very good. small note its good practice to always put your first probe on the earth then line, earth then neutral, neutral then line. if you probed line then neutral for example there could be a voltage present on the other probe if doing the line first before making contact with the neutral terminal.
Watching this video reminded me of a incident many years ago where I lost a relative who was a qualified electrician, he was working in an old ladies loft and he had turned off the circuit he was working on and assumed it was dead but there was another consumer unit that neither he or even the home owner knew about, just wish he had been more vigilant.
It's been a long time coming, I've finally (nearly) finished my electrician training and now can focus nearly full time on TH-cam. "Like and Subscribe you guys" said in a squeaky voice!
It is much better that you also use a contactless voltage tester for indication, for example with those cables you need besides a naked live a earth and neutral and the contactless voltage tester only requires your hand to connect it to an earth pad, it is an improved version of the neon screwdriver detectors.
Use 'negative' logic tests! Not that the switch turns the light ON, which if in the circuit it should, but it indeed turns the light 'OFF'. I usually check both states, so at the socket I check the breaker can both apply power, can remove power and can again supply power,. Do it once do it twice is a good strategy for checking electrical paths.
Intresting video, if you ever visit here to Brazil you would have sufficient content for a mega series on home electric failures in a short time!, Even in upmarket areas.
i was working security in a new commercial building, and there was a lot of internal construction. part of my job was to give the electricians access to the breaker boxes, which were in locked rooms. a breaker turned off inside a locked room, what could possibly go wrong? everything is fine until it's not fine. the best electricians would always use a lock-off device., even though it costs 30 seconds, twice, each day. some electricians were not so rigorous.
And always behave like the circuit is live although you are sure it isn't.Great video, great approach! Keep on going the good job lads! Greeting from Belgrade.
As an American watching this, I have learned that British electricity is extremely dangerous. Even when using certified testers and equipment, you will die. Don't do it yourself and call a "sparky". They're called that in Britain because they are paid to be electrocuted. No wonder they put so much in their over engineered plugs. (plugs plug in, blows up the entirety of the UK). 😁🤣
Hehe, yes your lower voltage reduces electrocution risk. The other danger is fire of course. Thankfully I’m (nearly) fully qualified as a “sparky” now.
You can't really go wrong when doing the full safe isolation procedure (its there for a reason and the most basic fundamental in electric work, any missed step can have fatal consequences), and then proving dead at point of work, could have safely isolated the wrong circuit, could be a borrowed neutral, you never know. Doing full isolation and simply taking 10 seconds to use your avi to prove dead at all relevant points can be the difference of whether you will come home at the end of the day 👍
I’m a mechanical maintenance engineer and worked on all sorts of stuff over the last 35 years in factories. I’ve seen some bad electrical work done by qualified electricians so good knows how much dodgy electrical work has been done by the DIYer.
Ironically I like your energy ... keep the same energy for future videos I enjoyed this video and I literally bought a voltage meter couple of days ago after learning about safe isolation so these videos are important no matter how tedious they may seem ... as you said their is blood for those rules made
@@runwiththerunners8152 i’m glad you liked it, be safe and understand that there’s a lot more to being a professional electrician than just safe isolation. It starts with design, ensuring the whole system has even a chance of being safe. During the build phase are a lot of considerations I didn’t consider when I was a DIYer, especially things like proper ingress protection . Finally and perhaps most importantly without the correct training and equipment it is impossible to test your circuits properly before you make them live, which is very dangerous
My last minor shock... When replacing a light switch in the lower hallway, I didn't bother to switch off the breaker for the upstairs... Went to strip the insulation off the old wire, and my thumb touched the Earthed backbox at the same time. I felt about five cycles of Mains go through the light upstairs, and through my hand, until the RCBO tripped. lol
Normally I would be sure to isolate ALL of the relevant circuits, and I should also have tested *twice* with the meter first. It was mainly because I wanted to keep the lights on in the rest of the house (our own house), so my family didn't complain. The lesson there was... to hell with the comfort of everyone else in the house, when it comes to your own safety.
In my defence, I haven't had any kind of bad electric shock since about 1994. That was working on an old D2MAC satellite box, trying to repair it, when I had little clue what I was doing. I wanted to compare the heat from BOTH heatsinks at the same time, so put my hand across them. :o That was by far the worst shock I ever had, and it taught me a very valuable lesson in respecting higher-voltage stuff more.
