I'm quite an amateur when it comes to home improvement type stuff but I now have my first home and starting to do small work around the house. I kind of scared myself when I bought a drill and with the very first drill, I punctured a water pipe. Yeah, not exactly a good intro to home improvement.
Anyway, I'm planning on doing some more drilling and want to be safe. A water pipe is a PITA but at least the damage was minimal. I'm much more concerned about electrical wiring. I was going to buy one of those combined stud finders + live wire detectors but I don't need the stud finder part. I live in Indonesia where no one builds with wood frame + drywall construction. Everything here is concrete brick walls.
So, I saw these non-contact voltage detectors online and they look like they fit the bill but I wanted to check here first. Would that allow me to find live wiring through about 1" of plaster + concrete?
This was the exact product I was considering: http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-1AC-A1-II-VoltAlert-Non-Contact-Voltage/dp/B000EJ332O
Best Answer
Almost definitely no.
I'm not familiar with that exact model, but typically non-contact voltage detectors are designed to have to be within a few mm of the wire to work. They're called "non-contact", but that means no electrical contact (i.e. they don't have to touch the bare wire). You'll just about have to touch the tool to the insulation of a wire for them to work properly, so it's not likely you'll be detecting wiring within any type of wall with one of these tools.
The description from the Fluke website for the Fluke 1AC II A1 VoltAlertTM Electrical Tester, seems to agree.
Notice that it says, "just touch the tip to...".