Is the electrical industry built on a house of cards?

[Mr Sparkle]

On this forum and online, I'd always heard that one should never pull the fuse from the cutout for reasons ranging from

1. The DNO/ electrical company will know and they will have you arrested for tampering with their equipment

2. You need secret specialist equipment to pull the fuse

3. You need to wear specialist PPE

4. If you pull the fuse there will be a fire, which could wipe out all the trees in the Amazon

Well I decided to test the above, as i had a meter change scheduled.

Before the meter changing chap commenced work, I asked how he isolated power to the meter and he said you just pull out the fuse..

I said what about PPE, specialist equipment, fires and the Amazon?

He laughed and said 'i have pulled out a thousand fuses' and it's as simple as that.. He did warn that point 1 is possible though, especially with a smart meter.

I understand that electrics presents dangers, but my question is why do sparkies tell all these lies about what happens when a fuse is pulled?

Surely, they know the truth?

It feels like the entire industry is built on a 'house of cards'

 

[jurassic sparkk]

He laughed and said 'i have pulled out a thousand fuses' and it's as simple as that..

Well if he was a meter monkey then he's clearly allowed to pull the fuse.

Anyone attempting it with bare hands and without eye and face protection is running the gauntlet...

I reckon all the times he pulled out the main fuse was when the installation had no load because if he didn't he'd probably be dead by now.

 

[ericmark]

When a fuse is pulled, if there is current flowing, one can get ionisation of the atmosphere. So isolator should be turned off first, and one should wear PPE in the main this means no nylon clothes, and wear glasses, gloves etc. In theroy with a smart meter the DNO will know, and should send some one to investigate, however not sure if that is really the case.

Wipe out all the trees in the Amazon, not a clue where that comes from?

If one considered when the old tungsten bulb failed, in the main it simply stopped working, but some times it would fail with a big flash, that was ionisation, which was large enough in some cases to cause overloads to trip and fuses to rupture, but this only happened maybe one in a hundred times, so in the main nothing would go wrong, but one protects against the odd time when it does.

 

[jurassic sparkk]

I understand that electrics presents dangers, but my question is why do sparkies tell all these lies about what happens when a fuse is pulled?

Why do you wear a seatbelt even though you probably have not been in an accident for quite a time?

Do you really think those are lies being told? Im starting to think that you're a lie..

 

[bernardgreen]

The cut out might be damaged ( or just old ) and fall apart when the fuse is pull out.

Could leave a lump of naked metal ( half the fuse holder ) Live at 230 Volts and exposed.

If that lump of metal touches Earth or Neutral then the arc created will be fed from a slow blow fuse in the substation 200 or 400 Amp The arc is likely to persist like a firework until the substation fuse blows, This will leave you neighbours without electricity until the DNO arrive and disconnect your supply.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

He laughed and said 'i have pulled out a thousand fuses' and it's as simple as that.. He did warn that point 1 is possible though, especially with a smart meter.

The advice, is, and mostly always has been - to wear PPE to pull the fuse. 1 time 10,000, there might be an issue - the fuse carrier might break, leaving live parts exposed, or there might be a flash-over and there can be a lot of current available at the end of a supply cable. Even if the volts don't kill you, the splattered hot metal can burn and permanently blind you. Do you feel lucky?

I've suffered the result of a 150amp flash-over in the past, wearing no protection. Luckily, without any permanent injury. I was completely blind, for the rest of the day.

 

[ericmark]

Why do you wear a seatbelt even though you probably have not been in an accident for quite a time?

There was when seat belts came out a problem with some cars, the Reliant had the seats bolted to the fibre glass shell, and the seat belts to take the load specified were connected to the chassis, so in an accident the seat belt could cut one in half, as body and seats when forward by seat belt did not.

In real terms it should have been classified as motorcycle and side car.

There are other documented accidents where driver was pushed into the passenger seat, and would have been killed if that had not happened.

However the number of times when the front seat and person in it has tipped forward and the person in rear seat has gone under where the front seat should have been, then the front seat has dropped back into place and broken the back seat persons foot was very common, OK today catches to stop front seat raising, but when seat belt law came out they were not.

I have always said forget crash helmets, what we need is a law to say motor cycle drivers should wear eye protection, OK to kill themselves, but if blinded then they can kill others. And armaco barriers should be banned unless there is a path behind them of pedestrians and cyclists, don't want trapping between them and a heavy vehicle.

But the ionisation of atmosphere was always my worry, and I remember being told off for not wearing a hi-vis waistcoat and telling them not permitted for electricians to wear nylon, and all the ones issued were not suitable for use by electricians. The same happened with overalls, we were issued hi-vis, so we all wore them under our overalls, which was not what management expected, but we pointed out the name overalls should make it plain they are worn over all other clothing. We then got what we wanted, overalls with hi-vis built in.

This

can happen, it is not made up, lucky it is rare.

 

[JohnW2]

On this forum and online, I'd always heard that one should never pull the fuse from the cutout for reasons ranging from
1. The DNO/ electrical company will know and they will have you arrested for tampering with their equipment
2. You need secret specialist equipment to pull the fuse
3. You need to wear specialist PPE
4. If you pull the fuse there will be a fire, which could wipe out all the trees in the Amazon

1 and 2 are clearly nonsense, as is 4 (as you have written it).

PPE is clearly desirable, but I have to say that, having watched many people do it, it's very rare to see DNO personnel, suppliers/meter changers or electricians to use any PPE - and I've certainly never seen anything more than fairly modest gloves.

Having said that, it does depend upon the type, age and condition of the cutout. I think that in the case of old cast iron ones (probably with ceramic fuse carriers), and certainly if the cutout is damaged, few people, if anyone, would be prepared to pull the fuse, instead waiting until the cutout is replaced (for which more reasonable PPE may be used).

 

[Robin0577]

What John said, mostly

Smart meters do report a loss of supply, but obviously not the reason for it. However if one smart meter reports a loss of supply while others in the area don't, that could be seen as in indication of either a fault or tampering.

Modern plastic cutouts that are in good physical condition are comparatively safe to work with, as long as the load is disconnected before the fuse is pulled.

Older or damaged plastic cutouts can crack when disturbed, giving rise to a risk of shock or arc flash.

Very old cast iron and porcelain cutouts are to be avoided. the porcelain can crack easily, and in the presence of a metal casing the risk of an arc is quite high. They also usually contain asbestos, which of course presents another risk.

 

[Murdochcat]

With so many SMs not working who’s to say the supplier would even notice

SSE cover about 1/2 my area and they allow CPS members to pull fuses

There are types of DNO service heads I simply won’t touch

Turn off the power at the CU and off you go

It’s all about risk and assessment but if these suppliers made it simple for us sparks to contact them, to arrange for an isolator to be fitted I’d do that every time. In fact SMs should have one incorporated in them

Next

 

[mikeyd]

my question is why do sparkies tell all these lies about what happens when a fuse is pulled?

They don't. You said you had heard "that one should never pull the fuse from the cutout". Presumably you are blind if you heard that online rather than saw it? See what I did there, it's easy to make assumptions.