Oh, and I always assume that both the Live *or* Neutral should be considered "LIVE" conductors. And sometimes even the Earth, if somebody really screwed up. lol
@@SmartFew We used to have one RCD for all the circuits in the house. Which was fine, I guess, but it was very annoying when one thing tripped, and the whole house went off. (mild danger there, just from the fact of all the nights going off.) There are only around 6 circuits on the CU anyway, so I made sure to an RCBO for each one.
Smart advice, even for seasoned professionals like myself. I sometimes to stupid things and get a belter even after 30 years on the tools. Take your time and do it right or you’ll end up like me 😂
@@george-ev1dq is that how you do it in the USA? Over here we turn off and lock off the breaker. You still have to test test at the circuit is actually dead because it could be being fed from elsewhere.
@@george-ev1dq that’s true, valid alternative as long as there’s no chance of the live conductors touching anything live. Another advantage of your way is not tripping RCD by touching CPC and Neutral, which is somehow spookily easy to do. Thank you.
@@SmartFew I find the method quicker and cheaper, I just put the disconnected cables into quick blocks, will also disconnect the neutrals as well for fault finding leaving them in quick blocks.
Safe for September Great explanation but I would say the part at the end where you say get zapped or burning yourself. Wrong electricity is DEADLY and a current more than 30 milliamps can kill you instantly. This is why residual current devices for 99% of electric circuits have additional protection rated to 30 milliamps
@SmartFew i dont even think its about notifiable work. The problem is average DIY dave will have a go and even if they manage safe isolation they miss some other dangerous issue. Ive been to a propwrty today that has x amount of actual electricians in over the years and none of the useless bunch noyiced that they are working on TT system and circuits have no RCD protection at all rendering any earth fault potentially lethal to customer. That is sparks missing it. Now step in DIY dave.... he wired up a pond pump, with G/E in the plug connected to live pin!!! He rung me because when he was cleaning the pond pump he got a belt from the pond! One lucky bloke to be alive. Decent electrician will clock potentially dangerous issues when he comes round to swapp socket outlet. Hope that makes sense. Personally i think electrics are more dangerous to do as DIY as gas! Gas you can smell at least.
Agree, and everyone's got to start somewhere. Got my AM2 finish just recently, NVQ nearly done. I have been doing DIY electronics for decades, but I'm not sure if that counts as experience as the work I did was shocking (excuse the pun)!
“Maybe labeled incorrectly” our consumer unit certainly was, we had a family friend round to change a kitchen plug socket, we went to the consumer unit and switched off “downstairs sockets” only to find it was labelled wrong, we actually switched off the upstairs sockets instead! I changed the labels straight away
Good job, this is just one of many things that can go wrong. Worst case a circuit could even be fed from two or more breakers. Thanks for sharing your story, goes to show the importance of thoroughly testing what you're about to work on with the right gear.
I cringe every time I read a comment that uses the term ‘plug socket’. Please don’t! Plugs are plugs, sockets are sockets, there is no such thing as plug socket.
@@davepedantic ok, the only difference here is the fact that every man and his dog calls it a “plug socket”, but nobody calls shoes “foot shoes”. Some things in life just can’t be explained, this is one of those situations I’m afraid
@@SmartFew it can even be improved by connecting a proper load instead of making a short circuit haha. I also liked the lockout tagout procedure btw , i have never seen someone doing that with residential installations really, only in the industry and office buildings. While we don't even need a specialized lock for it, we can actually use a standard padlock on the breakers here. They are twice the width of yours and there is a large gap in the middle of the handle, any small lock fits and prevents the handle to trigger the switch.
