Have you ever performed work at 120V by just flipping off the switch?

• Yes
• No
• I don't do this type of work

Yes but only at home

In the old days. Now we outfit our electrical techs with lock-out devices that attach to CB in panel to make it significantly safer. Do they always use them is the big question? Many are so used to working 120 hot it is a big learning curve to change their ways.

One of the biggest suprises I have gotten was after running a new outlet on a farm. The farmer's wife called our shop and complained about getting shocked by touching the stainless steel sink. I humored her and went out and measured from the sink to ground and found some floating AC voltage.

The only recent work done was running an outlet to the farmer's office. We only had 12/2 romex, so we just sunk another ground outside for the new outlet. Well, I ran a ground between the outlet and the fusebox and went to land it figuring - it is a ground.

When I landed the ground, the powerstrip in the office which had a short from 120V to ground exploded. It was the source of the voltage showing up on the sink, and the fences, and the milking stalls . . .

OK, so here is what lead up to this week’s “Question of the Week�. This past Saturday, I was changing out a few light fixtures at home with my wife’s help. As I was about to unhook the conductors on the foyer light, my wife asked if the power was turned off.

Not being able to talk with a screw driver hanging out of my mouth, I pointed to the light switch which was off and then pointed to my voltage tester on the table.

Without missing a beat she blurted out “Don’t be an idiot - you teach this stuff - go turn off the breaker.�

From the survey results so far, it looks like I’m in good company. But I guess we should all take my wife’s advice. (about turning of the circuit breaker - even when at home) She has a great future at OSHA.

Corollory - How often do you use a "breaker finder" to find the right breaker to turn off and lock out?

I have no provision for locking out breakers at home, so instead I tag them with a piece of tape over the handle. So far this has dissuaded others from thinking the breaker required resetting. Sometimes it's more convenient to tape over a switch instead, leaving some illumination on that would otherwise not be available. Of course there is the time I forgot the basement light I was working on was the one light not controlled by the taped switch at the top of the stairs. Nice low ceiling meant I could easily reach it from the concrete floor in my bare feet. I'm a bit smarter today.