Electricians wear their hearts on their sleeves — and not in a good way. The hand is the body part most likely to come in contact with an energized source, creating a convenient path right through the heart as the current goes to ground. But wristwatch-style sensors can turn this vulnerability into a first line of defense by detecting voltage as the hand approaches energized sources and then bleating a warning to yank back.
“Wearables are something that we’re very interested in,” says William Watson, vice president of safety and security at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Miller Electric.
Besides saving limbs and lives, wearables can save money.
“[With] worker’s comp, if you’re on a guaranteed market rate structure and you have incidents, your premiums are going to go up,” says Travis Keeney, vice president of risk management at Davenport, Iowa-based Tri-City Electric. “If you’re in a self-insured model or group captives like we are, look at just one incident and the out-of-pocket costs on that claim. Divide that by the number of devices you can buy. Preventing one incident can pay for itself.”
Wearables also can provide a competitive edge.
“If you have an incident, your EMR is going to go up, and your OSHA recordable rates are going to go up,” Keeney says. “When you’re bidding future work, customers are looking at that stuff. They’re wondering, ‘Do we want that contractor on our site?’”
Never alone
Besides detecting voltage, some wearables transmit an alert with the person’s location when there are signs of injury, such as a sudden change in position that could be due to a fall or being thrown across the room by an arc blast.
“To me, the big issue is there are so many people that work alone,” says Randy Barnett, an NFPA-certified electrical safety professional and electrical codes & safety manager for NTT Training. “You’re down in the basement working on a panel or up on level 13 at the top of the boiler, and maybe somebody knows you were going out to work on that, but that’s about it.
“You can be on the step ladder, get a little shock, and the shock isn’t bad, but it’s the 10-foot fall to the ground. Who’s going to know about it? When are they going to find you? I think there are a lot of opportunities for better protection in the construction industry.”
One challenge with sending alerts is connectivity. For example, deep inside a building, the wearable might not be able to “see” enough GPS satellites to pinpoint the person’s location. In other cases, cellular coverage might be weak or nonexistent. Wearables could also be part of a job safety plan, especially for lone workers.
“NFPA 70E requires an emergency response plan,” Barnett says. “It doesn’t need to be a big document. Just simply one line: ‘Employee will wear a wearable in case of abnormal movement’ or ‘Employee will remain in radio contact while performing the job’ or ‘A second person who’s trained in first aid is standing to respond.’ To me, that’s key. If I’ve got a plan and execute that plan, then I’m going to be one heck of a lot safer than if it’s like ‘I hope somebody remembers I’m down here working on this.’”
Most wearables provide the ability to monitor employee usage, including how often an alert sounds.
“It allows the customer to see how the product is being used — so from an ROI perspective, to know the products are being used; as well as compliance, that they are being used correctly,” says Campbell Macdonald, Proxxi CEO.
Another challenge is overcoming employee concerns about being tracked, such as their location and whether they’re even using the device.
“While most think about the trust concerns, like what employers will do with the data, others are concerned that this is another item they have to remember to put on and wear,” says Scott Risch, vice president of environment, health, and safety at San Jose, Calif.-based Rosendin Electric. “In time, people will become more comfortable with wearable technology as they begin to see and experience the benefits of the data. The industry has made significant progress in making wearable technology smaller and more comfortable. I believe that in the near future, wearable technology will be more integrated into the products we already use and be a significant resource for employers to help ensure their teams stay safe.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) could also help improve safety by identifying work styles that increase the risk of injury. One way to accomplish this is by analyzing video from any source, such as a smartphone.
“Then you get the result of the ergonomic evaluation,” says SangHyun Lee, a University of Michigan professor who specializes in motion capture analytics.
Balancing safety, comfort, and convenience
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the original wearable, and it’s continually evolving in terms of design and protection.
“I’m very interested in us converting to a Type II hard hat,” says Miller Electric’s Watson. “I’m a believer in the additional protection, specifically with electricians that are in a position where they’re doing energized work and could be exposed to arc flash or an arc blast. You see people slung all the way across equipment rooms and into things, so having side impact on the hard hat is very, very important.”
Contractor feedback is key for helping PPE vendors develop products.
“We see the problems long before they hear about them,” Watson says. “If nobody’s telling them, there’s no way for them to know. We have great relationships with our vendors, and we select vendors who are willing to innovate specifically based on the needs of the industry and the changes in the industry.”
The more PPE that a job requires, the longer it takes to put on and take off, which can lead to risks such as employees wearing less than required to save time. AI can spot those types of hazards.
“If somebody has to wear PPE and does not, the AI can detect that [the image] is deviated from what it’s supposed to be,” Lee says.
Remote technologies are another option.