Or more easy, turn off the power to the whole house, even if you need to work only on one circuit. So you are sure that even if something is not labeled correctly you don't get a shock. Otherwise a crude way to identify a circuit is to create a plug with an high enough resistor (100K, for example) connected between L and E, so that if you connect it it will trip the RCD related to that circuit (and it's also a way to check if it's in good operating conditions). By the way, turning off only one breaker may not isolate the circuit correctly unless that breaker is double pole: there is the risk that you have a dangerous voltage on the neutral connector, or even worse, that the person that got 1 day training to change electricity meters connected it the wrong way around and thus the breakers interrupts on the neutral. Regarding using multimeters I would also say that you can get false readings with digital ones from wires capacity, for example read voltages of 90V or something like that just from capacitance of cables that run on the same conduit, even if the circuit is dead. Also a multimeters measures power between two points, but there is the possibility that the breaker disconnects the neutral and the earth is not connected to anything. Thus you have 0V between L and N, 0V between L and E and E and N (since E is disconnected, L, that is N, is disconnected by the breaker connected the wrong way around, and N that is live is at 230V). How do you get that situations? Well... I've stopped counting the number of times I've seen green/yellow cables used for phase conductor (maybe it's not the worse, I've even seen telephone cable) thus I have 0 trust in things being wired correctly. A cheap option (very cheap, but reliable) is to use a neon screwdriver, the one that illuminates by touching a live conductor, since it completes the circuit trough your body (but a safe high impedance) can say for sure that if the light does illuminate don't touch or you will get a shock.
Some good points there, thanks for taking the time. The double fault of wrong polarity at the breaker, and no CPC (earth) connected is an interesting edge case. I'm not sure how that would work out in the UK where we have single pole breakers, and a Neutral and Earth bar in the consumer unit. See my post with diagram in the Community tab I made for you. I personally don't like those screwdrivers, mainly because of their low construction quality here in the UK, but I used to swear by them! The principle of measuring from all the conductors to your local Earth where you are standing is a good idea. Thanks for making me think :-)
Exactly, actually before this stunt I did a full EICR on the board to ensure disconnection times etc. I certainly wouldn’t recommend anybody put a circuit back into commission before a full set of tests as you say. Thanks for your contribution
I always assume it's live, even if i think I've isolated it. But to be totally sure, with it turned on, just short it out with an insulated screwdriver. There will be a flash, but this is also a good way to test the breaker. Then you know it's dead
Hehe, I presume that's a joke? Purposefully creating a short has a few issues I can think of, and probably many more... 1. You're putting a huge current impulse on the breaker, and if the Prospective Fault Current is too high compared to its breaking capacity then it could cause damage. 2. It will create an EM pulse that will interfere with local radio. 3. It creates thousands of degrees of heat, and a spark that could start a fire. 4. If your insulated screwdriver isn't, then you're screwed.
The bathroom fan in my house was wired with switched live from the light switch (conventional) but permanent live from a nearby socket circuit - an even cleverer trick than borrowing a neutral! So even that's not foolproof.
@@SmartFew i'm not an electrician but i think before u install a protective device, the short circuit current value should be known and the protection chosen accordingly. but anyway all protective devices have a certain amount of life cycles (they can withstand only a certain amount of time a short circuit current.
I would suggest treating as live even if it definitely isn't. So the order in which things are connected. Connect the feed last, don't cut a cable in the middle disconnect feed and load end. There is no reason to touch the metal terminals, the stripper, screwdriver and cutters are insulated and you can avoid touching it. Don't lick the cables. I'd suggest not working alone and any suprise at the top of ladders can kill you just from the fall. Because we're massively regulated deaths from electrocution are very low in the uk. The number of fatal electrocutions is the same as those killed by vending machines toppling over. Taking a shower is thousands of times more dangerous, so make sure you wear a neck brace and helmet in the shower.
Wow........I extended my kitchen ring, replaced several sockets and installed under cabinet lighting all by switching off the fuse box! Safe and sound! Many years ago in a hotel however, I was cleaning under a four pot Cona Coffee machine which had just been repaired when my wet cloth touched the exposed electrics, throwing me across the service area. Technician had neglected to replace the machine base.........
And the multimeter obviously requires cat III test probes, maybe you removed the parts that make them category III? Often they are removable but then they become cat II, only for use inside equipment, not on the electric installation
@@SmartFew The multimeter is needed if you search for voltage drops, for testing if it is live wiring it is a bit too time consuming for me. I still use a 40 year old screwdriver with neon light for that.
Indeed. Our Multi Function Testers have a voltage setting that can be used, so still no real need for a multimeter in power electronics (230V region). I certainly use my multimeter in micro electronics though.
