# Is PPE necessary to switch off a switchboard breaker?????



## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

For us, basic PPE is gloves, safety glasses and a hard hat. Everyone has at least one FR shirt. The option in your case is the face mask. 

Question:
Does your gear have an Arc Flash Risk Assesment sticker on it?
If so, here ya go:
http://www.lewellyn.com/arc-flash-2015-nfpa-70e-ppe-requirements


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## drewsserviceco (Aug 1, 2014)

I would think anything you get on here would be rules of thumb since we don't know what an arc flash calculation would determine based on your equipment/situation. 

Personally, I err on the side of caution when manipulating large breakers and switches, especially the older they are or unknown maintenance/inspection/exercise.


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

I wouldn't wear PPE to turn off a breaker.


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## chadnodine (Dec 14, 2016)

If the dead-front and cover is on you do not need to wear any PPE. But, common sense for me is knowing how much load is on the circuit or distribution panel. I try to eliminate as much load as possible ten consider the age of the breaker. In rare cases I've shut some old MB's off and they never turn back on again! If there isn't a dead-front in place then technically you should have face shield on your hard hat, safety glasses, insulated gloves and FR shirt. Then you are required by OSHA to create your safety zone and keep folks outside of the danger zone. 


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

Nfpa rules are not all that solid. In the end they almost seem to say to decide for yourself. It's so bad allot of companies are just relying on third party middleman leaches to implement the rules for them.

You will find different rules in each circumstances you find yourself.
Sounds like maybe you want to know what to do so you can speak with authority when the subject comes up. Forget it. I'm in multiple places weekly if not daily. Every one of them has their own rules they insist you follow. Arguing the point is futile. The proper tack to take is to do (and insist upon) what you know is safe and then do all the other stupid **** that is policy.

I've got one customer that has gone what the call zero risk tolerance. I **** you not, I have to be in a full blast suit to just open the door on a 120 lighting and recep panel. Not to flip breakers... JUST TO OPEN THE DOOR. Like if I need to see if a breaker is off or on. 
Then I still have a few customers that don't give a crap. They want things done hot so they don't have to stop production. I went in to a place a few months ago and the old coot of a maintenance guy didn't know what lock out tag out was.

Anyway, good luck. Do some research so you know what is actually safe and then just abide by the superfluous safety regulations endemic in our field.

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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

The amount of required PPE depends almost entirely on the size of the safety nazis ego.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

Our union rule is, anything equal to or larger than a 2 pole 60a 208v breaker or disconnect, or larger, requires the full beekeeper zoot suit.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

LawnGuyLandSparky said:


> Our union rule is, anything equal to or larger than a 2 pole 60a 208v breaker or disconnect, or larger, requires the full beekeeper zoot suit.


Better safe than toasted!


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

Use your nonwriting hand & stand off to one side when actuating the breaker or switch.


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

Bird dog said:


> Use your nonwriting hand & stand off to one side when actuating the breaker or switch.


I was taught that as an apprentice and still do it even with 15 amp breakers.

Actually, wearing PPE when turning off a breaker probably isn't a bad idea considering all the stripped and missing cover screws I see. If the cover wasn't sitting on the breakers it would likely fall off.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

No it's not necessary, especially if you want to avoid the costs of hair cuts and having to shave for the rest of your life...


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## MCasey (Dec 7, 2016)

JRaef said:


> No it's not necessary, especially if you want to avoid the costs of hair cuts and having to shave for the rest of your life...
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA-w0QAaxRU


This was my first thought. Thank you for this post. We show our guys similar videos all the time in an effort to help them help us.


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## Tonedeaf (Nov 26, 2012)

If you work in a big plant they should do a study and mark all the panels for Levels of PPE. 

You be surprise how much short circuit currents are available in an industrial plant....you not only get currents from the source, every motor in the plant feeds back EMF currents during the short too.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

I think I was about 8 years old when my dad was hospitalized due to an arc-flash in an industrial environment. 
He was doing something stupid like plugging in a bus tap while it was energized. 
Shut that plant down being in a hurry.


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## tates1882 (Sep 3, 2010)

Safety glasses, long sleeves and leather gloves. Using a non metallic object to open the breaker if possible, especially if it's new to me, head turned away from the breaker and standing off to the side. Each situation requires individual assessment by a qualified person to be able to determine what the ppe level should be.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

See emphasis in blue:


> *Arc Flash Hazard.*
> A dangerous condition associated with the possible release of energy caused by an electric arc.
> _Informational Note No. 1: An arc ﬂash hazard may exist when energized electrical conductors or circuit parts are exposed or when they are within equipment in a guarded or enclosed condition, provided a person is interacting with the equipment in such a manner that could cause an electric arc. __Under normal operating conditions, enclosed energized equipment that has been properly installed and maintained is not likely to pose an arc ﬂash hazard._


 If you guys have a documented maintenance program for your gear, and you have every reason to believe it's in good working order, there is a strong argument that no PPE is needed for normal operation because there is no shock hazard and no flash hazard by definition.

That said, as a maintenance guy I can attest that the majority of gear is not adequately maintained or repaired, and often guys are called to operate in uncertain conditions ("We don't know why it tripped!") so there's an increased likelihood of malfunction during operation which creates a flash hazard.

