Basic Electricity For Homeowners

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Is the plastic on pliers supposed to keep you from getting shocked? I thought it was just there for grip. I remember as a kid having a lawn mower that wouldn't die unless the spark plug wire was removed. I picked up a pair of pliers to do it, thinking the insulation would protect me...and shocked myself quite effectively.

It will keep you from getting shocked on lower voltage but it is not what it is intended for.
BUT far better than bare metal by all means.
Now that lawn mower spark plug is very high voltage and another subject I will deal with later.
It puts out thousands of volts.
If the plastic has the slightest crack in it the spark will jump to you.
They do have high voltage tools that are listed for this use as an electrician.
Or you can get the listed handles/grips and put them on your tools.

The whole concept of voltage spark and what it takes is way beyond what a home owner needs to know to fix stuff around the house with 120 VAC at 60 HZ.
My welder has a high frequency arc starter on it that makes lightning.
I didn't have the ground hooked up lighting was jumping everywhere and people were running.
But now we are getting into the Tesla coil and tower.

If you look at wire it has volts on it like 300 or 600 volts.
This is NOT what it carries it is the insulation resistance (IR) value of the insulation.