Precaution Every House Holder Should Take While Working On/operating Electrical Appliances
Q. What precaution every house holder should take while working on/operating electrical appliances ?
- Get checked the house wiring, fitting by qualified electrician periodically once in a year.
- From the electrician get checked : Soundness of insulation of wiring work. (i) Soundness of earthing. (iii) Correct of size of tube, MCBs. (iv) If additional points are tube incorporated get it done by authority. (v) Switches in phase wire and not in neutral wire.
- The equipment purchased should have preferably Bakelite or other insulating body. If you must purchase one with a metallic body, see to it that it is connected to a 3 pin plug through a 3 core cable. The third wire i.e. the earth wire is most essential to drain away faulty or leakage current to earth
- Never handle any electrical appliance with wet hands or standing on a set floor. (Not even to replace a fused lamp). Do not have any electrical devices within reach of wet situations.
- Put the switch off and then pull out the plug when you have finished work on portable appliances. Make it a general habit of using an electrical appliance, standing on a wooden plank or rubber mat. Let everyone one knows about the location of main switch so that it can be switched off by any one at once in any emergency.
- Educate your children about the danger of electricity and stop then fooling around with light switches and sockets. Tell them not to play around electric posts and stay wires in the street.
- Inspect the flexible cords of portable appliances every now and then especially at the cable ends and don’t hesitate to renew the cords before they are too bad. Ordinary twin flexible cord should not be used where it is exposed to moisture. If possible, use flexible C.T.S. or PVC insulated and sheathed cable in preference to flexible rubber insulated silk cords for feeding portable appliances. Always avoid using adopters to connect several appliances to one outlet.
- If on your won, you work on fault finding repairs etc. know the following things first and then stat work. (i) Man touching neutral conductor while standing on ground i.e. in direct contact with earth feels no shock while switch is ‘ON’ or ‘OFF. (ii) Man touching phase wire or live pole while in direct contact with earth i.e. standing on the ground bare foot receives shock when switch is ‘ON’ but not with switch ‘OFF”. (iii) Man touching phase wire or live wire while in direct contact with earth with switch in neutral receives shock whether switch is ‘ON or ‘OFF. (iv) Man touching phase wire or live wire while insulated from earth (through dry wooden block in this case) receives no shock with switch either ‘ON” or ‘OFF.