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Fuse Holder

Robin Gilmour
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?
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    Jaymack:

    Which ponders the question "Must Live Line Working" be done in pairs nowadays?"


    it depends with us. Two are required where the second person is believed to add safety (this being the decision of the first person on site). Additionally, where there is a requirement to manipulate one or more live conductors as part of the work, a second person with appropriate training to render assistance must be present at the point of work. 


    Regards,


    Alan. 


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    If the trench is shallow, all well and good, but how do you assist somebody who is chest-deep in a trench?


    I take broadgage's point about burns as opposed to shock, but do the vans carry defibrillators?


    The nearest one to where I am sitting right now is at the church hall, which is about 325 m away. In my prime, I could do that in under 1.5 minutes, but allowing for opening the box, I could never have got it back here in under 3 minutes. God knows how long it would take Mrs P if I messed up!
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    Not sure about defibrillators Chris, but i have once seen gas masks as part of utilities companies' PPE  in  a very shallow trench  a couple of years back. I asked one of the workers why they were needed, they said it was a tickbox requirement and they would get in trouble if they weren't visibly to hand. I suppose it would be for hydrogen sulphide.
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    Live cable jointing must count as a proper brown trousers job I know I wouldn't fancy trying it.anyhow would you believe I've never actually seen it done in real life on an underground cable I've seen OH line crews do it once however I recently saw a video on YT put up by someone who calls himself residual current  jointing a cable in a trench I must say it looks so much more difficult than I imagined those cables seem difficult to move and work on what I will say is that at least now pouring hot solder over a joint then filling it with hot pitch are now seemingly things of the past the cable in the video was a customer side cable but looked like the size DNOs use. If you want to see videos from I guess the 1930s there's a few on chicken pate news also  YT
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    A lot of cable jointing is done live, and it can be interesting to watch this if you get the chance.

    Some authorities consider that smaller cables jointed from larger ones are the greatest risk. Not the making of the T joint, but any subsequent work on the small cable.

    A short circuit on a large cable makes a large bang but should promptly operate the fuses in the substation. A short circuit on a small cable such as the feed to a lighting column may continue to arc for some time as it gradualy burns away.


    I once saw an accident resulting indirectly from live jointing. A jointer was doing a routine job with the usual precuations. As the connection was made, a shower of sparks resulted. Some landed in the back of the van on a rag soaked in petrol that had been used to remove bitumen from the hands.

    Van caught fire. I did what I could with several large extinguishers whilst someone rang the fire brigade. Van total loss before fire brigade arrived, partly due to explosion of a propane bottle.

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