Eigenvector wrote:
"DanG" wrote in message
news
I agree with you totally, but the advice is for someone who is
uncomfortable and on new territory. He is not asking how to work
something hot.

--

I appreciate the swift responses. I am relatively new to doing this
kind of repair work and so there were these questions that came to
mind. I had to replace the dimmer, I've seen it done and know how to
do it, but wires won't show electricty in them, so before grasping
them to undo the pigtail I grabbed my voltmeter and touched the
wires. I didn't see any readings so I thought - Hmm maybe my
voltmeter isn't working. So I was about to stick the probes in the
outlet when the thought occured to me that maybe that isn't such a
smart idea either. So I figured, why not, I'll ask here and save
myself a trip to the emergency room and only pay the price of looking
stupid.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DanG
A live Singing Valentine quartet,
a sophisticated and elegant way to say I LOVE YOU!
(local)
http://www.singingvalentines.com/ (national)


"RBM" rbm2(remove wrote in message
...
Personally, I feel that I have better control over my well-being
when I use both of my hands when handling live wires and devices. I
also try to use my head


"DanG" wrote in message
...
The phone lines are safe. You won't feel any shocks.

Power lines are a bit different.There should not be power on the
colored power wire, usually black, when the breaker is turned off.
Neutrals, the white one, are usually shared by two circuits. In a
perfect world there should not be power on the neutrals if
everything is wired correctly. DO NOT assume so. You do not tell
if your wiring is new enough to have a ground, either green or
bare. Turn off the breaker, check between black and white - no
power; then use your tester between the black and the green - no
power; use your tester between the white and the green - no power,
you're good to go. It is good practice to never use both hands around
electricity
that can allow current through your heart. If you are not
grounded, barefoot, in a puddle of water, or some other grounding
you might feel a tingle, but the current can't go through you. I
am not suggesting this, but some old electricians might use their
finger in a light socket to check for power.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DanG
A live Singing Valentine quartet,
a sophisticated and elegant way to say I LOVE YOU!
(local)
http://www.singingvalentines.com/ (national)


"Eigenvector" wrote in message
. ..
A couple three basic questions that I'm not willing to test
myself. When pigtailing wires together, you won't get shocked so long
as
1) the breaker to that circuit is off 2) you aren't touching
both the neutral AND the hot wire. Meaning, if I grab two hot
wires and pig-tail them (like when adding in a dimmer) I won't
get shocked so long as I'm not touching the neutral wire AND the
breaker to that circuit is off. I'm not trying to be ultra safe
here so much as I'm trying to make sure that in situation where
switching off the breaker isn't a guarentee that power is off for
that fixture. Second question, if I take the probe leads from my volt
meter and
jam them into an outlet, it's not gonna short the circuit but do
exactly what I would expect it to do - read the potential
difference between the two sockets in AC volts (assuming your
voltmeter is reading AC volts).

And finally, when splicing phone line, do the wires normally carry
voltage sufficient to shock or could you essentially splice them
with your teeth if you had to?

The only thing to watch out for with a meter is to be certain it's set to
read Voltage and not Current (I) or Resistance (R) when you stick the probes
into an outlet.
Hopefully such a mistake would only blow the fuse in it, but it's almost
as likely to fry the whole unit, depending.
You also have to be sure it's Volts AC too of course. You'll get
inaccurate numbers if it's set to to DC Volts.

HTH
Pop`