I recently had an outlet blow and my landlord came in, turned off the breakers and replaced the outlet in about five minutes. I didn’t realize it was so easy to do.
Anyway I was talking to a mechanic at a factory where I have a temp job and he said, “Yeah, well you don’t have to turn off the power to replace an outlet if you know what you’re doing.”
I said, I didn’t buy it.
He said, it was simply a matter of knowning what wires to change in what order, so you don’t shock yourself.
First of all is this even possible for true?
Second, why would anyone do this? Why WOULDN’T YOU turn off the breakers or pull the fuses?
And of course I would never advocate doing this if it was possible
Sure it can be done.
You just need to use insulated tools, and be careful not to short Hot to Ground.
I don’t think I would do it, if I had a choice, though.
I’ve done it. Just too lazy to go out to the garage and turn off the breaker…especially if it’s going to kill the lights in the room. No big deal, it’s only 110v. If you only touch one wire at a time you don’t get shocked. If you get bit, it’s only a tingle. Now, 220v (for our European friends) will take you off a ladder.
Electricity is a very logical thing to work with…if you understand it, you can work with it safely.
Now go stick a fork in there and see what it feels like.
Yes, it is possible. My brother and I wired several outlets in my parents house in this manner. Why? I can’t remember. My brother was used to wiring circuits hot, so we did so. Perhaps we were just lazy. I did get a brief shock once, but it’s really not that hard to do. Advisable? No. Stupid? Probably. Possible? Of course.
You would not feel a thing if you were touching only the hot wire, and were isolated from ground.
Yes, it is not only possible, but even a lot of electricity providers have men in elevated “buckets” working on high voltage lines with no fear of electrical shock. Electricity needs a path back to ground. If one isn’t available then no hazard exists. Take a look at birds perched on 10 gazillion volt lines.
I know several electricians that prefer working live. It forces them to always work carefully and respect the voltage. That way they never assume a line is dead and touch both wires.
They make a good point. Those beeping circuit testers sometimes give false readings if there isn’t a good ground or the batterys are low.
Mike Holmes uses one of these no contact testers on every episode of Holmes on Homes. Hold it near a wire and it beeps if its hot. Most of the time they are accurate. One false reading could lull you into grabing hot wires.
you can still get a shock when only touching the live hot and think you are isolated from ground. your clothes, shoes, surface ladder all can provide a path even though you think they are nonconducting, all depends on what is there at the moment.
to do work on live circuits depends on the nature of the circuit if it can be done safely. it also takes lots of experience and a sharp focus to do so safely. an energized wire looks the same
as an unenergized wire and it only takes half a second lapse of thought to do the wrong thing for that circumstance. for the safety of people and equipment i would walk a bit to shut off the circuit.
utility linemen do work live thought they have lots of training and expensive high quality protective equipment and tools and specific procedures.
that assumption is a good one if you know the circuit is live or not unless you can lockout the circuit (like you might in an industrial or commercial installation).
I’ve done it live…I usually avoid it, been shocked one to many times. As careful as I am, it’s to easy for a hand to slip, or a wire to move or a screwdriver to slide towards your thumb or any number of other things. A 120V shock is more startling then painful, but it’s not something I would do on purpose.
BTW, I’ve got one of those contactless voltage detectors. They’re nice and all, but I would never assume the power is out just because it didn’t beep. I’ve got a handful of these that I always have nearby when I’m doing electrical work. The only time I’ve gotten a false negative with this type was when I was working out in the sun and couldn’t see the light.
I’m a reasonable careful electrician and know to never trust those no contact testers. Every electrician I know or have worked with uses a volt meter for testing wires before handling them. I carry a volt meter on any given job. I have a non-contact test and a multi-meter the non-contact rarely leaves my bag. The multi- meter can do voltage as well but I’m not going to trust my life to a digital meter.
Changing switches and outlets is somewhere I will cut corners on. By code you are supposed to turn off and tag the breaker for any branch circuit work. Walking in for a short service call however it can easily take ten times as long to find the correct breaker as it would to just change the device. It can also be a nuisance to the people in the building if you have to flip through breakers to find the right one.
Someone familiar with electrical work can easily change an outlet life without any ill effect. It is simply safer to do so with the power off.
It is akin to walking around barefoot. If you know where your walking you can avoid stepping on anything sharp. If you are in unfamiliar territory putting on a pair of shoes is a really good idea so you don’t find that random shard of glass.
