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We recently bought a little old house with a detached garage that had been converted into a study or studio. There's a great sagging bundle of cables running from the main house to the studio. Some are obviously phone lines, some look like coax cable. None are obviously power lines, but there's definitely electricity in the studio.

We don't have a landline and when we set up our cable they ran a new cable line, and I assume that if we ever wanted a landline they'd start that from scratch, too. So I'd really like to cut these cables, but I obviously don't want to go out with my wire cutter and snip the power line.

Where the power lines come into the main junction box from the street they run through porcelain insulators. I haven't figured out where the power for the studio actually runs.

I've tried to trace them to their respective sources, but at various points they've been painted over and it is really hard to sort out where each wire is coming from or going to.

So my question is: how do I ensure that I won't electrocute myself before I cut any particular wire?

Amanda
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2 Answers2

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If you go over to Amazon and search "voltage sensor" you can find several quality sensors for less than fifteen bucks. Once you have it, you can place the probe near the wires in question, and the probe will signal if there is any hazardous voltage present. This is an item that should be in any Do-It-Yourselfer's tool box.

BillDOe
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Fuses!

Like everybody is saying, get an electrician.

But, if you aren't going to do that, here is a checklist.

  • use a voltage checker to find power lines. Mark them.
  • turn off or unscrew any fuses that may or may not be relevant.
  • check that the power is indeed off in the area.
  • wear your rubber gloves and boots and other protective equipment.
  • cut the non-power wires.
  • isolate the ends of each wire.
  • turn fuses on again.
  • in case of fire, turn fuses off again before trying to put out fire.
  • call electrician to fix the mess you made.
Stig Hemmer
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