VeriSafe absent of voltage tester ???

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Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
They (Panduit) gave me one to try out on an MCC that I had here at my facility, but their shipment was delayed and it arrived too late, the MCC was gone. I have another MCC in a demo lab that I could put it on, but they only sent me the one and I want to put it on the MCC that is now gone, so it means a road trip and I can't get the time to go do it yet. Maybe next week though. We've been using the GracePort version (Voltage Vision I think) that gives you little neon light indication of energy in the box and although I like them, others don't allow them because you can't test them. That was the thing that I wanted to try out with the VeriSafe units, they have a test function, so I'm thinking that may qualify it with some safety standards that require Test-Verify-Test procedures before entering an electrical enclosure.
 
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cdevine

Member
Location
Brisbane, Australia
First a disclosure. I work for a company that makes an alternative product - DeadEasy 32. Now to an opinion...

Can I suggest you explore your purpose for needing a voltage indicator first. Is it for electrical maintenance (9% of cases) or non-electrical maintenance (91% of cases). If you want it for electrical maintenance as well as non-electrical maintenance consider this scenario:

  1. You need to perform some electrical work within a panel
  2. You isolate the panel
  3. You witness indication via the AVT/Grace that suggests the disconnect has removed power
  4. Do you:
    1. Open the panel and commence work including touching conductive parts that are normally energised?
    2. Open the panel and before touching conductive parts that are normally energised, you perform a live-dead-live check on those parts?
If you were to choose option 2, then it could be argued that you don't really need a voltage indicator for electrical maintenance. If you agreed with this statement then it gives you more options. For instance, the voltage indicator does not need to directly connect to the mains conductors. This means that:

  1. You are not introducing a weak point in your power system by connecting thin wire to large conductors/busbars without circuit protection at the point of connection. It is true that this approach is acceptable under strict conditions but do you really want to compromise your power system integrity when you don't need to?
  2. You don't need to disconnect the mains cabling to connect the sensing leads. Can be a lot of extra work and introduce hot spots if connections are not performed correctly or tested.
  3. You don't need to segregate sensor cables from control system cables.
Aside from the above electrical reasons you may also like to consider the benefit of having continuous indication that the power system is deenergised while work is being performed. The requirement to press a test button prevents this ongoing reassurance to maintenance workers.
 
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