Electrical safety is mandatory, because the life of a person depends on it, and maybe not one. Every electrician is required to take a safety exam regularly. Let's look at safety regulations.
Who can be an electrician?
Only a person who has reached the age of majority can work as an electrician, with specialized training and a diploma. In addition, the specialist must have a certificate in which the electrician's access group is indicated.
When a person comes to work with electricity, he does not always imagine what risk to life a profession promises. What could be dangerous? And here is what:
- Electric shock in the maintenance of electrical installations and electrical equipment.
- The increased noise level during the work in shop.
- Falling from height.
- Gas and dust in industrial premises.
- Work outdoors in any weather, temperature drops in the workshop.
In order to train personnel in safety, warning posters, electrical safety stands are hung on the walls of the enterprise, and training is provided.
When a lecture is given, each electrician signs in a safety briefing. Thus, a person takes responsibility for his life and health. In which case the installer will be to blame.
As you can see, working as an electrician requires increased attention, responsibility and is associated with constant stress.
Preparatory work
You canβt just come and start repairing an electrical installation or equipment. There are several points that an electrician must fulfill before taking action.
- Wear protective clothing that will protect against electric shock.
- Get the job from the boss. The fitter can act in the direction of the boss, but he cannot take the initiative.
- Check lighting in the workplace. It is very important that the place of work is well lit, the electrician must take care of this himself.
- Prepare all devices and tools for work. It is much more convenient when everything is at hand and you donβt have to look in your pockets and suitcases.
Primary requirements
The list of electrician safety precautions begins, perhaps, with the most important thing - voltage relief. To properly de-energize the work area, you need to see the diagram of the site on which the installation or reconstruction is performed. In addition to the circuit, it is important to understand the location of the switching devices (which are needed to shut off) and the power supply of a particular site. First of all, it is necessary to exclude the likelihood of turning on the machine or the switch.
For this, there are the following instructions in the safety precautions of an electrician:
- It is necessary to hang a poster or a sign on the handle, indicating that it is forbidden to touch the handle.
- On the door of the shield or the room where the device is located, the same plate is located.
- It is necessary to disconnect the wires from the switching parts.
In order for the work to be organized correctly, you need to appoint a responsible person who will monitor compliance with safety regulations. Even if everything cannot be foreseen in advance, there is a human factor, but something can be fixed in the process.
Emergency Procedure
If the safety precautions of an electrician were violated, and a person was struck by electric shock, then the whole team should provide first aid. What are we talking about?
- The victim must be freed from the effects of electricity.
- The victim needs to check consciousness, pulse, breathing. This will help doctors assess the condition of a person.
- Contact an ambulance as soon as possible.
- If pulse and breathing are absent, then it is necessary to begin resuscitation measures to restore signs of vitality as soon as possible.
Work rules
An accidental person will not be allowed to work with electricity. Each installer must have an electrician certificate. To get it, you need to unlearn at a secondary or higher educational institution, only after that it is allowed to start work.
What do electricians need to know? The fact that complete safety is achieved only by de-energizing the premises. If you simply turn off the light, then only one network will be de-energized, but other wires will carry current.
In order to surely exclude a threat to life, you need to find the switchboard and unscrew the fuses on it, and then press the interrupt button. If the shield is linear, then simply lower the lever.
To make sure that the room is de-energized, the electrician must use an indicator screwdriver or a power indicator. The indicator light indicates that the current is still flowing. In such cases, you need to check how correctly the shutdown was performed. If everything is fine, then you can start work, while notifying all persons who have access to the shield.
When the work is over
If the electricians were instructed and everyone signed up for a safety briefing, then they should know what to do after work.
First you need to remove the plate or poster from the switch. Then you need to clean up the workplace. All devices and tools must be removed, nothing can be left. If there were any comments, then the person responsible for the work performed is obliged to inform the chief about them.
Dielectric tool
In order to avoid a threat to life, it is important to use the right tools, which include a set of dielectric tools. What it is? So called tools with dielectric handles. If they are marked with 1000 Volts, then using the inventory you can service the electrical network.
Attention! When damage to the cable or wire is detected, it must be replaced. In no case do you need to repair the damaged place, because this is fraught with subsequent breakdowns.
All activities related to the maintenance of grounding elements, fuses, switchboards, are carried out only by people with an electrician's certificate. Moreover, even electricians are not allowed to work without appropriate permits and documents.
Home Safety
Safety instructions for an electrician include not only network maintenance, but also the connection of new appliances. This is due to the fact that improperly connected household or other equipment can cause a short circuit or simply electric shock.
So, according to GOST standards, the following points must be observed:
- Thoroughly examine the new device before connecting it to the network or performing repairs.
- Use metal clips for a good fit.
- Do not connect or use at the same time several devices that consume a lot of energy.
- Do not touch plugged devices with wet hands or other parts of the body. This is especially true for touching in the shower or bath.
- If sparking has been noticed, immediately unplug the appliance from the outlet.
- Do not pull the cord out of the socket by the plug.
- Before you start working, you need to remove all jewelry and metal products from yourself.
It is especially important not to leave children alone with electrical devices and not repair them in front of the kids.
Safety Rules for the Attendant
It is customary to leave electricians on duty. In this case, the fitter must also follow certain rules, namely:
- Monitor the operating status of protective earth or ground.
- Do not allow wires to attach to metal equipment and structures.
- Do not allow electricians to repair equipment or wiring on their own.
- It is high-quality to carry out the work of isolation, because if you leave the exposed area, then an accident may occur.
Rules for work in the city
An important role is played by the categories of an electrician for repair and maintenance of electrical equipment. If a specialist has a low discharge, then he cannot work with high-voltage lines. Why all this?
