Quote from: Ericho on February 13, 2015, 04:58:03 AM
I worked on high power systems part of my career (mostly on ships) personally up to 4000kw electrical systems up to 1100v able to handle >2000A
I’ve seen the inside of a hospital twice and got plenty of near misses and burn scares.
Those accidents I got were on a 220/380 net and on a 24v dc net (both able to handle a few hundred amps)
So not the 660v 1100v stuff
Lack of respect for high power systems was always part of it. (I was young and ….. back then)
You cannot just poke anything just into anything. It ends badly, and yes explosions happen easily when equipment fails. (never seen a dmm explode thou)
Cat ratings and safety guidelines should be taken seriously. Don’t go assuming that it is not so, you may hurt yourself or someone else.
nice to hear raw and real experiences, would you care to elaborate how your accident happen? hope its not too personal ... could be good for everyone to know ![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
Sure, no problem. Not proud of it nor ashamed, it was a long time ago when a differend attitude towards safety was all to common.
The 24V incident:
A electricaly started 400kw emergency genset needed testing. De battery bank was empty. We made a pair of long jumper cables out of 70mm² welding cables. I connected to the full 24v bank while my second engineer was 20m away holding the non insulated connections on the other end. He tripped and connectors shorted on the aluminium floor plating. At this moment I was already 6m away from the battery bank. they exploded And the plastic shards hitting me cut me all over,, the acid in the wounds and my eyes did the rest. This was hospitalization due to lack of respect, reclesness and assuming 24v is not dangerous.
380v (or 440V) incident:
4 a clock in the morning a 350A fuse blow in a switch / fuse cabinet with a few 800kW gensets connected to it.
I opened the cabinet, wacked a new fuse in and without thinking, meashuring or closing the door I trew a genset back online, after all I was in a hurry to go back to sleep.
A half shorted amp coil behind the fuse produced a large flame and I got 1 degree burned on my arm, lost some hair to.
This is how I learned that the warning labels / CAT ratings / certificates / safety systems etc etc. are not bullshit. (more then 25 years ago).
I do understand how doing low power electronics can trick you into thinking your home 220Vac net belongs to the same category. It doesn't. It is to be considered high power and treated as such.
I own a VC940, Its ok for ow power stuff. I use basic flukes for high power stuff. I stay away with DMM's from live high voltage (> 440Vac), there are, most of the time other means to do repairs on those systems.
Brgds,
Eric