Way back in the day before amps had 3-prong plugs, and after experiencing the wonderful (!) feeling of electricity on my lips when I went to the mic to sing, I always brought a voltmeter to practice and gigs and tested the whole stage before we started to play, and did the “plug flip” when voltage was present. Sheesh.
Mike, your article made me think of a situation where I had to change to a non-GFCI outlet because of nuisance tripping. I have an electric gate opener that opens and closes a metal gate in front of my driveway near the street. The house is in a rural area and we have a lot of power outages. Most all gate openers like this have a small 12V battery that is maintained at full charge by a wall plug-mounted low voltage power source. I’ve seen both 12-24 V AC and DC used in my 20 plus years of working with gate openers. One day, my gate would not open and after a bit of troubleshooting, I found that it’s lead-acid battery voltage had dropped to 11.5 volts and determined by testing that the gate opener had shut down. I assumed at first that it was a bad battery but found by looking at the date tag that it was only a few years old. The lawnmower batteries I use normally last for 3-5 years, so I did not just replace it. Instead, I started measuring voltages and found there was no voltage coming from the power source. The plug-in power source was mounted inside of a building 100 feet away from the gate. I eventually figured out that the inside the power source was plugged in to an outlet that was daisy chained to an outside GFCI receptacle that had tripped during a past power outage. I had not noticed it because I use that outlet very rarely. Gate opener batteries are sized to open and close a gate many times on a single charge. So, the gate didn’t die for quite some time (days) after the GFCI had tripped. After thinking about this situation, I decided to use a non-GFCI outlet for the gate opener power supply because its output was low voltage DC and would not present a shock hazard even if a fault were to occur. I’d prefer to have left the power supply on a GFCI outlet but having the gate opener fail while I’m away was not an option I could live with. I need the gate to operate reliably even when I’m not there for extended time periods. I’m wondering if you or other readers have had any similar experiences?
Misusing the term was my first thought as well but I looked it up just to be certain. To my dismay though, the Miriam-Webster dictionary defines electrocute as “to kill or severely injure by electric shock”. You’re right again Mike.
Thanks for the article Mike. I have a question. If you have a good RV surge protector with EMS and it reads green light do you still need to check the RV for a hot skin? Of is the EMS giving the go ahead on that situation?
I made it through that article....I think! So I should still use my non-contact voltage tester and point it at the hitch on my fiberglass RV to test for hot skin?
Exactly what I was talking about yesterday. The Media Always get it wrong. Maybe just Lazy, Maybe trying to "sell Newspapers" and maybe a, not so hidden anymore, agenda, but they always get it wrong.
Way back in the day before amps had 3-prong plugs, and after experiencing the wonderful (!) feeling of electricity on my lips when I went to the mic to sing, I always brought a voltmeter to practice and gigs and tested the whole stage before we started to play, and did the “plug flip” when voltage was present. Sheesh.
Been there, done that!
Mike, your article made me think of a situation where I had to change to a non-GFCI outlet because of nuisance tripping. I have an electric gate opener that opens and closes a metal gate in front of my driveway near the street. The house is in a rural area and we have a lot of power outages. Most all gate openers like this have a small 12V battery that is maintained at full charge by a wall plug-mounted low voltage power source. I’ve seen both 12-24 V AC and DC used in my 20 plus years of working with gate openers. One day, my gate would not open and after a bit of troubleshooting, I found that it’s lead-acid battery voltage had dropped to 11.5 volts and determined by testing that the gate opener had shut down. I assumed at first that it was a bad battery but found by looking at the date tag that it was only a few years old. The lawnmower batteries I use normally last for 3-5 years, so I did not just replace it. Instead, I started measuring voltages and found there was no voltage coming from the power source. The plug-in power source was mounted inside of a building 100 feet away from the gate. I eventually figured out that the inside the power source was plugged in to an outlet that was daisy chained to an outside GFCI receptacle that had tripped during a past power outage. I had not noticed it because I use that outlet very rarely. Gate opener batteries are sized to open and close a gate many times on a single charge. So, the gate didn’t die for quite some time (days) after the GFCI had tripped. After thinking about this situation, I decided to use a non-GFCI outlet for the gate opener power supply because its output was low voltage DC and would not present a shock hazard even if a fault were to occur. I’d prefer to have left the power supply on a GFCI outlet but having the gate opener fail while I’m away was not an option I could live with. I need the gate to operate reliably even when I’m not there for extended time periods. I’m wondering if you or other readers have had any similar experiences?
Klein recently released a new NCVT model. Starts at 4Vac and includes AN IR thermometer at .1 accuracy. At a very reasonable price.
Misusing the term was my first thought as well but I looked it up just to be certain. To my dismay though, the Miriam-Webster dictionary defines electrocute as “to kill or severely injure by electric shock”. You’re right again Mike.
Thanks for the article Mike. I have a question. If you have a good RV surge protector with EMS and it reads green light do you still need to check the RV for a hot skin? Of is the EMS giving the go ahead on that situation?
Well, an Advanced/EMS Surge Protector can find most hot-skin causes EXCEPT for something I named a Reverse Polarity Bootleg Ground (RPBG). Read this: https://open.substack.com/pub/rvelectricity/p/rpbg-outlet-dangers-in-ec-and-m-magazine?r=1txmtl&utm_medium=ios
I made it through that article....I think! So I should still use my non-contact voltage tester and point it at the hitch on my fiberglass RV to test for hot skin?
inconceivable Mike, inconceivable
Exactly what I was talking about yesterday. The Media Always get it wrong. Maybe just Lazy, Maybe trying to "sell Newspapers" and maybe a, not so hidden anymore, agenda, but they always get it wrong.