Pretty concise & complete - Thanks!
An HI Safety Obstacle Course would probably be a great Entrance Requirement for NACHI . . .
The safety course powerpoint was good - it jogged my memory on a few things that I had gotten out of the habit of doing. We need to stay safe, and it’s too easy to get so involved in other aspects of the inspection that we forget the safety aspect.
I do have a question: The powerpoint mentions using insulated gloves when inspecting electrical systems. What are insulated gloves? Joe Tedesco, do you use these type of gloves?
When I was a meter reader for JCP&L, we were issued rubber gloves with leather ones to go over them, for pulling meters. That may be a bit overkill. I keep a pair of heavy duty blue rubber gloves, flocked inside, in my gear. May be from Rubbermaid, not sure.
Russell, Do you use those gloves when you take the cover off an electric service panel?
Excellent work, great resource. Suggest adding comments regarding eye protection, and accepted types of PPE.
Not as religiously as I should.
At the very least, one should give a light backhand tap to the deadfront with the back of the right hand.
Why do you tap the deadfront?
tap it with the non-heart side in case there’s a short to ground (you), instead of grabbing solidly - & being found that way . . .
I wonder if there is some kind of simple tool out there, that can be touched to the exterior of the panel or deadfront, and it will indicate if there is a short?
Look here and see the gloves for catagory 1 or 2.
http://www.westernsafety.com/salisburyelectrical/salisburyelectricpg5.html
Just to explain the slides a bit. This was a portion of a presentation that I did for the Atlanta NACHI meeting in March. It also included several short videos. The intent is to introduce the concept of risk management for home inspectors. This is a process that simply weighs the risks against the benefits. It makes you think about the potential hazards that you are about to face, and consider ways to reduce the risks.
Since home inspectors are often one person businesses, the inspector/ owner is not subject to OSHA standards. In a way, that is good, OSHA is a strict compliance based system. The fact remains, if a home inspector is injured on the job the costs in terms of medical bills, lost time, and lost revenue is going to have an impact on income and a fatality is devastating to the family.
With this process, you simply dedicate a few minutes to thinking about what your going to encounter on the job and how to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. So if you don’t want to wear gloves but instead tap the panel cover before opening, then you have at least considered the potential risks and taken a moment to reduce the potential for injury.
The other part of the process is to keep up to date on the risks associated with the business. I was recently at a course where the instructor was discussing respirators and was giving folks some less than accurate information about what type of respirator is effective for what circumstance. So knowing what the hazards are and how to reduce them is important.
A good way to remember to think about risks on the job is remember the term STOPP it stands for Stop, Think, Observe, Plan and Proceed with safety. Psychologists have shown that just taking a second to consider risks will significantly reduce the potential of an accident.
Be SafeGreat Power Point Presentation- Alot of work went into it!
Bill