@@SmartFew Yes, electronics is also for me the reason why i still have a few multimeters at home 👍. I am replacing my complete electric installation but i only use a multimeter for measuring resistance, to see if earth connections are ok. For measuring current and voltage i have something cheap to plug in an outlet, but it has no functions to test the earth connection, and that is something i would still like to have. I was wondering about such devices, whether they care about the order of the L N connection? Because where i live, that order is not specified for an outlet, I put L on the left, some others on the right, and it's both ok for the Belgian code.. Is it also like that in Britain?
In Britain we have fuses in our plugs, on the line (live) conductor. In an overload condition the fuse blows, and disconnects the line, making the equipment safe. The order is the pins is therefore important and must legally be neutral on the left in the UK.
... for electrocuting myself on screen? Funny thing is I used to be a bit famous from my Udemy courses (www.udemy.com/user/bentristem) and I didn't like being recognised on the street from their TH-cam ads. However, now that disinformation is such an issue, I've decided to put my feelings aside and focus on helping the world to think better. Thanks for your encouragement.
Don’t D.I.Y!!! Call an electrician!! What you might think that you’ve done a brilliant job, potentially you may be creating electrical faults, which could lead to electrocution or fires!! Don’t mess with electricity, leave it to the professionals!!
@@kalpsify completely agree. I’ve spent over a year full-time training so that I can do work in my own house, and I still got a little way to go to be fully qualified!
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Shocking Stuff! Great first video, looking forward to continuing the saga!
Appreciate the feedback from such a cool channel.
very good. small note its good practice to always put your first probe on the earth then line, earth then neutral, neutral then line. if you probed line then neutral for example there could be a voltage present on the other probe if doing the line first before making contact with the neutral terminal.
@@Baggiolyful thank you.
When I was an apprentice I was taught to pull the fuse (it was a long time ago!) and keep it in your pocket.
Another good strategy, I like me lock-out key with modern breakers.
Watching this video reminded me of a incident many years ago where I lost a relative who was a qualified electrician, he was working in an old ladies loft and he had turned off the circuit he was working on and assumed it was dead but there was another consumer unit that neither he or even the home owner knew about, just wish he had been more vigilant.
Wow, just goes to show. Thanks for sharing!
Nice timely reminder in the safe for September.
Yes indeed!
At last we are blessed with more Ben content on the internet!
I'm here for the journey, along with everyone else...
we Smart Few.
It's been a long time coming, I've finally (nearly) finished my electrician training and now can focus nearly full time on TH-cam. "Like and Subscribe you guys" said in a squeaky voice!
@@SmartFew Fantastic. Greetings from Downunder on our own SmartFew journey, along with everyone else... 👍
Great to have you here
4:15 "someone has died to bring you this information"
I like the phrase “written in blood”, we use it for checklists in aviation.
It is much better that you also use a contactless voltage tester for indication, for example with those cables you need besides a naked live a earth and neutral and the contactless voltage tester only requires your hand to connect it to an earth pad, it is an improved version of the neon screwdriver detectors.
In the UK we are required to use a “GS38” and contactless don’t qualify as they are unreliable. See video description for a link to more details.
Use 'negative' logic tests!
Not that the switch turns the light ON, which if in the circuit it should, but it indeed turns the light 'OFF'.
I usually check both states, so at the socket I check the breaker can both apply power, can remove power and can again supply power,. Do it once do it twice is a good strategy for checking electrical paths.
Good point, what I failed to show is testing “all” switch combinations with voltage indicator eg for intermediate lighting.
@@SmartFew Yegh two way lighting can be tricky especially if the wiring is wrongly installed😁
I remember it taking me a while to get my head round, finally clicked though... excuse the pun
That sounds like solid advice... did you catch me doing that in the video or just saying?
Intresting video, if you ever visit here to Brazil you would have sufficient content for a mega series on home electric failures in a short time!, Even in upmarket areas.
Thanks for the idea!
i was working security in a new commercial building, and there was a lot of internal construction. part of my job was to give the electricians access to the breaker boxes, which were in locked rooms. a breaker turned off inside a locked room, what could possibly go wrong?
everything is fine until it's not fine.
the best electricians would always use a lock-off device., even though it costs 30 seconds, twice, each day. some electricians were not so rigorous.
