Andy Wade wrote:


Moral: always use a proper voltage indicator or test lamp and test it on
a known live supply (or proving unit) both before and after isolating &
checking the circuit you intend to work on.

I wish I had taken that advice a few years ago. The cable tv man was
coming so I had pulled the TV and stand etc out and decided to spend the
time figuring out why the socket behind it didn't work. So I pulled the
fuse for the downstairs ring, noted that nothing was on but did not test
the recalcitrant socket. So there I was poking about in the switch
seeing if the connections were good when there was a flash and the
lights went out (it was an overcast winters day). Turned out that socket
had been extended not from the ring, but from a port for a hard wired
standard lamp, so when I shorted it the lighting fuse blew. I have been
much more careful since and will take Andy's advice to heart for all
further such excursions.

Peter
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