You can turn off the breaker and still get one hell of a shock. Happened to me.
Here is my story.
It was summer, I was going to change the outlet behind my stove. I usually change outlets and switches hot. (yes I know it is a dumb idea, but it is me, I have lots of experience yada, yada, yada) Anyway this day my loving wife says “I wish you would turn off the power”
So to please her I plugged in a lamp turned it on, went to the panel, flipped the breaker and verified that the light was off.
so I pull the stove out, and am standing behind it leaning against my new gas stove, and since it is summer, and it hotter than hell I am sweating a goodly bit. As in my shirt is soaked.
So I open up the box. Unscrew the hot grab it with my hand and move it over to the new outlet and screw it on, no problem.
On the neutral side there are two wires, one comes in the bottom of the box, and the other comes in the top. I unscrew the lower wire and move it to the new outlet. I unscrew the top wire and grab it, :eek: and get the mother loving shock of my life. :eek: It traveled up my right arm, around my rib cage and out my back where it was leaning against my new gas stove. I say gas, because gas pipes are buried in the ground and are well umm grounded.
It turns out that I got shocked by a shared neutral. That wire that went out the top of that outlet went to the light on the ceiling that was on another circuit. When I disconnected the lower wire I broke the ground connection, and that upper wire became live with 120V looking for a ground. It found one though my body.
I hate shared neutrals.
When I rewired my garage (large sub panel, 7 different circuits, both 220, and 110) I did it dead, and when I was done, then I turned on the power. Oh, and there is not a single shared neutral in the garage. I don’t care that I had to buy some extra wire, there aren’t any.
bottom line is, just because one hot wire in a box is dead that does not mean that every wire in that box is dead. If you assume they are all dead, then you could get a shocking surprise. If you assume they are all hot then you won’t go grab one by mistake.
But as they say, YMMV, do as I say don’t do as I do, always follow all safety regulations, do not taunt the happy fun ball.
ETA I have never been shocked working hot on an outlet.
A good electrician will shut off the breaker, test to make sure that the power is off, and then STILL treat the wires as if they are hot.
I think of it like handling a gun. If you hand me a gun and tell me it’s unloaded, I’m still going to check. And even after I check, I’m still going to handle it as if was loaded. Too many people have been hurt or killed because they gradually get sloppier with dangerous things, until finally a weird cooincidence or mental lapse or a distraction kills them. This is why pilots don’t skip checklist items even if they are certain that they don’t need to do them; it’s the routine that keeps them alive when the odds line up against them.
I still don’t see why you’d not turn the electricity off. Yeah I know it’s that you get complacent and such.
To me I will try anything like plumbing, painting, drywall etc, but I REFUSE to go anywhere near electricity. I do understand the pricinciples behind it, I just feel electricity is out to get me
I did it once when I was like 12 years old. It was the only triple prong outlet in the house outside of the kitchen. Of course, it wasn’t grounded (it just had three prongs.) I didn’t get shocked. Years later, I decided to ground it. I blew the breaker and saw some nice sparks when I tried to connect the ground wire to a water pipe. The sparking convinced me to call an electrician. He came in, said I did it right, and charged me $50.
happens all the time. electricians don’t bother to take the time to find and turn off the breaker. Most of the time they avoid a shock. The other times, I am told one gets used to it. I hate the feeling and always turn off the breaker, but many electricians don’t. (I am not an electrician BTW, just a homeowner with some experience in wiring)
Suppose some other device is on that same circuit, and you have a good reason why you don’t want to turn it off. For instance, suppose that if you turn the lights out, you won’t have enough light to change the outlet, but all the lights are on the same circuit as the outlet is. Catch 22 – it is dangerous to change the outlet if you leave the power on, but it is impossible to change the outlet if you turn the power off. One solution is to get a good flashlight, but that might not be easy. So instead, leave the power on, and be very careful.
Any electrician that claims ‘they get used to it’ needs to be told to get the hell out. That’s incredibly stupid. Even 120volt can kill you instantly, it’s not like they get some special immunity for getting hit in the past. Their luck has just been good so far.
I’ve probably been shocked less then 5 times. I’ve never shocked across my body, only been hit on a singly hand.
I’ve blown up a number of good tools. I’ll take chances with a screw driver or a pair of cutters. Though I’ll admit you feel like a total moron when you turn a 40 dollar pair of linesmans to slag.
