Idea for a B.O.B. item, not sure if someone has considered this before. It's a pen shaped item that detects voltage without having to tap into a wire.

Electricity can be a life savor or a danger. This will let you determine if a wire is hot or not without having to get too close or place yourself in danger. Is that power line across the road safe to move aside? This will tell you. Need to tap into a wire to charge your electronics? This is the tool to find the voltage. It works even when there is not a complete circuit, weighs 1.5 ounces, and is as big as a large Sharpie marker.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Non-Contact-Voltage-Tester-NCVT-1SEN/100661787

A bad idea to be using that to check downed wires from a pole. You can get zapped by high voltage well before you are close enough to check with a pen tester. We use this in my fire department for downed wires:

Hot Stick

Even using that, I would not recommend moving any downed wires if it can be avoided.

I keep a pen tester in my turnout gear for household electric problems and circuit identification, really only good up to around 220 volts, and you need to verify operation on a known circuit before use.


ETA: Here is a pretty good explanation of "step and touch potential" and how electricity spreads out in the ground

Step and Touch Potential

no.   just no.

ar-jedi

It is more of a voltage signaling device than a true tester.  It can give false readings due to inductive pick up.  A last resort for sure.

Right, remember I'm saying its a good tool for bugging out of a shtf situation. Sounds like an entire day of last resorts.

Thanks. We had someone get shocked at work last month due to a faulty motor.  It could have been worse. I am ordering hot stick and modifying our planning documents.

During a hurricane, a wire was down across the road from my house.
The local police had flares out and blocked the street with a running patrol car with lights flashing.

I went up to the officer and explained to him that the wire was just for cable tv.
We ripped it off the house and rolled it up.
He packed up and went back to work.

Bear in mind that those respond only to AC voltage; not DC. The odds of hitting a DC line hot enough to kill you are low; but something to remember.

stupid.

i guess you have never heard of line cross -- but it will kill you.

induction or direct contact, doesn't matter much.

either way, you are dead.

especially after a hurricane, high voltage power lines from higher up on the utility poles can break and drape over other metallic wiring used for telephone and cable tv.  there is very little insulation integrity on a long term high voltage power line, as the combination of UV and sunlight and ozone and temperature variations and time turn even the best insulating materials into a crumbly substitute.  hence, there can be direct contact between the high voltage power lines and other utility wiring.  even if there is not direct contact, current flowing from the high voltage power line to ground can induce enough voltage in other metallic wiring to injure or kill a person.  

just because a wire was "low voltage" BEFORE the hurricane hit does not mean that it is low voltage AFTER the hurricane hit.

ar-jedi

http://www.lorusso.com/files/whys_1089.pdf

This.  Divert around downed power lines at all costs.

Most of them flash and/or chirp to indicate they are functioning, but you are still supposed to check them (and this one I'm sure) against a live circuit. Of course I'm guessing that rubbing it on your sleeve really fast isn't an acceptable function check either.

I can't remember if it was 4160 or less, But I do know that those prox testers light up great as soon as you open the gear.

I ran into this a couple of months ago.  Even though we knew that the line was a phone we waited until the power company came by to ID the wire.  IJTWIS.

I ran into this a couple of months ago.  Even though we knew that the line was a phone we waited until the power company came by to ID the wire.  IJTWIS.