Question from a non-electrician, so excuse my ignorance. The main fuse holder in my house has just been updated to a new one, owing to my existing one being about fifty years old. How is this done with the incoming cable still live?
A gloved worker will only touch one core at a time, and will have temporary insulation (think little pointy 'wizard hat' shapes made of rubber) that they apply to exposed ends of cores they are not working on at the time, so the earth and neutral are covered when working on the live core and vice versa. A larger part of the risk is not shock, the gloves handle that, but rather being basted in molten metal if a short circuit occurs.
If the cable is to be cut then there are special insulating wedges and jigs to drive between the cores, so that the cutting tool stops at the wedge, and only cuts -and the blade only connects, to one core at a time.
There is a fairly serious training course for this that separates those who can from the rest. (I can't but I have watched..)
It may look agricultural getting the tar off an old fitting and re-terminating the cable ends but the method has been very carefully though out.
A gloved worker will only touch one core at a time, and will have temporary insulation (think little pointy 'wizard hat' shapes made of rubber) that they apply to exposed ends of cores they are not working on at the time, so the earth and neutral are covered when working on the live core and vice versa. A larger part of the risk is not shock, the gloves handle that, but rather being basted in molten metal if a short circuit occurs.
If the cable is to be cut then there are special insulating wedges and jigs to drive between the cores, so that the cutting tool stops at the wedge, and only cuts -and the blade only connects, to one core at a time.
There is a fairly serious training course for this that separates those who can from the rest. (I can't but I have watched..)
It may look agricultural getting the tar off an old fitting and re-terminating the cable ends but the method has been very carefully though out.
