Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
you can work something live if it is more dangerous to life and property to turn it off.
you still need appropriate PPE, etc.
there really isn't any other allowed situations, iirc.
Is it illegal to perform hot work?
- Thread starter vavelar
- Start date
- Status
you can work something live if it is more dangerous to life and property to turn it off.
you still need appropriate PPE, etc.
there really isn't any other allowed situations, iirc.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
you can also work live to do debugging and troubleshooting, but again the key is that you have to wear the appropriate PPE.
there seems to be a bizarre theory in some quarters that if you can justify working live, PPE is not required.
personally, I don't want to work on something that might kill me if I have a senior moment and am not paying attention for a few seconds.
gadfly56
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
My own personal experience it that the universe needs far less than a few seconds to slap you upside the head and shout "PAY ATTENTION, KNUCKLEHEAD" in both ears at the same time. Luckily I've not suffered anything more permanent than embarrassment. My job duties don't require me to work live, and I'd probably say "no" if asked.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
FIFY
Just had POCO out to a project yesterday, they pulled down a short section of primary distribution and moved pole with service transformer to a new location on the site. They do wear PPE, maybe not the same PPE you or I (should) wear when working on 600 volt or less switchgear, but is still deemed appropriate for the task. There was probably little risk to life or property though so should they have shut down their distribution line and however many other customers were on that section of line long enough to connect/disconnect their extension they were working on? On top of that shutting down that section of line is possibly same risk just in a different location to the person shutting it down, as most of their switches in the system are of a design that needs same/similar "hot stick" to operate. At some point someone did put a new "saddle" on the live distribution line to land the new feed onto.
ron
Senior Member
- Location
- New York, 40.7514,-73.9925
I don't think this section was posted yet, but I think very important. Bold is me.
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9910
1910.333(a)(1)
"Deenergized parts." Live parts to which an employee may be exposed shall be deenergized before the employee works on or near them, unless the employer can demonstrate that deenergizing introduces additional or increased hazards or is infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations. Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to ground need not be deenergized if there will be no increased exposure to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs.
Note 1: Examples of increased or additional hazards include interruption of life support equipment, deactivation of emergency alarm systems, shutdown of hazardous location ventilation equipment, or removal of illumination for an area.
Note 2: Examples of work that may be performed on or near energized circuit parts because of infeasibility due to equipment design or operational limitations include testing of electric circuits that can only be performed with the circuit energized and work on circuits that form an integral part of a continuous industrial process in a chemical plant that would otherwise need to be completely shut down in order to permit work on one circuit or piece of equipment.
Note 3: Work on or near deenergized parts is covered by paragraph (b) of this section.
- Status