Thanks for sharing this.
And always behave like the circuit is live although you are sure it isn't.Great video, great approach! Keep on going the good job lads! Greeting from Belgrade.
Thanks a lot! Greetings from the UK!
Never use your body to complete a circuit, e.g. by holding on to a metal frame with one hand and the meter with the other!
Sound advice!
One little thing when checking with voltage tester! Always put the tester to the less dangerous conductor first. I was told this at college...😂
Our college didn’t emphasise that, but I have heard it a lot. I’m still not quite sure why though?
@SmartFew it's a bit over the top...its because if the line conductor is live your tester becomes live on the other tip!
Ah I see, that makes sense. A guy on at my college absent-mindedly stuck the other tip in his mouth. He won't do that again!
As an American watching this, I have learned that British electricity is extremely dangerous. Even when using certified testers and equipment, you will die. Don't do it yourself and call a "sparky". They're called that in Britain because they are paid to be electrocuted. No wonder they put so much in their over engineered plugs. (plugs plug in, blows up the entirety of the UK). 😁🤣
Hehe, yes your lower voltage reduces electrocution risk. The other danger is fire of course.
Thankfully I’m (nearly) fully qualified as a “sparky” now.
You can't really go wrong when doing the full safe isolation procedure (its there for a reason and the most basic fundamental in electric work, any missed step can have fatal consequences), and then proving dead at point of work, could have safely isolated the wrong circuit, could be a borrowed neutral, you never know. Doing full isolation and simply taking 10 seconds to use your avi to prove dead at all relevant points can be the difference of whether you will come home at the end of the day 👍
Totally agree
Great point Ben…Safety first! Thanks.😊
Borrowed neutral will sure make you realise what your dealing with 😂😂
Yup!
I’m a mechanical maintenance engineer and worked on all sorts of stuff over the last 35 years in factories.
I’ve seen some bad electrical work done by qualified electricians so good knows how much dodgy electrical work has been done by the DIYer.
Yup, looking at my past self is shocking enough (excuse the pun!)
Very entertaining. Looking forward to more content
… and I look forward to making it. The plan is to release a video a week, and some shorts to support.
Your humor… so funny!!😆
Ironically I like your energy ... keep the same energy for future videos I enjoyed this video and I literally bought a voltage meter couple of days ago after learning about safe isolation so these videos are important no matter how tedious they may seem ... as you said their is blood for those rules made
@@allahdittababu4802 thank by, I really appreciate the encouragement.
Thank you very helpful.
@@runwiththerunners8152 i’m glad you liked it, be safe and understand that there’s a lot more to being a professional electrician than just safe isolation.
It starts with design, ensuring the whole system has even a chance of being safe.
During the build phase are a lot of considerations I didn’t consider when I was a DIYer, especially things like proper ingress protection .
Finally and perhaps most importantly without the correct training and equipment it is impossible to test your circuits properly before you make them live, which is very dangerous
Love it! Hope to see more soon.
My last minor shock...
When replacing a light switch in the lower hallway, I didn't bother to switch off the breaker for the upstairs...
Went to strip the insulation off the old wire, and my thumb touched the Earthed backbox at the same time.
I felt about five cycles of Mains go through the light upstairs, and through my hand, until the RCBO tripped. lol
Normally I would be sure to isolate ALL of the relevant circuits, and I should also have tested *twice* with the meter first.
It was mainly because I wanted to keep the lights on in the rest of the house (our own house), so my family didn't complain.
The lesson there was... to hell with the comfort of everyone else in the house, when it comes to your own safety.
In my defence, I haven't had any kind of bad electric shock since about 1994.
That was working on an old D2MAC satellite box, trying to repair it, when I had little clue what I was doing.
I wanted to compare the heat from BOTH heatsinks at the same time, so put my hand across them. :o
That was by far the worst shock I ever had, and it taught me a very valuable lesson in respecting higher-voltage stuff more.
Oh, and I always assume that both the Live *or* Neutral should be considered "LIVE" conductors.
And sometimes even the Earth, if somebody really screwed up. lol
Oops, I feel so much better working when I know I’m safely isolated. Good old RCDd!
