Thank you for sharing your knowledge

I have seen several events in my 30yr career. Usualky, Working in an open live 480 MCC panel, is just normal operations. And we become too comfortable doing so..

And that, my friends, is why I don't mess with electricity.

This right here is why i hate working with one of the power supply at work, they bring them back refuse to give any info. Turn it on and suddenly everything is loud and blue. Happened three times already and ehy i use a long stick to flip the breaker.

Arc flash is extremely rare, like a piece of Fluke equipment. If it works, it must be a fluke. John Fluke didn't like the smart engineer that said it. The guy failed to mention arc flash is basically like arc welding except at much higher voltage and AC in most cases.

I had a 480v 400A main arc phase to phase before due to carbon tracking after the panel previously blew. Definitely wear your spacesuit, stand to the side and hold your breath before you turn shit on. The best way to describe the explosion is like having a grenade going off next to you. Another tip, put your panel cover on before you energize!

But, I didn’t learn anything here today that can help me prevent or survive an arc flash. Thanks Mr. Fluke. 😢

This video is a bit old and this comment may never be seen, but felt I had to add this here. In brief, a coworker of mine ~5 years ago experienced a high voltage arc flash. The bulk of his body didn't seem to sustain any serious damage. His eyes did, though. Maybe his face, but we couldn't really tell as he was pressing a rag onto it during the time we saw him. Please take me very seriously when I say that his screams about his eyes were unbearable. The sound taught all of us that there's a kind or level of pain that no one talks about. Parlty because I don't believe it's replicatable. I wish I could forget again I heard it. And I hope you reading this never have to. Please wear proper PPE if you have to deal with them at all. If you're feeling inventive, invent a different way for us to flip or deal with these breakers. For whoever does, the beers on me.

Always keep your meters dry as well I heard about a dude that left his fluke outside and it absorbed some moisture and then when he went to go test one of these panels it set it off he was in bad shape from what I heard but the thought never even occurred to me but mine definitely stays nice and climate controlled now that's for sure.

Unfortunately the lower the voltage the greater the arc flash danger. The nature of breaker coordination means that downstream loads trip slower than upstream and the energy released will be much higher.

This was very educational.

You can be the best electrician on your job town or city but all it takes is one time and it can get ugly

Dear land lord. This is why YOU MUST HAVE A CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY..one of the many reason 0:58

Thank you. Never had the displeasure of an arc flash. I am a retired professor and have watched and been taught by electricians as a young boy to my retirement. Thank you to all the electricians out there. Your colleagues kept me safe.

when i was a teenager, a friend of mine taught me how to build a carbon arc flash device on my parents home electrical system, and we used it to melt lead and scare cats and other fun things......

Making something tension-free is not that difficult. Simply switch off the consumers and measure at the fuses whether there is still current flowing (measure three times, the second time on a current-carrying conductor to check your meter). Placing the fuses is something completely different. Fluke should make an instrument that measures the impedance on the outgoing side, so that you know what current to expect when you place the fuses. Unfortunately, they don't have something like this in their range. You can measure with your ohm meter, but this one measures the direct current resistance. Not the impedance.

Don't use your meter set for current to measure high voltage. Not fun. Only 70A at 220VAC.

Like when I see the prices of your meters. 20 years ago they were fairly priced.

I've had an arc flash once when working on home 220V, so not much power. Luckily debris from ceramic insulator didn't hit me.

I thought the + sign was where I put my screw driver

maybe industry can incorporate a new method/pc board that views the needed electrical measurements and sends them to a device/receiver a safe distance away like a radio frequency signal add on to the panel box that sends the required info to a battery powered hand held device. the new key fobs in autos comes to mind as they have many functions as they are. 🙂

basically arc welding gone rogue......yikes😵‍💫.

