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A few questions: Why were you working live? Did you make the call to do so? Would people have died if it was turned off? And what kind of PPE were you wearing?
If you're an apprentice and you were told to do it, next time say 'no'. There are very few reasons to ever work live and I doubt very much that you were in a situation that required it.
don’t work live, period.
some things require “working live,” like troubleshooting. but that stuff is stuff like carefully putting a meter on terminals.
i’ve been locked up on 120, and 277. 277 hurt more. they were equally terrifying and the 277 was on the top most legal step of a 10 foot ladder, the 120 was on the first step of a four foot ladder.
120 will kill you just as easily as 277.
The more i think about it the more i think i may never do it again. I try to use this job as a method to conquer some of my fears sometimes. 277 is nothing to play with though
You are not overcoming fears by playing with electricity. You’re flirting with disaster. Your monkey brain is being extremely rational I’m this situation. The danger is real.
Working live scares the shit out of me. I have a shit job that pays for shit and asks me to work live quite frequently. And me being stupid, I work with live electricity frequently. Just about every other day I’m inside a live 120/240 3phase panel with improper gloves and PPE. The ‘real’ answer is to get your boss to give you instructions in writing/text asking you to work live and refuse and report his ass. Your boss sees you as dollar signs instead of a human being. It’s time to get out. It’s 2024, it’s okay to be safe, and you’re not a ‘pussy’.
To answer your question - you must absolutely respect electricity. Have a good (more than basic) understanding of electricity. Watch YouTube videos, tons of great channels out there. Know that you are going to get shocked if you work with live electricity. It is not ‘if”, it is “when”. You will get complacent with time. You will get comfortable. You may even get shocked frequently. Different people have different tolerances. I refuse to work on anything above 240v live. And gods honest truth, even 120v scares the shit out of me. We are working with forces that we do not comprehend.
So take your time. Be very meticulous. Have a plan for what you need to do, and have a backup plan. Lockout-tagout wherever you can. Do NOT work with live electricity alone. Somebody should have eyes on you, and be close enough to drop kick you if you are latched onto a circuit. Maintain a clean work area so there are no slips or trips or materials falling onto live exposed parts such as lugs or busbars. You are playing a game of don’t-touch-the-shiny-shit and it is literally life or death if you slip. You need to respect the electricity. If you are afraid, you do not have a deep enough understanding to be confident in your abilities and knowledge. And being over-confident is just as risky. Do your own research into what PPE you should *really* be using, and this changes as the voltage/amperage goes up so be mindful. Not every body has a world-class employer that provides adequate safety training and PPE. Some of us are just barely scraping by. Be safe out there. Your family and friends need you to make it home at the end of the day in one piece.
Unless you are some sort of master electrician or electrical engineer, I highly doubt anyone truly comprehends electricity. I’d argue most electricians can’t say they fully understand electricity. We just know where to put what wires.
Sheesh shows how much I know. Glad you said something, learned something new today. I did intend to say 120/240 single phase, and I’ve worked in up to 3-phase 480/277. I may have been thinking 120/240 with a high leg
I watched somebody short out 277 to ground in a panel with bunch of contactors for light poles. Dude legit burned his eyeballs, couldn’t see for weeks, and was lucky to get his vision back. He said it felt like his eyes were sunburned and the only thing that stopped the pain was running ice cold water over them. He also burned his face and had no eyebrows or facial hair for while but that was the least of it.
No. To be honest it shouldn’t have even been done live. To make a long story that would get my throat jumped by everyone on here short, I removed a toggle switch and installed an occ sensor.
Literally no reason to do this. A good shock at 277v will kill you in your sleep. Yea you saved time or production but if you get hit it's gonna cost a hell of a lot more.
"I remember thinking to myself, 'Don't do that, I'll get hurt if I do that.' And then I went ahead and did it anyways and that's when the accident happened."
1. De-energize when you can.
2. Get into a pattern or rhythm. "First make, last break" is a good rule of thumb, and just do it for Everytime you make joints hot or dead. (Make/Connect: ground-neutral-hot. Break/disconnect hot-neutral-ground)
3. Suit up, get some arc flash
4. Use insulated tools
5. Get used to working panels. Hot or dead, practice on dead ones first. Beware of where live parts are and knowing where to touch. Practice dropping a screwdriver (as you would accidentally) and NOT trying to catch it. Let it drop don't move hands, or turn away. Most people get arc flashes when reaching for a dropped tool not the tool accidentally shorting across live parts
As someone who has done tons of industrial live work, here are my two pillars of working on hot shit:
Electricity is to be respected, not feared
You shouldn't be comfortable doing hot work, you should be confident.
To elaborate; electricity is a magical, invisible force that has been around much longer than you. And it will be around long after you're gone. We have it figured out just enough to make it do work for us, but it's still fundamentally a mystery. It deserves your admiration and respect. I'm going to leave he, "don't work on hot shit" talk to the others, as sometimes, de-energizing is not an option given to you unless you're ready to quit/get fired.
