Clothing System First
One of our first slides in e-Hazard.com Arc Flash and Electrical Safety Training developed in 2004 was a slide on using 2 levels of protection (HRC 2 and HRC 4) before doing the study using the tables for your guide, and then doing the study when financing and budget made it possible.
Best Approach
The best way to do your electrical safety program is to follow a stepwise approach:
- Choose the daily wear at 4-8 cal/cm2 (4 can be useful if you are wearing arc rated t-shirts or if you have other hazards which mean everyone wears 4 cal for flash fire exposure).
- Then choose your flash suit. I recommend using 40-65 cal/cm2. The higher levels get VERY difficult to wear. We always recommend getting a fan for the flash suit if you have to wear it more than 5-10 min. The fans make a real difference in wearing the flash suit hood.
- Then build your electrical safety program and do training. The PPE in place makes the training MUCH easier.
- Then do your flash study. NEVER put off PPE and training waiting for a arc flash study. The arc flash study will not change the training much. It is better to get folks protected rather than waiting for corporate to let the cash flow.
For assistance in picking arc flash PPE; doing an arc flash study; or doing arc flash, NFPA 70E or electrical safety training, contact e-Hazard.com
