ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades very old installation

Paul, My causin opened a switch panel once after switching off the isolator. Unknown to him the panel had been subjected to massive overload for a long period when he opened the door the whole panel fell apart shorting out the mains into the panel. From the resultant flash he was hospitalised for quite a while and finished up with skin grafts. (That was some 25 years ago but it still happens).

Ah... We're talking about opening the main switch which is on the panel you're about to open. I'm with you now!

I was thinking in terms of the isolator being elsewhere so that the panel being opened would have no energized conductors within it at all.