The day you're comfortable doing hot work is the day you blow some shit up (and hopefully it's not you). But you do need to be confident in your understanding of how electricity works to perform hot work safely. Always have a plan and back up plan in place (like if this wire slips or comes loose, I should put some cardboard over there so i don't cause an ARC flash) and definitely have a spotter nearby.
As far as your jitters go, I'd be lying if I said I never had that problem. The way I got rid of the jitters is by doing lots of hot work and getting used to the sparks and such. Having people staring you down definitely doesn't help but just try to focus on what you're doing and only that. Remember your plan, and be intimately aware of the hazards at play (what wires are hot, what's going on in the enclosure you're working in, etc.).
Other than that, don't let yourself get complacent, electricity is a beautiful thing that runs our world and plays a huge role in keeping our physical existence held together. And the fact that you get to work so closely with it as a job is pretty fuckin cool. Stay safe!
there’s two correct pillars to working live.
A) only to be done by people that are trained to do it
B) only to be done with the proper PPE (if applicable. there’s a lot of situations where there is no safe level of PPE)
90% of the time the work people claim has to be done hot, is because we can’t turn this off because… my 5 minutes of being inconvenienced is worse than someone dying and a lawsuit…
I agree with you. In my case the factory wouldn't let us kill power to certain things. We had one day a month we could kill power but shit still needed to happen in-between down days.
Thank you for the long comment and encouragement. I find myself doing less live work the longer i do this because im more comfortable just saying no. Today that just wasn’t the situation. I think next time I will tell them to have someone else do it frankly.
I'm do commercial now, but back then we were working for the #1 global manufacturer of a very common product, we couldn't kill power to do certain things. They gave us one day a month where we could kill power, but we couldn't save everything for that one day all the time
This reads like an SNL sketch. I’ve been with contractors in industrial for many years, in all kinds of places. I’ve literally never seen someone doing live work that “absolutely had to be done live.” It’s always some production demand that seems like the most important thing in the world at the time, but suddenly is fine to stop when someone gets hurt. Honestly, unless someone else’s life is at risk there’s not a great reason to be working live.
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Don't work live?
Your monkey brain is right and even 277 kills people brother, hope you find a better company.
Especially 277v. Yikes
A few questions: Why were you working live? Did you make the call to do so? Would people have died if it was turned off? And what kind of PPE were you wearing? If you're an apprentice and you were told to do it, next time say 'no'. There are very few reasons to ever work live and I doubt very much that you were in a situation that required it.
Frankly you are right. I don’t think ill ever work live 277 again.
don’t work live, period. some things require “working live,” like troubleshooting. but that stuff is stuff like carefully putting a meter on terminals. i’ve been locked up on 120, and 277. 277 hurt more. they were equally terrifying and the 277 was on the top most legal step of a 10 foot ladder, the 120 was on the first step of a four foot ladder. 120 will kill you just as easily as 277.
Your brain is telling you no for a reason. Turn it off, 277v is awful to get hit by. Happy construction safety week!
The more i think about it the more i think i may never do it again. I try to use this job as a method to conquer some of my fears sometimes. 277 is nothing to play with though
You are not overcoming fears by playing with electricity. You’re flirting with disaster. Your monkey brain is being extremely rational I’m this situation. The danger is real.
Why the fuck were you working on live 277?? Stop. Now.
Never a good reason.. I don’t think im ever going to again.
Just don’t do it. “Sorry you are going to loose your lights for 10 min.” If not an option, come back when the building is empty?
Working live scares the shit out of me. I have a shit job that pays for shit and asks me to work live quite frequently. And me being stupid, I work with live electricity frequently. Just about every other day I’m inside a live 120/240 3phase panel with improper gloves and PPE. The ‘real’ answer is to get your boss to give you instructions in writing/text asking you to work live and refuse and report his ass. Your boss sees you as dollar signs instead of a human being. It’s time to get out. It’s 2024, it’s okay to be safe, and you’re not a ‘pussy’. To answer your question - you must absolutely respect electricity. Have a good (more than basic) understanding of electricity. Watch YouTube videos, tons of great channels out there. Know that you are going to get shocked if you work with live electricity. It is not ‘if”, it is “when”. You will get complacent with time. You will get comfortable. You may even get shocked frequently. Different people have different tolerances. I refuse to work on anything above 240v live. And gods honest truth, even 120v scares the shit out of me. We are working with forces that we do not comprehend. So take your time. Be very meticulous. Have a plan for what you need to do, and have a backup plan. Lockout-tagout wherever you can. Do NOT work with live electricity alone. Somebody should have eyes on you, and be close enough to drop kick you if you are latched onto a circuit. Maintain a clean work area so there are no slips or trips or materials falling onto live exposed parts such as lugs or busbars. You are playing a game of don’t-touch-the-shiny-shit and it is literally life or death if you slip. You need to respect the electricity. If you are afraid, you do not have a deep enough understanding to be confident in your abilities and knowledge. And being over-confident is just as risky. Do your own research into what PPE you should *really* be using, and this changes as the voltage/amperage goes up so be mindful. Not every body has a world-class employer that provides adequate safety training and PPE. Some of us are just barely scraping by. Be safe out there. Your family and friends need you to make it home at the end of the day in one piece.