@@SmartFew We used to have one RCD for all the circuits in the house.
Which was fine, I guess, but it was very annoying when one thing tripped, and the whole house went off.
(mild danger there, just from the fact of all the nights going off.)
There are only around 6 circuits on the CU anyway, so I made sure to an RCBO for each one.
Smart advice, even for seasoned professionals like myself. I sometimes to stupid things and get a belter even after 30 years on the tools. Take your time and do it right or you’ll end up like me 😂
I really feel so much happier with that key in my pocket that I can gram conductors and work on them in confidence.
For safe isolation simply remove the consumer unit front cover, disconnect the output cables from the breaker, replace consumer unit cover, job done.
@@george-ev1dq is that how you do it in the USA? Over here we turn off and lock off the breaker. You still have to test test at the circuit is actually dead because it could be being fed from elsewhere.
@@SmartFew I am in the UK , no worries about anyone switching on the breaker or tampering with locks with the outputs disconnected
@@george-ev1dq that’s true, valid alternative as long as there’s no chance of the live conductors touching anything live.
Another advantage of your way is not tripping RCD by touching CPC and Neutral, which is somehow spookily easy to do.
Thank you.
@@SmartFew I find the method quicker and cheaper, I just put the disconnected cables into quick blocks, will also disconnect the neutrals as well for fault finding leaving them in quick blocks.
Nice, thanks for your feedback. Hope to see you on my future videos.
Hey Ben! Your videos look great! And indeed, you are good at this! Looking forward to see more of your videos!!!!
Love, and good luck!
👋MissNancy
Thanks so much!
Safe for September Great explanation but I would say the part at the end where you say get zapped or burning yourself. Wrong electricity is DEADLY and a current more than 30 milliamps can kill you instantly. This is why residual current devices for 99% of electric circuits have additional protection rated to 30 milliamps
Completely agree, so glad RCDs were invented!
Just do yourself a favour and leave the electrical work at home to electricians! Been to two lethal jobs today!
Agree with that, I’m not doing anything notifiable at home until my AM2 and NVQ are done and I’m on a competent person scheme.
@SmartFew i dont even think its about notifiable work. The problem is average DIY dave will have a go and even if they manage safe isolation they miss some other dangerous issue. Ive been to a propwrty today that has x amount of actual electricians in over the years and none of the useless bunch noyiced that they are working on TT system and circuits have no RCD protection at all rendering any earth fault potentially lethal to customer. That is sparks missing it. Now step in DIY dave.... he wired up a pond pump, with G/E in the plug connected to live pin!!! He rung me because when he was cleaning the pond pump he got a belt from the pond! One lucky bloke to be alive. Decent electrician will clock potentially dangerous issues when he comes round to swapp socket outlet. Hope that makes sense. Personally i think electrics are more dangerous to do as DIY as gas! Gas you can smell at least.
Absolutely. I’ll do a video on Inspection and Testing soon (now that have my 2391). Hopefully seeing what’s involved will put them off!
@SmartFew 2391 is nice to have but to be able to inspect to a good standard you really need years of experience. Sooo easy to miss stuff.
Agree, and everyone's got to start somewhere. Got my AM2 finish just recently, NVQ nearly done.
I have been doing DIY electronics for decades, but I'm not sure if that counts as experience as the work I did was shocking (excuse the pun)!
“Maybe labeled incorrectly” our consumer unit certainly was, we had a family friend round to change a kitchen plug socket, we went to the consumer unit and switched off “downstairs sockets” only to find it was labelled wrong, we actually switched off the upstairs sockets instead! I changed the labels straight away
Good job, this is just one of many things that can go wrong. Worst case a circuit could even be fed from two or more breakers.
Thanks for sharing your story, goes to show the importance of thoroughly testing what you're about to work on with the right gear.
I cringe every time I read a comment that uses the term ‘plug socket’. Please don’t! Plugs are plugs, sockets are sockets, there is no such thing as plug socket.
@@davepedantic it’s a socket that you put a plug into, hence “plug socket”, no?
@@jonnygti Don’t be so ridiculous. You don’t call shoes ‘foot shoes’ just because you put them on your feet - same principle.
