Electrical – Is this thestery cable safe

electricalsafety

Found this while tearing down some old shelves in the basement. It was wedged behind the shelf in the air. This is coming from the opposite side of the basement where the electric box lives. Any ideas what this cable is used for?

I mainly trying to figure out if its safe to touch before i start working near it.

close up

cable wedged behind side of shelve

with tape measure

Best Answer

It's obviously not "used" for anything, at present, being cut off; At least, this particular piece is not in use. What you need to determine is whether its still connected at the other end, so you need to follow it back to where it comes from.

While you could certainly just carefully wrap the end in electrical tape for safer handling, you'll want it disconnected (not merely turned off at the breaker, if it's still connected to a breaker) unless you happen to have some use for it (nice, heavy gauge cable by the look of it.) Might have been for an electric dryer at some prior time, for instance. If you have no use for it, remove it and sell it. Copper wiring is not cheap these days, especially in large sizes.