I got shocked yesterday - several times

[K8MHZ]

Usually only if it is anything but a QO panel or a CH panel. Everything else has more exposure of bus, which I hate, but you are not supposed to work on it live:angel:

This was an outside service panel, a SQ D. LOTS of exposed bus when you only use half the breaker spaces.

As for working it live, I gotcha. BUT.....I'm old school and when I first started fooling with 120/240 it was very common place to work 'em hot. In fact, in one of the old NECs there is a discussion about how to check for voltage with your bare hands.

That being said.....working an outdoor panel hot in the pouring down rain is obviously not a good idea, but years ago it was expected that a trained electrician could do such things without getting flicked unceremoniously into the afterlife.

 

[K8MHZ]

usually my emotion is embarrassment, especially if someone else is there, double especially if the someone else is the customer.

On 120 I am used to it so I don't jump much. If the customer is watching I just pretend it didn't happen. If one of my co-horts are, I usually utter a loud obscenity.

It's hard to change from the old school way to today's way. In this particular outdoor installation, we were soaking wet and freezing. My first goal was to get the furnace back on and get some lights in the house.

I'll take a couple zings over being cold and wet for hours with no shelter any day. But if my apprentice did the same thing we would be having a talk. When it comes to working hot res, it's do as I say, not as I do. New apprentii are taught not to work hot, not how to work hot.

 

[kwired]

This was an outside service panel, a SQ D. LOTS of exposed bus when you only use half the breaker spaces.

A lot more exposed bus in a Homeline vs a QO. That is why I prefer QO or Cutler Hammers CH series over pretty much everything else. I have accidently either touched the bus or had something else touch it in "everything else" more often than in the QO or CH panels.

But you still are not supposed to work it hot

You are also not supposed to drive faster than the posted speed limit.

 

[K8MHZ]

A lot more exposed bus in a Homeline vs a QO. That is why I prefer QO or Cutler Hammers CH series over pretty much everything else. I have accidently either touched the bus or had something else touch it in "everything else" more often than in the QO or CH panels.

But you still are not supposed to work it hot

You are also not supposed to drive faster than the posted speed limit.

Actually, in my state you can. But, with a few exceptions, it's a tough case to prove. An ex-cop friend of mine explained the Michigan State Basic Speed Law to me and there is nothing there about being required to obey a posted speed limit. You are required to prove that you were driving safe and that your speed, no matter what it was (higher or lower) was as safe or safer than the posted speed limit. If you have ever driven on the 696 in Detroit, you will know what I mean. If you were going 70 at rush hour there you would be a traffic hazard and could actually be given a ticket for NOT exceeding the speed limit. Vice versa, if you were in 6 lanes of traffic and traveling at 85 mph with traffic, getting written up for 85 in a 70 would be very easy to beat.

Also, if you sped up to avoid an accident or some other hazard (like trying to outrun a tornado, for instance) and exceeded the posted speed limit, you would not have violated the Michigan Basic Speed Law, but would have to prove why not if you got a ticket for it.

 

[cowboyjwc]

I hate the most when you get bit and didn't expect it.

Like Marky, I was working in the pouring rain, I was on a second floor wood deck on a wood ladder with gloves and my linemens, and I grabed the hot wire and ouch! And of course since I wasn't expecting it, I had a pretty good hold of it.:dunce: Good lesson in grounding.

 

[kwired]

I hate the most when you get bit and didn't expect it.

Like Marky, I was working in the pouring rain, I was on a second floor wood deck on a wood ladder with gloves and my linemens, and I grabed the hot wire and ouch! And of course since I wasn't expecting it, I had a pretty good hold of it.:dunce: Good lesson in grounding.

Dare I ask how often you "are" expecting it??

 

[cowboyjwc]

Dare I ask how often you "are" expecting it??

Any time I work something hot I expect it, because there's always that chance, but usually you just brush it or what not. When you think it's safe and you find that hole in the handle of your strippers that you didn't know was there, is when it really hurts.

 

[Strife]

Perhaps you should institute a program of gradually increasing the jolts, building up an immunity. You'll be working 480 hot in no time!


(Anyone who believes this, please notify the mods ... so you can be banned, as you can't possibly be an electrical professional!)

That suppossingly only work with poison

 

[stan77]

Skin resistance

Skin resistance

Skin resistance varies depending on what part of the body is involved so apparently you felt the shock even though it was on;y 24 volts, remember ohms law , it applys not matter what!

Mark