Electrician Safety Rules
Necessity of safety rules
Safety consciousness is one of the essential attitudes required for any job. A skilled electrician always should strive to form safe working habits. Safe working habits always save men, money and material. Unsafeworking habits always end up in loss of production and profits, personal injury and even death.
The safety hints given below should be followed by Electrician to avoid accidents and electrical shocks as his job involves a lot of occupational hazards. The listed safety rules should be learnt, remembered and practised by every electrician. Here a electrician should remember the famous proverb, “Electricity is a good servant but a bad master”.
Safety rules
• Only qualified persons should do electrical work.
• Keep the workshop floor clean, and tools in good condition, and keep proper places.
• Do not work on live circuits; if unavoidable, use rubber gloves rubber mats, etc.
• Use wooden or PVC insulated handle screwdrivers when working on electrical circuits.
• Do not touch bare conductors
• When soldering, place the hot soldering irons in their stand. Never lay switched ‘ON’ or heated soldering iron on a bench or table as it may cause a fire to break out.
• Use only correct capacity fuses in the circuit. If the capacity is less it will blow out when the load is connected. If the capacity is large, it gives no protection and allows excess current to flow and dangers men and machines, resulting in loss of money.
• Replace or remove fuses only after switching off the circuit switches.
• Use extension cords with lamp guards to protect lamps against breakage and to avoid combustible material coming in contact with hot bulbs.
• Use accessories like sockets, plugs, switches and appliances only when they are in good condition and be sure they have the mark of BIS (ISI). Necessity of using BIS(ISI) marked accessories is explained under standardization.
• Never extend electrical circuits by using temporary wiring.
• Stand on a wooden stool, or an insulated ladder while repairing live electrical circuits/ appliances or replacing fused bulbs. In all the cases, it is always good to open the main switch and make the circuit dead.
• Stand on rubber mats while working/operating switch panels, control gears etc.
• Position the ladder, on firm ground.
• While using a ladder, ask the helper to hold the ladder against any possible slipping.
• Always use safety belts while working on poles or high rise points.
• Never place your hands on any moving part of rotating machine and never work around moving shafts or pulleys of motor or generator with loose shirt sleeves or dangling neck ties.
• Only after identifying the procedure of operation, operate any machine or apparatus.
• Run cables or cords through wooden partitions or floor after inserting insulating porcelain tubes.
• Connections in the electrical apparatus should be tight. Loosely connected cables will heat up and end in fire hazards.
• Use always earth connection for all electrical appliances along with 3-pin sockets and plugs.
• While working on dead circuits remove the fuse grips; keep them under safe custody and also display ‘Men on line’ board on the switchboard.
• Do not meddle with interlocks of machines/switch gears.
• Do not connect earthing to the water pipe lines.
• Do not use water on electrical equipment.
• Discharge static voltage in HV lines/equipment and capacitors before working on them.