Friday afternoon corner cutting.

[Deleted member 9648]

Last knockings on friday,a quicky job,just replace a broken halogen flood on a detatched garage....note there is an external switch on the wall below the light,switch it on and on comes the light.Customer says "do you want to get in the garage to isolate?I'll have to get the key."...."No,switch off will do" I reply.....(10 minutes and I'll be on my way)

Quick check with the probes,dead.....start disconnecting the cable when suddenly the light comes on!!.......quickly becomes apparent that the light is 2 way'd back to the house and his missus has hit the switch!.....Close one,wot a plonker...thats why we have safe isolation proceedures,just an extra couple of minutes.... might save your life.....

 

[Guest123]

Quite correct....assume nothing.

Did the full 500W blind you when it came on???

Hate it when that happens!!

 

[Deleted member 9648]

It warmed my hands up mate

 

[accordfire]

Last knockings on friday,a quicky job,just replace a broken halogen flood on a detatched garage....note there is an external switch on the wall below the light,switch it on and on comes the light.Customer says "do you want to get in the garage to isolate?I'll have to get the key."...."No,switch off will do" I reply.....(10 minutes and I'll be on my way)

Quick check with the probes,dead.....start disconnecting the cable when suddenly the light comes on!!.......quickly becomes apparent that the light is 2 way'd back to the house and his missus has hit the switch!.....Close one,wot a plonker...thats why we have safe isolation proceedures,just an extra couple of minutes.... might save your life.....

And the moral of this tale......NEVER, EVER trust anyone else saying a circuit is dead. You are working on the circuit, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure it is safe to do so!

Thanks Wirepuller. Good reminder!

 

[telectrix]

" the missus had hit the switch" amazing the lengths some customers go to to avoid making the sparks a brew!

 

[nickblake]

So easy to do , had a simular situation Halide bulkhead , not working ,wired by an electrician (sorry thats an insult to electricians) just didnt think switched on so i could check the supplies to it , climbed my fibre glass ladder removed cover lamp and alumin reflector which was earthed then looked down at the connection block and the live was in the earth terminal and i was holding the earthed refector , not feeling a thing ,, all i can say is thank god i was on fibre glass ladders and insulated from the ground or i may have been a gonner , i always switch and lock off after that no matter what

 

[nickblake]

Quite correct....assume nothing.

Did the full 500W blind you when it came on???

Hate it when that happens!!

thats why i got reactor light specs from specsavers lol

 

[pennywise]

Had a 1000w flood come on in my face before, it gave me a headache for the rest of the day, must have got strained irises or something lol.

 

[accordfire]

Another potentially dangerous one is changing MH lamps close to switch on time......

One of my customers phoned about two weeks ago, and wanted supply only of a hundred 400W MH tubes. We don't normally supply only, but for this one we will, as we do pretty well all their other work across all disciplines.

Got a phone call last Wednesday - guy had been up on the cherry picker replacing lamps. Got to number two (of a hundred) and had re-lamped right at the point the dusk sensor switched. Burnt hand, almost fell off the cherry picker (not belted in!), and probably half blind too.

Guess who's now been to site, and scored a re-lamping contract!

We knew of about six of these floods that had issues through incorrect installation, but the number of now replaceable units we've come across due to water ignress is unbelievable. I've come across another ten so far which are so badly water damaged, that it's going to be easier and cheaper just to replace the whole flood, rather than a gear tray and lamp.

Why, oh why, oh why, is it so damn hard for people to follow a few simple rules when doing floodlighting like this?

(1) Make sure the circuit is DEAD.
(2) Silicone grease on all screws.....
(3) Proper tightening to watertight around the seal.
(4) Do NOT handle the lamps directly - use a clean rag or cloth!
(5) Lamps only gently hand tight - why do people insist on screwing them in so tight, they weld into the holder?