I'm a beginner at doing electrical work, and I want to make sure I'm not taking unnecessary risks.
Let's say that I'm preparing to work on some wiring. I have a non-contact voltage detector that beeps when held up to live wires. Next, I have turned off what I believe to be the proper circuit-breaker and my detector reads negative on the wires I'm about to work on.
Am I good to go, or are there still other electrocution risks that I need to be aware of?
If the latter, what other safety measures should I take?
Best Answer
The following should be sufficient to determine that it's safe to work inside a switch box.
At this point, I'd be confident of not getting hurt working on the box. If you REALLY wanted to be sure, you could take a multimeter and test the AC voltage between all terminals on each individual device; all readings should be zero. This may be necessary if you suspect a voltage leak (faulty breaker, miswiring joining unrelated branch circuits together); an NCVT requires 50VAC to indicate "live", but 45V can still give you a jolt with sweaty/wet hands (remember that a car battery, only 12VDC, is an effective instrument of torture).