Was researching Wadsworth panels not tripping and stumbled onto this video. I am an electrician and currently doing some work in a house that has a Wadsworth panel (I explained to the customer that panel needed changed and she understood and said ok.) I was changing an outlet that I thought it was dead, the breaker was OFF, or so I thought. A previous DIY'er had reversed the wires in an upstream outlet box, white was hot and black was neutral. My tick tester only went to the black wire and didn't beep. I unscrewed the black wire first with an impact and as I touched the white wire the impact the shank also touched the side of the box... sparks flew... breaker NEVER tripped.

I just randomly stumbled on this shit. Maybe picked up some valuable piece of knowledge.

Thinking of lightning's electrical current, and how electrical paths from lightning can cause the completion of the circuit, we can now figure out in detail the two types of arc flash events: Phase-to-phase - this means ionizing electrons from one metal object to another metal object (given the metallic objects are too close to each other) created an air gap good enough for charge separation to set off the arc flash. Phase-to-ground - this means a metallic object got too close to or touching (contacting) metal that goes to the ground, or metal that is on the ground, causing the same air-gapping, electron ionization and resultant charge separation to set off the arc flash. Also..... Combustible dusts that happens anywhere these two events happen can also cause the arc flash if the heat or charge separation (along with enough oxygen) to set off a spark is good enough for these dangerous flashes.

Why would the voltmeter cause an arc flash?

I hope the guy in the video is ok 🧐 that thing sparked in his face

Sometimes working on this stuff (240 volts or less) I get very reckless trying to get a piece of equipment going.. Just yesterday 3 phase 208 volts on a 35 amp breaker I was crouched over the locked up condensing unit and had a phase to phase event. I'm not joking when I say it was like an M-80 going off right in my face. No injuries. It must have touched right when the AC sign wave was peaking because it was bad. One day I know something bad could happen and I pray the circuit protection keeps doing its job. 208 volts can draw tens of thousands of amps with the ohms as low as they were being 5 feet from the 400 amp sub panel. Usually no big deal but occasionally the unexpected very violent arc flash can and will occur. Stay safe all electrical workers 🙏

Do they got extra extra long probs to measure the voltage from a distance lol that’s what I would use

There is 700,000 Electricians in America. 182,500 have experienced Arc Flash.

Arc Flash= SUN farts in your face for a millisecond.

Personal protection is most important. Nothing less than Face shield, Eye protection, Gloves and Hearing protection.

Pink Mist. I remember these words from the safety meeting. "We are hooking up this room today, do not go in here or we might not even find your shoe laces."

I'm a recently retired Electrician, 45 years. Just the words Arc Flash, Arc Blast scare the shit out of me.

I’m lucky, never had to use or specify US standard switchgear!

I repair welding equipment for a living, arc flash and arc burns , very bad deal. Respect electricity always, no matter what the voltage.

Arc flash - a non-explosive electrical flash which gives off high heat and can cause severe burns or shock, and even death. Arc blast - much more dangerous - is an explosive electrical flash which can cause not only severe burns or electric shock - but also fractures, and also even death. Like an arc flash, an arc blast gives off high heat but also there is the pressure wave of the explosion which can lead to severe physical consequences as well. Examples of arc blasts happen during explosions on electrical transformers when they fault.

I just lost a relative because of this.

Ive seen some good face offs in hockey but..

Why not cut the power when you have to open a panel....

And here I am I don't even like hooking up a 12v battery 😂😂

Tiktok comment section brought me here

this is all a fluke!

Thanks 😊 so much ❤

The day u take a shortcut is the day you will have an arc event

My butt does this after taco bell

This is the only video, where a person knows what they are talking about arc flash. Precisely said 4 times hotter than the surface of the sun rather than saying just the sun.

Hot as the sun in 1 millisecond and circuit breaker takes about 16 milliseconds to trip. Wow!

An arc flash sounds like the man made equivalent of lightning

I survived an arc flash. A 3 phase 220 volt panel grenaded in my my face. I got lucky. The panel door deflected the blast. I was open the door to reset a breaker when the panel exploded. If I had been just a bit sooner opening the door I would have gotten my face blown off.