In which case you have 4 options, from best to worst:


 Best: Put the equipment in an electrically-safe condition by de-energizing the source through remote means, and then manually operate the de-energized equipment.
Use switch sticks, Chicken-switches, or operator robots to operate the energized equipment but to put yourself outside the flash boundary.
Use the incident energy provided by an arc-flash study to determine what PPE you need to wear in order to manually operate the energized gear from within the flash boundary.
Worst: Use table 130.7(C)(15)(a) to try and find the task you are performing and pick your PPE based on that. Recognizing that if you do not know the available fault current or fault clearing time, *these tables are not valid *because you may be exposing yourself to much more incident energy.
 The problem with both options 3 and 4 is that once you've admitted that your gear is not properly maintained then that basically blows any arc-flash study out of the water. I have seen breakers take many seconds to operate because of mechanical binding, but all the downstream equipment they are protecting has fancy arc-flash labels based on clearing times of 0.05 seconds or less.


Tonedeaf said:


> ...You be surprise how much short circuit currents are available in an industrial plant....


And guys are often surprised that voltage does not directly correlate to incident energy: Often see people put on the space-suit to open a 15kV switch but have no problem operating a 480V breaker in shirtsleeves. The 15kV switch may only have a 18 calorie incident energy because of very low fuse size, but the lineside of the 480V breaker may come from a very stiff source, and be well over 40 calories so is considered "dangerous."


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## Cl906um (Jul 21, 2012)

Aren't you going to need it right after, to open the panel you are going to work on to test and make sure it's dead. Why not put it on right away? I am sure you are not allowed to assume that panel is dead just because it is labeled. I don't trust the last guy throwing labels on switchgear when he is being told to rush and the job is out of money. Cause that is when a lot of the gear is getting its final placards and legend put in place.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

If your company is willing to provide you with PPE and pay you to take the time to wear it, why wouldn't you use all the protection you could get. 

I don't always use all the PPE I should but I'm writeing and cashing that check.


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

It depends on so many variables,
But if you have any doubt wear PPE.
that,s the safest route.


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## conclavicus (Jul 25, 2016)

Big John said:


> Use switch sticks, Chicken-switches, or operator robots to operate the energized equipment but to put yourself outside the flash boundary.


Big John brings up a very practical and good solution which could and possibly should be used more on a regular basis. Stay outside of flash boundary by using an insulator stick tool, hotstick, etc. to turn off the breaker. This is very easy to do in most cases. Stand to the side. I am NOT saying this is in lieu of PPE but why did this solution not appear in the safety discussions that led to the Arc Flash regulatory suggestions????


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

conclavicus said:


> Big John brings up a very practical and good solution which could and possibly should be used more on a regular basis. Stay outside of flash boundary by using an insulator stick tool, hotstick, etc. to turn off the breaker. This is very easy to do in most cases. Stand to the side. I am NOT saying this is in lieu of PPE but why did this solution not appear in the safety discussions that led to the Arc Flash regulatory suggestions????


Clothing manufactures have better bribes than stick makers. Pretty obvious I think.

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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

You very often don't have clearances to use switch sticks on indoor gear: Very common to see AFBs larger than the size of the room in front of the gear.


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## conclavicus (Jul 25, 2016)

Big John said:


> You very often don't have clearances to use switch sticks on indoor gear: Very common to see AFBs larger than the size of the room in front of the gear.


I do not get this...... AFB is acronym for Arc Fault Breaker?????


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

conclavicus said:


> I do not get this...... AFB is acronym for Arc Fault Breaker?????


 Arc Flash Boundary: If your boundary is 55" but it's 48" from the front of the gear to the wall, a switch stick might not be practical.


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## conclavicus (Jul 25, 2016)

Big John said:


> Arc Flash Boundary: If your boundary is 55" but it's 48" from the front of the gear to the wall, a switch stick might not be practical.


Thank you.....that now does make sense. My safety concerns are on panels that are old and poorly maintained.

Many times you have clearance to the side of a panel however. To play it doubly safe on lets just say a 480V panel take a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" CPVC tubing to use as an ad hoc standoff hotstick. What say you to that???? Please note I am NOT doing this to replace PPE, merely to add extra safety margin on top of PPE. I also of course advocate turning off all subordinate breakers before doing the main breaker. I have read that good standoff with a hotstick can be even more effective than relying totally on a PPE approach. Again there is good rationale for all.


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## triden (Jun 13, 2012)

A quick field analysis for me would be the following: 

Is the transformer feeding it below 125kva, AND 
is the voltage 208VAC or lower? 

If both are true, then I don't wear PPE. If either one is yes, then I'll do a quick incident level calc using the transformer impedance and throw on required level of PPE. Of course this is if there is no arc flash study performed. 

An important thing to keep in mind is that it is good practice to shut down all motors on a panel before opening the panel feeder. Spinning motors have inertia and will keep contributing energy into a fault increasing the chance of injury quite substantially.


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## conclavicus (Jul 25, 2016)

triden said:


> I'll do a quick incident level calc using the transformer impedance and throw on required level of PPE. Of course this is if there is no arc flash study performed.


In OP case (disconnect turn on/off in fully assembled and maintained swbrd) the AFC (Available Fault Current) at switchboard is 21,000 amps. 480 volts. Which level of PPE is required per NFPA 70E ??? I get different levels depending on where I search which is confusing.


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

conclavicus said:


> In OP case (disconnect turn on/off in fully assembled and maintained swbrd) the AFC (Available Fault Current) at switchboard is 21,000 amps. 480 volts. Which level of PPE is required per NFPA 70E ??? I get different levels depending on where I search which is confusing.


Well that's nfpa 70e for ya. Read it yourself. It seems to say you have to have a program but you can decide for yourself the rules. That's why there's so many differing opinions.

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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

When in doubt just use all the PPE and CYA.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

Always better safe than sorry!


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