The fact is that in the city the safety rules are somewhat different, and therefore they need to be known in a strict manner. This is especially true for those who work with electrical installations from 1000 volts.
In addition to knowledge of safety precautions, the ability to provide first aid, for example, to release a person under stress, is necessary. Special rules are established for the production of tests and measurements on power cable lines, work with cable masses and a blowtorch, during rigging.
If malfunctions are detected in the operation of the equipment or in the safety rules, then electricians are required to independently take measures to prevent accidents. When this is not possible, it is necessary to notify the authorities as soon as possible so that it takes action.
Electricians of urban networks after having completed training and confirmed their knowledge, receive a qualification group for safety measures, according to which they work in the future.
So, personnel who work with voltages above 1000 Volts are assigned a specific tolerance group. All five of them, consider in more detail.
- The first group is given to construction workers, students of electricians, and general laborers.
- The second group includes assistants to electricians, electricians, and electricians who supervise the routes.
- The third group is assigned to electricians and electricians.
- Senior electricians and electricians get a fourth group.
- The fifth goes to engineers, craftsmen, technicians.
All work can be performed both with a complete blackout and with a partial one.
Note that in order to get an admission group, you must pass an exam.
How is an exam taken?
We have already described in general terms the safety precautions of an electrician up to 1000 Volts and higher, now we will move on to the exam itself. So why do you need an exam? the fact is that any electrical personnel must have their own security clearance group.
The exam is held once a year. The venue is invariably Rostekhnadzor. Most often, electricians are examined during working hours, but this question remains at the discretion of the boss.
We give an example to make it clearer. If an electrician of the 4th category passes the exam for the admission group, then it is assumed that he already has 3 groups. That is, he can pass certification to confirm the qualification and its improvement.
How is the exam going? The exam form is familiar to everyone from school - answers to tickets. The applicant enters the office and selects a ticket. The ticket has nine questions on electrical safety and one on first aid.
It is important to understand that testing takes place annually and is mandatory for all installers who have a tolerance group above the second. In addition, questions are asked for the tolerance group claimed by the electrician.
If suddenly a need arose, an extraordinary exam is held. As a rule, the cause is an accident, the introduction of new standards, an accident, changes in the operating mode, and an inspector's instruction.
If the exam fails, there are two more attempts to retake. When they are all failed, the electrician is considered unsuitable, and he is fired. The boss can leave the employee on staff only if the latter failed the test for advanced training, but passed his exam.
Dielectric tools
Usually a person who is far from electricity cannot name any special tools except a set of dielectric screwdrivers. In fact, there are quite a lot of them, because the work requires specific devices. Let's consider in more detail.
What is the difference between a dielectric tool and a conventional one? It has a moisture-proof layer of insulation and good electrical resistance. The device must be resistant to the effects of acids, oils, gasoline. No less important is the strength of the tool, it must withstand falls, including from a great height.
As for the set of dielectric screwdrivers, their handles should be long (from 10 centimeters) and well insulated. Long rods should be isolated to the working length, and short ones should have stops that prevent the tool from slipping out of hands. Typically, pens are made of plastic, hard rubber or rubber.
Handles are also protected by nippers, pliers and other tools. So that the tools can be used not only by electricians, but also by representatives of other professions, dielectric covers are made on the handles, which are easily removable. An electrician can work without problems, because the covers do not slip and have stops. And if someone else needs the tool, he will simply remove the covers and use it. It is especially convenient that in case of damage, just change the covers.
Protective equipment includes an insulated tool, special dielectric gloves and voltage indicators. They are most in demand for panel work up to 1000 V with on voltage.
We should also talk about dielectric gloves. Safety at the workplace of an electrician of any category provides for the presence of dielectric gloves. They are usually made of latex. A mandatory mark is a stamp on the date of testing, it is important that the deadline is respected. Before work, gloves are checked for integrity, the easiest way to do this is to inflate them with air. On gloves there is a bell which needs to be twisted; if pressure drops, then gloves are unsuitable. Wear gloves on top of the sleeves.
Voltage indicators are also necessary for the electrician to work. They are divided into bipolar and unipolar. With their help, it is not the magnitude of the voltage that is determined, but its presence. There are light bulbs on the devices that light up if voltage is present. The single-pole version resembles a screwdriver with an indicator and a top finger contact. Through a finger, the current binds to the ground. The safe ignition voltage must not exceed 90 V, and the current must not exceed 0.6 mA.
Bipolar indicators are a pair of probes connected by a wire. One of the probes is equipped with a light that shines from time to time. To check the voltage, you need to attach one of the probes to the test object, and the other to the ground. To eliminate errors, check the pointers on an object that is energized before working.
There is also a special tester that shows the magnitude of voltage and current. The device is not only a pointer, but also a digital one.
We remind you that before work, it is necessary to check the integrity of each tool and its serviceability. If this is not done, then you can expose not only your life to danger, but also the life of other people.
Conclusion
Today we talked not only about safety, but also about passing the safety exam in electrical engineering.
All this is very important and necessary for people in this profession. Knowledge should not be neglected, because improper interaction with the current can cause great harm.
But our people are so arranged that they always rely on chance, and this is wrong. Neglect of safety is the cause of many accidents and injuries at work. Sadly, this happens even with regular instruction.
What can be said about this? If you are not sure that you have enough seriousness and discipline, then maybe you should not choose this profession? An electrician, he, as a sapper, has no right to mistake.
Even ordinary people must follow the rules for using electrical appliances and explain them to children from an early age. It is because of the negligence of parents that kids get injuries associated with electricity. It is in our power to avoid this. Do not be lazy, take the time and explain to your child the rules for handling sockets, switches and other items. Children are very curious and if ignorant, such curiosity can cost them their lives.
Take care of your safety, the safety of the kids and then there will be less tragic cases, and there will be more happy people.