@@davepedantic ok, the only difference here is the fact that every man and his dog calls it a “plug socket”, but nobody calls shoes “foot shoes”. Some things in life just can’t be explained, this is one of those situations I’m afraid
Great advice!
Glad it was helpful!
Just deliberately make the short circuit and the correct breaker will jump, no need to walk to the breaker box 😅
Ah that’s a great idea and good solid practice, nothing could possible go wrong!
@@SmartFew it's a combined test for the breaker and to check if the label is correct haha
I like it :-)
@@SmartFew it can even be improved by connecting a proper load instead of making a short circuit haha. I also liked the lockout tagout procedure btw , i have never seen someone doing that with residential installations really, only in the industry and office buildings. While we don't even need a specialized lock for it, we can actually use a standard padlock on the breakers here. They are twice the width of yours and there is a large gap in the middle of the handle, any small lock fits and prevents the handle to trigger the switch.
Cool
Or more easy, turn off the power to the whole house, even if you need to work only on one circuit. So you are sure that even if something is not labeled correctly you don't get a shock. Otherwise a crude way to identify a circuit is to create a plug with an high enough resistor (100K, for example) connected between L and E, so that if you connect it it will trip the RCD related to that circuit (and it's also a way to check if it's in good operating conditions).
By the way, turning off only one breaker may not isolate the circuit correctly unless that breaker is double pole: there is the risk that you have a dangerous voltage on the neutral connector, or even worse, that the person that got 1 day training to change electricity meters connected it the wrong way around and thus the breakers interrupts on the neutral.
Regarding using multimeters I would also say that you can get false readings with digital ones from wires capacity, for example read voltages of 90V or something like that just from capacitance of cables that run on the same conduit, even if the circuit is dead. Also a multimeters measures power between two points, but there is the possibility that the breaker disconnects the neutral and the earth is not connected to anything. Thus you have 0V between L and N, 0V between L and E and E and N (since E is disconnected, L, that is N, is disconnected by the breaker connected the wrong way around, and N that is live is at 230V). How do you get that situations? Well... I've stopped counting the number of times I've seen green/yellow cables used for phase conductor (maybe it's not the worse, I've even seen telephone cable) thus I have 0 trust in things being wired correctly.
A cheap option (very cheap, but reliable) is to use a neon screwdriver, the one that illuminates by touching a live conductor, since it completes the circuit trough your body (but a safe high impedance) can say for sure that if the light does illuminate don't touch or you will get a shock.
Some good points there, thanks for taking the time.
The double fault of wrong polarity at the breaker, and no CPC (earth) connected is an interesting edge case. I'm not sure how that would work out in the UK where we have single pole breakers, and a Neutral and Earth bar in the consumer unit. See my post with diagram in the Community tab I made for you.
I personally don't like those screwdrivers, mainly because of their low construction quality here in the UK, but I used to swear by them! The principle of measuring from all the conductors to your local Earth where you are standing is a good idea.
Thanks for making me think :-)
How do you know the circuit is a safe circuit before you started work on it without doing a zs or r1+r2 test, or even a ir ?
Exactly, actually before this stunt I did a full EICR on the board to ensure disconnection times etc.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend anybody put a circuit back into commission before a full set of tests as you say.
Thanks for your contribution
I always assume it's live, even if i think I've isolated it. But to be totally sure, with it turned on, just short it out with an insulated screwdriver. There will be a flash, but this is also a good way to test the breaker. Then you know it's dead
Hehe, I presume that's a joke? Purposefully creating a short has a few issues I can think of, and probably many more...
1. You're putting a huge current impulse on the breaker, and if the Prospective Fault Current is too high compared to its breaking capacity then it could cause damage.
2. It will create an EM pulse that will interfere with local radio.
3. It creates thousands of degrees of heat, and a spark that could start a fire.
4. If your insulated screwdriver isn't, then you're screwed.
The bathroom fan in my house was wired with switched live from the light switch (conventional) but permanent live from a nearby socket circuit - an even cleverer trick than borrowing a neutral! So even that's not foolproof.
@@SmartFew nope. If it doesn't trip out with this test then your system ain't working as it should
It certainly did trip out. I did a full set of tests on the circuit including RCD disconnection times before this stunt.
