Basic safety tips

[ncoups]

What sort of basic do's and donts would you guys give to joe bloggs?

Basic safety guides online I've looked at vary alot and are more than often not very good eg http://www.electricity-guide.org.uk/safety.html
isn't very impressive.

I recon the 1st tip should always be not to do any sort of work unless you're 100% confident and competant.

 

[TheOriginalTonkaToy]

First one would be: If you have to ask for basic safety tips then ask yourself should you really be considering doing it yourself?

Second would be: No matter how trivial the job seems to you, always isolate the circuit and prove it dead using a suitable meter. If you don't know how to then ask yourself should you really be doing it yourself?

Third would be: Always ensure that the components you use meet the design criteria for the circuit. If you don't know what they are then ask yourself should you really be doing it yourself?

Fourth would be: Inspect the work for mechanical soundness and test it properly once you're done. If you don't know how to then ask yourself should you really be doing it yourself?

Fifth would be: No matter what aesthetic advice you are given here, go with the lighting solution of your choice as long as it is electrically and mechanically suitable for the environment.

 

[ncoups]

not tips for working on circuits, things for homeowners like dont put your fingers in toasters and dont straighten hair in the bath

 

[TheOriginalTonkaToy]

Oh I'd quite happily let evolution take care of that.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Don't eat yellow snow.

 

[ericmark]

However hard one tries to tell others how to do something safely one is bound to miss out something.

Try writing instructions for making a cup of tea then as some one to follow it by the letter and there is bound to be an error. Forget to remove tea pot lid etc.

In theory if you use not keys or tools you should be safe. However I would not like to put money on that.

I can and as a small boy did remove the light bulb and stick fingers down the hole to feel what was there. Only ever did it once!

But my Wife's dachshund dog while we were out attacked the vacuum cleaner cable. When chewing it the bitch (seems I can't use correct name for female dog star'ed out?) must have received a shock so fought back and the cable was in 3 inch lengths when we returned the fuse did not blow and power was still on. How it did not kill dog I don't know.

So now work out a safe system with that in mind! Only safe way is ban dogs in the home. Had a child found that cable it could have killed it. OK using RCD's may help but only with three core cable, dog may not be big enough to radiate an earth to trip it.

So what I am saying is the house can never be safe. All we can do is reduce the risks. This includes removing items which can be used to defeat the safety devices like those silly bits of plastic one sees stuck into 13A sockets which defeat the built in safety functions of the socket.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The home is full of much bigger risks, both potential and actual - check out how many people are killed or injured falling down stairs.

Or how many get food poisoning because they misuse their fridges/cookers/kitchen equipment.

And did you know that on average 4-5 times as many people drown in garden ponds each year than are killed in incidents relating to faults with fixed wiring?

 

[barcelona]

However hard one tries to tell others how to do something safely one is bound to miss out something.

Try writing instructions for making a cup of tea then as some one to follow it by the letter and there is bound to be an error. Forget to remove tea pot lid etc.

In theory if you use not keys or tools you should be safe. However I would not like to put money on that.

I can and as a small boy did

remove the light bulb and stick fingers down the hole to feel what was there. Only ever did it once

!

But my Wife's dachshund dog while we were out attacked the vacuum cleaner cable. When chewing it the **** (seems I can't use correct name for female dog star'ed out?) must have received a shock so fought back and the cable was in 3 inch lengths when we returned the fuse did not blow and power was still on. How it did not kill dog I don't know.

So now work out a safe system with that in mind! Only safe way is ban dogs in the home. Had a child found that cable it could have killed it. OK using RCD's may help but only with three core cable, dog may not be big enough to radiate an earth to trip it.

So what I am saying is the house can never be safe. All we can do is reduce the risks. This includes removing items which can be used to defeat the safety devices like those silly bits of plastic one sees stuck into 13A sockets which defeat the built in safety functions of the socket.

Oh and I thought I was the only one daft enough to do that.
I did it with a table lamp when I was about seven.
I seem to remember trying to get my older sister to have a go aswell, making out it was good fun.
I also had a rabbit called Atilla the bun, who once chewed through the tumble dryer wire while it was running. Loud bang. The bunny just hopped off like nothing had happened.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Oh and I thought I was the only one daft enough to do that.

I remember sticking the barrel of a toy gun through the guard of an electric fire to see what the element would do to the end of it.

Answer was not an awful lot, but as the barrel was resting on the earthed guard it did pop the plugtop fuse and break the element at that point.

 

[conny]

Fingers in light fitting?
Yep, did that standing on top of mates slide in the spare bedroom when I was about 6 years old. No bulb in fitting and curiosity got the better of me.

Trying to get a light for a ciggy from an electric fire with a piece of paper from a cigy packet. Still had the silver foil on it! OUCH!

Cleaning the roller on a vacuum cleaner, had fingers in roller box and decided to flip the hoover over to see better. You know whats coming don't you?
As it flipped over it landed on the on/off button. Screams and blasphemous words were certainly uttered that day!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Working on a hi-fi amp I was building. Switched off at front panel, but not unplugged. One hand grasping the earthed metal chassis as the other made contact with the tags on the fuseholder on the rear panel.

Another time, working on something or other, knocked the soldering iron off the bench. With lightning reactions managed to clench my hand around the hot end before it hit the floor.

 

[DCC]

Clearly remember pushing a screwdriver into the hot (and live) element of an electric bar fire. Fun.

Seeing how long a 1N4001 diode held in pliers would last directly across the mains - not so very long if you are curious.

Wait, is this a thread about things you shouldnt do or should?

 

[TheOriginalTonkaToy]

Testing and setup of a valve power amp. Measuring the DC rails (650v nominal) at the main decouplers (around 100,000mfd combined) some idiot dropped a steel chassis piece right by my ear and the next thing I remember was picking myself up off of the floor about 6 feet from where I was originally sitting on a high stool with very sore arm muscles. I'm really glad I was taught to work with one hand only and hold the test probe with my fingers curled towards me - it may just have saved my life.

 

[DCC]

Heh I've seen idiots do that sort of thing deliberately - two hardware engineers and one software engineer (me as a lad) in a test rig room. Power is missing/broken from something, hardware engineer A opens up a large switch box, the kind that had a huge toilet handle on them that turned 45 degrees - he probably had no idea what he was looking for and certainly shouldnt have been poking around inside. Engineer B waits until he has his hands in the box, gets a large hardback book and slams it shut behind Engineer A's head. Funny? I almost laughed.

 

[TheOriginalTonkaToy]

Oh and when I was a kid and those bloody dangerous double adaptors for table lamps and the like (plugs into the bayonet connector in place of a bulb, provides an inline socket for the bulb and one off at 45 degrees to plug something else into) still existed, I stuck my thumb in the 45 degree outlet to see what was in there.

At the same sort of age, an uncle of mine made me a crystal radio with carbon earphones (ok, I might be giving my age away here...) and put the headphone outlet into a round pin 10 amp socket with the corresponding plug on the headphones themselves.

Guess what wiring system our house had? My mum stopped me from giving myself some major ECT just in the nick of time