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Posted By Mart
Good morning all,
Could someone please tell me when it is acceptable, if at all, for an electrician to work live.
Thanks in advance,
Mart
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Posted By Melanie Fellows
Live working is not prohibited, but work should not be done live unless;
a) It is unreasonable for the conductor to be dead (e.g. fault finding),
b) It cannot be carried out remotely or with barriers,
c) Suitable precautions are taken to prevent injury (e.g. protective clothing, insulated tools, rubber mat, competent employee, permit to work etc.)
Mel
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Posted By Ian_P
Mel's spot on.
You need to get a copy of the approved code of practice (acop) for the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989.
Look at Regulation 14 which gives the above rules for working live. As Mel says this is based on a reasonable / unreasonable risk based justification.
Luckily, there are 4 pages in the acop that will help you to make this judgement.
Regards,
Ian
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Posted By Mart
Thanks for your responses. As you are probably aware electricity is not my subject. Would it be possible for someone to forward me a generic type assessment for working live to take a look at.
Thanks,
Mart
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Posted By thomas satelle
Mart,
Number of responses are accurate
working on Live voltage apparatus
PPE, Mats, approved Non conductive ladder
work from floor level only , rigid platform working from height, insulated tools,
special permit to work should be in place
The person doing the work must be competent to do live work, the person in charge and the person doing the work must both be aware that the equipment is live and both satisfied that the work can be done safely
I would imagine Powergen would have a mountain of info on live working conditions
regards
tom
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Posted By GARRY WIZZ
from our experience, our engineers are normaly working on control boxes or things of this nature.
In general for this type of work, the circuit is live when testing or fault finding only.Bit difficult to do without it being live.
Three questions on my work permit:
It has to be live to do the task
A person has to be at or close to do the task
All possible RCP's and tests have/will be conducted before live work.
Three yeses will get a permit.
Most common error I have seen is the electrician failing to test his circuit tester equipment prior to testing the circuits they are going to work on.
Garry
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Posted By stephen smith
HI Chaps,
Please remember that the Electricity at Work regulations are specific in that they are you to work dead - repeat dead - unless there is no other option, those options usually are based around examples such as disconnecting a hospital ward or 100,000 homes. To simply state that the job cannot be undertaken dead because of issues such as out of hours working, disconnection of a production line would not be sufficient.
Please remember as well that around 20 skilled electricians die each year due to this regulation, reg14, not being adhereed to.
Your risk assessment needs also to take into consideration the respective guidance notes which will give you the correct answer.
I have specific knowledge of this issue having dealt at length with the electrical NIG and it is not as easy as the previous comments portray.
regards stephen
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Posted By Chris Jerman
OK, it's gilding the lily I know, but let's not forget:
When the voltage is actually at safe levels to start with.
Not all electricity is at a level that kills.
I'm sure that the question related to domestic voltage and above, but I wouldn't want to give the wider impression that everyone need to be suited and booted before they adjust their kitchen clock!
OK I know, I know. I'll get my coat.
Chris
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Posted By Garry Homer
If live working is necessary then the trained/authorised person doing the work should be accompanied. If help is not is not immediately available, then the second person should be trained in First Aid.
It could need someone with the wit to pull you off the conductor and get your heart going again. Or if there has been a flash-over, then to cool your burnt skin down while waiting for an ambulance.
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