“Rosendin uses remote technology that decreases the time our people need to be suited up,” Risch says. “These remote monitoring systems allow our teams to perform system checks on equipment during the energization and commissioning process from a safe distance outside the electrical room. In addition, we have utilized remote switches and robots to switch on breakers during energization.”
The selection of remote technologies is growing.
“We see a lot of new entrants into the robot mechanism, like the racking and unracking of breakers or remote switching,” says Miller Electric’s Watson. “Some have a cord to a handheld remote that allows you to stay outside of the arc flash boundary. Others can be done completely remotely via Bluetooth. They’re great.”
But there’s also a barrier to wide implementation.
“The biggest limitation is that the design of those robotic switches is typically brand-specific,” Watson says. “This robot that you pay $40,000 for can turn this one breaker on and off, but the one right next to it might not. That’s made it a lot harder to sell to people. So while the technology is great, we’re still quite a bit behind on the universal application of it.”
The role of clients and GCs
Electrical contractors and design firms could use NFPA 70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, to help convince clients to standardize their infrastructure to overcome that barrier.
“One of the things we include 70B in is a discussion about the design,” Watson says. “If we’re going to update a facility, it’d be nice if we could design your breakers to all be able to be used with one robot.”
NFPA 70B can also be used to develop maintenance programs that make safety a priority.
“One of the things that we find to be the most challenging is not building new buildings,” Watson says.“It’s retrofitting, updating, and basically discovering things as we go. A lot of older hospitals and places like that have equipment that hasn’t been properly maintained.
“There’s no requirement anywhere in any standard that to own equipment, you have to be trained in NFPA 70B. We come in to do maintenance, which might not be up to date. There might not be records of it. They might not have arc flash assessments conducted. So we don’t know what the hazard is if there are no labels. Somebody has to go test to determine what those hazards are.”
Miller Electric sees client training as key to mitigating those risks.
“If you hire us to come in and do your routine maintenance, your employees get free NFPA 70B and 70E training as part of the package,” Watson says. “It’s a value add.”
Education can also help protect other trades, but it’s most effective when the general contractor recognizes the risks.
“[With] a general contractor, a lot of times people think you don’t need electrical protection until you’re installing the wiring and then energizing it for commissioning,” says Proxxi’s Campbell. “But the real risk on construction sites isn’t the infrastructure in the building itself. It’s the temporary electrical on site. That’s because it’s engineered to a much lower standard.”
One common risk is plumbing or HVAC rigging up power on their own.
“The first step is to meet with the general contractor to fully understand their temporary power needs,” says Rosendin’s Risch. “Next, install sufficient receptacles for cordless tool battery charging stations for projects that are going cordless, designated areas for charging mobile elevated work platforms, and receptacle banks in sufficient quantity to prevent the excessive need for daisy-chained extension cords.”
Low volts can still jolt
Many electrical contractors have expanded into low-voltage applications, such as installing digital signage, surveillance cameras, and Wi-Fi networks. But low voltage doesn’t mean low risk.
“Show me one low-voltage guy that hasn’t come within 3 feet of an energized 120V circuit,” Watson says. “Typically, 120V exists in the same place in the same enclosure as the low voltage. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people operating near and exposed to 120V conductors without the knowledge that they were exposed to it, what that exposure meant, what qualifications they needed to have, or their obligation to deenergize.”
As the voltage level increases, so does the risk of severe injury and death.
“In a near-miss event we experienced, the field employee came across live exposed 277V, fortunately not resulting in injury, but very well could have been,” says Tri-City’s Keeney. “It poses a lot of risk because it’s one of the leading sources to hang somebody up on.”
That employee worked for Tri-City’s low-voltage division and was working above a drop ceiling in a hospital. Another firm had the electrical contract and left some fixture whips hanging down.
“They were on a circuit that was supposed to be off, but it had been energized,” Keeney says. “When our employee got up there looking for the pathway, it was discovered they were live.”
This scenario is also one reason why some electrical contractors are interested in voltage sensors that are worn on the wrist rather than on a hard hat brim.
“In many instances where our electricians are coming into contact with hazardous voltages without knowing — like junction boxes sometimes tend to be above ceiling tiles — people will take their hard hat off,” Watson says. “[Another example is] cabinets where a full-brim-style hard hat wouldn’t fit, so they take them off.”
Those examples also highlight the importance of getting employee feedback on wearables, PPE, and any other safety products. If it’s awkward or uncomfortable, chances are that it won’t be used.
“I wouldn’t pick a pair of gloves without getting feedback, and for us, that feedback is not just one-size-fits-all,” Watson says. “We’re a nationwide company. The people in Milwaukee should not be wearing the same PPE as the people in Miami. They have totally different climate expectations. I need to test it in all of my locations because what works for us in Florida might not work for them in North Carolina or Milwaukee.”
