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Rich B

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I am also not giving up my Non Contact Tester at home........and I have a Fluke 83 and use it everyday at work....

I also have a couple of the little testers that light up with metal probes but they are junk! I would use the N-C tester rather than the cheap light up probe style anyday.....

I worked for an electrician not long after I was out of high school. We did all kinds of work....New construction and alterations. The guy I worked for routinely would test a circuit by wetting his two fingers and lightly touching wires or screws on a fixture......I thought he was nuts....but he did it many times and even I did it a few times just to check it out.

Now don't go off on me for simply mentioning the unsafe practices I have seen others do. I have been bit a few times....and know very well what lectricity can do......
 
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BobL43

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Well, I take you point now. You did not make your narrative very clear.

I have never had an NC fail to tell me that juice was there, but I agree that using the full function meter before pulling anything out is an excellent idea.

People are oddly afraid of sticking probes into sockets, but that certainly beats doing it with one's finger.

I don't deny that 15 amps is about 150 times the energy needed to kick your ass, under the correct circumstances.

But I'm not giving up my NC tester.

From what I remember, it takes only a little more than 5 ma (0.005) amps passing through the heart to kill a man, and that would make 15 amps 3,000 times a fatal current. At 115 volts, it only takes making good skin contact to make it happen. "Good skin contact" is something determined by the situation, but if the skin is moist, good skin contact will result, and the body's water and chemical makeup do a good job of conduction.

I also, would not trust a non contact meter to verify a circuit was truly dead. My own personal meter is a Fluke 87, which is only rated Class 4, but that's good enough for what I use it for.
 

DonL

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From what I remember, it takes only a little more than 5 ma (0.005) amps passing through the heart to kill a man, and that would make 15 amps 3,000 times a fatal current. At 115 volts, it only takes making good skin contact to make it happen. "Good skin contact" is something determined by the situation, but if the skin is moist, good skin contact will result, and the body's water and chemical makeup do a good job of conduction.

I also, would not trust a non contact meter to verify a circuit was truly dead. My own personal meter is a Fluke 87, which is only rated Class 4, but that's good enough for what I use it for.


How much would it take to kill a Woman ?

I guess their Headlights would turn on Bright.

I use a Non Contact to tell if a circuit is ON, but not to test if a wire is dead.

After checking with a meter, I will also short out the circuit and look for sparks, Just to make for sure the line is dead before working with both hands.
 
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BobL43

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How much would it take to kill a Woman ?

I guess their Headlights Lights would turn on Bright.

I use a Non Contact to tell if a circuit is ON, but not to test if a wire is dead.

After checking with a meter, I will also short out the circuit and look for sparks, Just to make for sure the line is dead before working with both hands.
Don, as usual, you are funny. Headlights are most affected by cold temperatures.

I used to know people that would do that (short out 2 wires) to trip a breaker and find which one fed that circuit. I never had the cojones to try that myself, especially in my house:p. I do have a voltage sniffer, but if I do use it, it is to try to find wiring behind a wall before I drill into it. It tends to give false positives because of sensitivity settings. Its not one where you inject a signal into the circuit, it just senses the 60Hz field around the conductor. Even my dogs have their own sniffers, but they only use them to check the pee mail when I take them for a walk. I hope they don't ask me for an IPod touch.
 
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From what I remember, it takes only a little more than 5 ma (0.005) amps ....

Yes, under certain circumstances, absolutely tiny currents can cook you.

My point is that under very common circumstances, modest currents can kick your ass. Few of us have not been bit at one point or another. I get a glancing sting on the back of my hand once or twice per year. Anyone who has had anything more than a kiss from the juice will be very aware of the hazard.

That stuff can do some real harm to you. I have only had one nasty experience with it, and frankly remain amazed to this day that I am alive.
 

Rich B

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Here is an experience I had last fall that I though was pretty amazing.....

I jog and walk a lot.....Has helped to keep me in decent shape and I will be 65 next birthday.....been doing it 25+ years.

Was going down a busy road a couple miles from my house.....It's a 2 lane with a lot of traffic.....Looked down at the cement sidewalk and apron on a driveway into a BMW dealership.......The cement was burned black and literally turned to glass. I stooped over and picked up glass fragments and put them in my pocket. I could tell it was from an electrical short. Looked up and saw the primaries were across the street and secondary transformers were on one of the poles. The service drop for the street lights had been butt spiced and I reasoned that the wires had been severed by a truck......just like at my own home a couple years ago.....but the hots either shorted or they shorted to the ground cable as they layed on the ground and probably made a real nice light show......Saw the same thing happen down the street when a home servcie drop hit the ground and laid there burning the asphalt.......


This time the sand in the cement was turned literally to black glass from the heat........

There's a heck of a lot of energy on those 2 wires coming down from the pole to your house......Don't mess with it....The primary side fuse above the transformer did not blow when I have seen these incidents.......

I have seen those fuses blow and it was when power company lineman were attemting to power up abuilding after a set of transformers were changed....They had an issue with one transformer and it blew 3 fuses before they got it straightened out.......and power restored....
 
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