Electrical & Instrumentation Tech

Keep Your Eyes on the Job at Hand

Measuring live voltages and current in today’s high energy environments can result in a severe hazard to equipment and users if proper precautions are not applied. Given the risk of transients, surges, and old-fashioned human error, it always pays to follow safe work practices and use test instruments rated for the voltage or current you’re measuring.

Whenever possible, work on de-energized circuits and follow proper lockout, tag-out procedures. If you have to work on live circuits, following the steps below will improve your measurement practices and help reduce any hazard.

Safety considerations for live measurements: keep your eyes on the job at hand from Fluke

Electrical Testing Safety – Part 2
As your test probes touch the circuit, you get a voltage where there should be none! What’s going on? Well, besides the possibility that you might be on the wrong piece of equipment (yes, it has been known to happen), you might be experiencing backfed or induced voltage. Jim White, training director at Shermco Industries, explains this and more in the second application note of this two-part series.
Testing Safety – Part 2 » from Fluke