In article , "Pete C." wrote:

Right, their comfort level will vary with the situation. In your case
they were dealing with secondary voltage only since it was just your
drop that was down, not primaries on the street. They also only had a
single residence in question, with a generator already running. They
asked and in the process reminded you about the main breaker and also
got some impression of your competence.

Exactly so. I understood the foreman's question to me on two levels, and I
answered him on both levels as well:

"Is your main breaker open?" (Do you know what 'open' means?)

"Yes, it's off." (Yes, I know what you mean, and yes, it is.)

And of course at 120/240V their
gloves provide plenty of protection even if there was a back feed.

Yeah, those fellas have some major heavy-duty insulated gloves. :-)

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.