On Monday, March 3, 2014 9:28:39 AM UTC-5, Pete C. wrote:
Stormin Mormon wrote:



On 3/3/2014 6:45 AM, philo wrote:

On 03/02/2014 10:03 PM, Robert Green wrote:

My wife asks: "Is there any protection to be gained by placing a thick

rubber mat in front of the circuit panel where someone working on the

panel

would normally stand?" It would seem it would have to help a little.



It certainly would not hurt anything to place a rubber mat there but

it's not likely to make anything safer.



Less likely to have a current path to

ground through your legs and feetsies.



Most shoes are pretty good insulators at 120V which is the most you

would get to ground (in the US) anyway. Since the panel enclosure is

grounded and there are terminals of both phases (polarity technically)

in the panel, you have a much better chance of getting across 120V or

even 240V in the panel itself. This is of course where the old "one

hand" idea came from, but as we all know in today's overstuffed panels

that's simply not viable.



The two most important safety things you can do are to make sure you

have good footing i.e. you aren't climbing on junk to get to the panel,

and that you have good lighting so you can clearly see inside the panel

to avoid contact with exposed terminals and bus bars.

I like those panels that they use in Canada that you see on
the Holmes TV shows. They use a separate cover for the area at
and above the main breaker. Without removing that, nothing below
it that you could come in contact with is energized with the main
open. Even with a regular panel, with the main off, it's pretty
hard to contact the incoming service wires as you're usually not
doing anything near that and if you are, well you just need to know
what you;re doing and be careful. Personally, I'm most worried
when I'm taking off the panel cover on one where you haven't been
before. You don't know what someone may have done inside there, so I'm
always careful to take the panel straight off, not let it tip back
inside. My worst fear is the panel comes off, a corner dips back
inside, touches something, and there you are, with the steel panel
in both hands, standing on a concrete floor.