screwdriver across the line before fitting, say, a light
socket or a switch.