Quote:
Originally Posted by scottmandue
Just to reiterate... Make sure the power is off first!
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+1, with a tiny recommendation and a short story.
Recommendation: Get a volt meter. $15 at Home Depot, yellow, with red and black leads. You'll be able to poke into the socket and make sure it's dead, before it makes sure you're dead.
Short Story: I was rewiring the ancient electrical in my even more ancient house. I could trace wires from basement lights through a junction box back to the breaker panel. I need to de-energize the junction box, so I stood at the breaker panel and flipped unlabeled breakers until the lights went out. Then I went into the junction box, assuming that since downstream lights had gone out when I opened the breaker, it was dead. I found out a couple of minutes later that a previous electrician had run two separate power sources through that junction box, only one of which powered the basement lights. Bright flash of light, loud bang, and me with a double of whiskey on the couch, thanking my lucky stars that I was still alive. Moral: Just because a circuit looks dead doesn't mean it is.
Dan