@@SmartFew i'm not an electrician but i think before u install a protective device, the short circuit current value should be known and the protection chosen accordingly.
but anyway all protective devices have a certain amount of life cycles (they can withstand only a certain amount of time a short circuit current.
Who knows what people have connected I just switch the whole lot off!
That’s a safe strategy, although still needs verifying as there have been cases of people drilling holes through walls to steal from neighbours.
I would suggest treating as live even if it definitely isn't. So the order in which things are connected. Connect the feed last, don't cut a cable in the middle disconnect feed and load end. There is no reason to touch the metal terminals, the stripper, screwdriver and cutters are insulated and you can avoid touching it. Don't lick the cables. I'd suggest not working alone and any suprise at the top of ladders can kill you just from the fall. Because we're massively regulated deaths from electrocution are very low in the uk. The number of fatal electrocutions is the same as those killed by vending machines toppling over. Taking a shower is thousands of times more dangerous, so make sure you wear a neck brace and helmet in the shower.
@@dr_jaymz definitely don’t lick the cables!!
… I also like the warning about ladders. Cutting a cable in the middle is daft indeed, makes for a dramatic start to a video though ;-)
Wow........I extended my kitchen ring, replaced several sockets and installed under cabinet lighting all by switching off the fuse box! Safe and sound!
Many years ago in a hotel however, I was cleaning under a four pot Cona Coffee machine which had just been repaired when my wet cloth touched the exposed electrics, throwing me across the service area.
Technician had neglected to replace the machine base.........
Wow, glad you were ok. I'm so glad to have learnt this process... just had to share it.
Who had bought their safe isolation kit already?
Putting an order in at the shop tomorrow. Ya'll got these in Canada?
great video
Glad you enjoyed it
Hold my beer
Can I drink it?
Need a board game channel Ben :P
@@Mallyhubz it would be a one trick pony with just Pandemic Legacy!
And the multimeter obviously requires cat III test probes, maybe you removed the parts that make them category III? Often they are removable but then they become cat II, only for use inside equipment, not on the electric installation
Good points, and before I trained as an electrician I thought I was one of the Smart Few (excuse pun) using a multimeter. Now I realise I was a fool.
@@SmartFew The multimeter is needed if you search for voltage drops, for testing if it is live wiring it is a bit too time consuming for me. I still use a 40 year old screwdriver with neon light for that.
Indeed. Our Multi Function Testers have a voltage setting that can be used, so still no real need for a multimeter in power electronics (230V region). I certainly use my multimeter in micro electronics though.
@@SmartFew Yes, electronics is also for me the reason why i still have a few multimeters at home 👍. I am replacing my complete electric installation but i only use a multimeter for measuring resistance, to see if earth connections are ok. For measuring current and voltage i have something cheap to plug in an outlet, but it has no functions to test the earth connection, and that is something i would still like to have. I was wondering about such devices, whether they care about the order of the L N connection? Because where i live, that order is not specified for an outlet, I put L on the left, some others on the right, and it's both ok for the Belgian code.. Is it also like that in Britain?
In Britain we have fuses in our plugs, on the line (live) conductor. In an overload condition the fuse blows, and disconnects the line, making the equipment safe.
The order is the pins is therefore important and must legally be neutral on the left in the UK.
one day you are gonna be famous
... for electrocuting myself on screen?
Funny thing is I used to be a bit famous from my Udemy courses (www.udemy.com/user/bentristem) and I didn't like being recognised on the street from their TH-cam ads.
However, now that disinformation is such an issue, I've decided to put my feelings aside and focus on helping the world to think better.
Thanks for your encouragement.
@@SmartFew haha not for electrocuting but for the good content
Thank you
there may be some smart few, you are no one of them.
Probably true!
Gs38
Exactly, did I accidentally say something else or are you just confirming?
Don’t D.I.Y!!! Call an electrician!!
What you might think that you’ve done a brilliant job, potentially you may be creating electrical faults, which could lead to electrocution or fires!!
Don’t mess with electricity, leave it to the professionals!!
@@kalpsify completely agree. I’ve spent over a year full-time training so that I can do work in my own house, and I still got a little way to go to be fully qualified!
Blashemed within a few seconds, I'll never watch another.
That’s sad, amazing how faith finds a way of blocking learning one way or another.