A few years back, we hired an electrician to do some relatively small things for us—things I could do like replacing light switches with timer switches and the like, but didn’t have time to do. The thing that really blew me away was when I asked him if he wanted me to shut off the power at the breaker box and he said no and did all the work with live current in the wires. Yes, I know, gloves, rubber soled shoes, he was fine, but it still was somewhat terrifying to watch.
Not an electrician, but I did some when younger. And did it unknowingly at least once, when the other guy on the job cut power to the wrong circuit. My father would do it routinely.
Critical caveats: Residential 120V/15A, familiar wiring, dry wood frame buildings, proper equipment, and we knew what we were doing. If you can't tick all 5 of those boxes, my advice is that you hire an electrician to do the work.
Also the fault current is really low at these locations. My electrician shorted 2 wires together in my garage to avoid having to go back to the panel and shut it off. Try that right by a big substation at 480V and you would not be doing great.
You are correct that 125V/15A has very little potential for arcing that would be directly dangerous to you, and I've also known an electrician or two who used that method.
But I really wouldn't recommend doing that. There's a wide and complex canyon of consequences between "that little blue arc won't hurt me" and "triggering a fault current will not damage anything, anywhere, either short- or long-term".
dhosek · · focus · HN ↗
bell-cot · · focus · HN ↗
Critical caveats: Residential 120V/15A, familiar wiring, dry wood frame buildings, proper equipment, and we knew what we were doing. If you can't tick all 5 of those boxes, my advice is that you hire an electrician to do the work.
pvab3 · · focus · HN ↗
bell-cot · · focus · HN ↗
But I really wouldn't recommend doing that. There's a wide and complex canyon of consequences between "that little blue arc won't hurt me" and "triggering a fault current will not damage anything, anywhere, either short- or long-term".