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Touching Electrical Equipment - Safety Hazards and Electrical Inspection Procedures
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• Safety advice on touching electrical components

This article reviews safe and unsafe methods for touching or not-touching electrical equipment during its inspection. This is a sub-chapter of our article on electrical safety procedures which discusses safety hazards at residential electrical panels and suggests safety procedures for the electrical inspector, home inspector, or other professionals who examine residential electrical systems. Safe electrical inspection procedures and safe use of volt meters, DMMs, multimeters, and similar electrical test equipment is discussed at the end of the article. Original text: DF, as ASHI Technical Journal Staff, January 1992, with updates February 2006. © Copyright 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Touching electrical equipment during an inspection

Never touch metal plumbing or gas system pipes while you're working around electricity. Never touch electrical equipment while standing on a damp or wet surface.

During an inspection an ASHI inspector warned the home owner that there was a short in a florescent ceiling light fixture. The owner, a contractor who had done his own electrical work, irritated and incredulous at this supposed defect, licked his knuckles and bridged a small space between the light body and a nearby gas pipe. He's now a believer. [NOTE: DJF home inspection, Beacon, NY 1990]

A very questionable procedure is suggested in The ASHI Training Manual [NOTE: "Electrical Systems," ASHI Training Manual, chapter by Alfred L. Alk, p. 18. ASHI 1987] indicating that the inspector can "test" to see if a panel is dangerously "live" (has an internal short) by tapping the box with the knuckles of his/her right hand to check for current, then laying the right palm on the box to feel for heat before beginning to remove the cover.

From a safety view, this is a bad idea. Never rely on physical touch to judge electrical safety of a component. Use instruments. Test instruments such as the VOM described above, and the TIF^TM Tic Tracer shown at left are inexpensive, effective, safer when used properly. [NOTE: Alexandra Radkewycz, a Canadian researcher, reports severely shocking experiences from failure to make proper use of instruments. [Private communication to author, 12/91.]

In that same ASHI Training Manual chapter the author, Al Alk, offers another more accepted suggestion: "Inspectors should practice working around open enclosures with the left hand behind the back. If the right hand receives a shock the current will more likely pass down the right half of the body: the heart is on the left side. Inspectors who wear rings must be especially wary when working near an open box." [NOTE: ASHI Training Manual, Op. Cit.]

A basic rule for working around electrical equipment: if you are yourself not grounded, and if you only touch one single component at a time, risks are reduced. Never ground yourself through your feet. Don't stand on a wet floor. If it's necessary to touch electrical components in such a location, a trained electrical worker uses a dry ungrounded platform such as boards or a wooden ladder.

When working around electrical equipment, first remove rings and watches to reduce the risk of electric shock. At an IBM test site in Poughkeepsie, NY in the 1980's a test technician was killed while working on a computer. His metal watch band contacted a live component while other body parts were touching a grounded component, possibly the steel frame of the assembly. Similar accidents around electric panels are a real risk for home inspectors.

Panel cover screws: if you find that a sharp-tipped sheet metal screw has been used (usually to replace a lost original fastener) you should be alert for pierced, damaged, short-circuited wires in the panel - both during removal and during panel cover replacement. We will not reinstall a sharp-pointed screw in a panel cover if wires are crowded close to the screw opening. Having seen more than one shorted and burned panel from precisely this cause, we warn clients about this unsafe detail. It is trivial to correct.

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Technical Reviewers

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material. Content suggestions, technical corrections and content critique are invited for any of the content at our website.

• Original author of the sidebar on testing VOM DMM condition: Kenneth Kruger, R.A., P.E. AIA ASCE, is an ASHI Member and ASHI Director in Cambridge, MA. He provided basis for this article penned by DJ Friedman.
• See "How to Use DMM's Safely," Leonard Ogden, CEE News, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10106, Dec 1990 p.10.
• Dr. Jess Aronstein, consulting engineer, Poughkeepsie NY, 1991
• New York State Central Hudson Gas and Electric Company, G&E/1-2/85 consumer safety pamphlet
• Daniel Friedman - principal author/editor of the InspectAPedia ^TM Website
• Technical reviewers are invited to comment or ask questions - contact us

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More expert information on this topic

More Information on Electrical Inspection Procedures, Electrical Hazards, Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

• * Safety Hazards and Safe Inspection Procedures for Electrical and Home Inspectors at Residential Electric Panels
• Aluminum Wiring Information Website Aluminum Electrical Wiring Hazards and Repairs: in-depth authoritative info, photos, documents including selection of proper vs. ineffective repair methods. E.g.: Ideal 65 "Twister" purple connector fails in field and lab testing with aluminum wire.
• Ampacity of an Electrical Service: How to determine the electrical service size or ampacity entering a building
• Circuit Breaker, a bad one fails to trip failure at aluminum bus-to-circuit breaker connection - field report and photographs
• Electrical Panels, How to Inspect in Buildings, safety for electrical inspectors, electrical panel, fusing, wiring defects, defective products. Inspection Class Presentation
• Federal Pacific Electric (FPE) Stab-Lok Circuit Breaker Panel Hazards Website - Latent fire hazards, in-depth authoritative research, documents, advice on Stab-Lok electric panel and circuit breaker failures and what to do when this equipment is found in buildings.
• Lightning Strike Risk Assessment, Protection Systems & Services
• Multi-wire branch circuit inspection and defects
• Rust and Corrosion in Electrical Panels, A Study and Report on Frequency and Cause for Electrical and Home Inspectors at Residential Electric Panels
• "Electrical System Inspection Basics," Richard C. Wolcott, ASHI 8th Annual Education Conference, Boston 1985.
• "Simplified Electrical Wiring," Sears, Roebuck and Co., 15705 (F5428) Rev. 4-77 1977 [Lots of sketches of older-type service panels.]
• "How to plan and install electric wiring for homes, farms, garages, shops," Montgomery Ward Co., 83-850.
• "Electrical System Inspection Basics," Richard C. Wolcott, ASHI 8th Annual Education Conference, Boston 1985.
• "Simplified Electrical Wiring," Sears, Roebuck and Co., 15705 (F5428) Rev. 4-77 1977 [Lots of sketches of older-type service panels.]
• "How to plan and install electric wiring for homes, farms, garages, shops," Montgomery Ward Co., 83-850.
• "Home Wiring Inspection," Roswell W. Ard, Rodale's New Shelter, July/August, 1985 p. 35-40.
• "Evaluating Wiring in Older Minnesota Homes," Agricultural Extension Service, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108.
• "Electrical Systems," A Training Manual for Home Inspectors, Alfred L. Alk, American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), 1987, available from ASHI. [DF NOTE: I do NOT recommend this obsolete publication, though it was cited in the original Journal article as it contains unsafe inaccuracies]
• "Basic Housing Inspection," US DHEW, S352.75 U48, p.144, out of print, but is available in most state libraries.
• Electrical System & Wiring Hazard Inspection, Detection, Cause, Remedy, Prevention - Main Electrical Page

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