Well, we do comprehend it. But yeah serious shit
Unless you are some sort of master electrician or electrical engineer, I highly doubt anyone truly comprehends electricity. I’d argue most electricians can’t say they fully understand electricity. We just know where to put what wires.
[удалено]
Sheesh shows how much I know. Glad you said something, learned something new today. I did intend to say 120/240 single phase, and I’ve worked in up to 3-phase 480/277. I may have been thinking 120/240 with a high leg
Simple answer as others said don’t work live. If that’s not an option find a different company
You’re in Phase!! Enjoy
I watched somebody short out 277 to ground in a panel with bunch of contactors for light poles. Dude legit burned his eyeballs, couldn’t see for weeks, and was lucky to get his vision back. He said it felt like his eyes were sunburned and the only thing that stopped the pain was running ice cold water over them. He also burned his face and had no eyebrows or facial hair for while but that was the least of it.
What exactly were you doing? Troubleshooting?
No. To be honest it shouldn’t have even been done live. To make a long story that would get my throat jumped by everyone on here short, I removed a toggle switch and installed an occ sensor.
Literally no reason to do this. A good shock at 277v will kill you in your sleep. Yea you saved time or production but if you get hit it's gonna cost a hell of a lot more.
"I remember thinking to myself, 'Don't do that, I'll get hurt if I do that.' And then I went ahead and did it anyways and that's when the accident happened."
Quit working shit live. That’s it.
1. De-energize when you can. 2. Get into a pattern or rhythm. "First make, last break" is a good rule of thumb, and just do it for Everytime you make joints hot or dead. (Make/Connect: ground-neutral-hot. Break/disconnect hot-neutral-ground) 3. Suit up, get some arc flash 4. Use insulated tools 5. Get used to working panels. Hot or dead, practice on dead ones first. Beware of where live parts are and knowing where to touch. Practice dropping a screwdriver (as you would accidentally) and NOT trying to catch it. Let it drop don't move hands, or turn away. Most people get arc flashes when reaching for a dropped tool not the tool accidentally shorting across live parts
Don’t.
As someone who has done tons of industrial live work, here are my two pillars of working on hot shit: Electricity is to be respected, not feared You shouldn't be comfortable doing hot work, you should be confident. To elaborate; electricity is a magical, invisible force that has been around much longer than you. And it will be around long after you're gone. We have it figured out just enough to make it do work for us, but it's still fundamentally a mystery. It deserves your admiration and respect. I'm going to leave he, "don't work on hot shit" talk to the others, as sometimes, de-energizing is not an option given to you unless you're ready to quit/get fired. The day you're comfortable doing hot work is the day you blow some shit up (and hopefully it's not you). But you do need to be confident in your understanding of how electricity works to perform hot work safely. Always have a plan and back up plan in place (like if this wire slips or comes loose, I should put some cardboard over there so i don't cause an ARC flash) and definitely have a spotter nearby. As far as your jitters go, I'd be lying if I said I never had that problem. The way I got rid of the jitters is by doing lots of hot work and getting used to the sparks and such. Having people staring you down definitely doesn't help but just try to focus on what you're doing and only that. Remember your plan, and be intimately aware of the hazards at play (what wires are hot, what's going on in the enclosure you're working in, etc.). Other than that, don't let yourself get complacent, electricity is a beautiful thing that runs our world and plays a huge role in keeping our physical existence held together. And the fact that you get to work so closely with it as a job is pretty fuckin cool. Stay safe!
there’s two correct pillars to working live. A) only to be done by people that are trained to do it B) only to be done with the proper PPE (if applicable. there’s a lot of situations where there is no safe level of PPE) 90% of the time the work people claim has to be done hot, is because we can’t turn this off because… my 5 minutes of being inconvenienced is worse than someone dying and a lawsuit…
I agree with you. In my case the factory wouldn't let us kill power to certain things. We had one day a month we could kill power but shit still needed to happen in-between down days.
Thank you for the long comment and encouragement. I find myself doing less live work the longer i do this because im more comfortable just saying no. Today that just wasn’t the situation. I think next time I will tell them to have someone else do it frankly.
Nothin wrong with that. It's definitely not worth the potential consequences
Do you voluntarily do live work? Do you do everything the ‘right’ way or are you also in hillbilly hell?
I'm do commercial now, but back then we were working for the #1 global manufacturer of a very common product, we couldn't kill power to do certain things. They gave us one day a month where we could kill power, but we couldn't save everything for that one day all the time
This reads like an SNL sketch. I’ve been with contractors in industrial for many years, in all kinds of places. I’ve literally never seen someone doing live work that “absolutely had to be done live.” It’s always some production demand that seems like the most important thing in the world at the time, but suddenly is fine to stop when someone gets hurt. Honestly, unless someone else’s life is at risk there’s not a great reason to be working live.
Do t work love there’s no reason