Improving our home is an important part of my life.  But so is living my life.  With that in mind, I want to take a quick moment to talk about a tool that I believe all handymen should own.  It’s a voltage detector.  The small device does one thing very well: it detects electricity.  However, more important than simply detecting power, it accomplishes this without the need for direct contact.  Simple proximity to a current will make the detector light up and start beeping.  This means I can hold the tip up to a wire or light switch and it will tell me if I will die by touching it.  Here’s a quick video showing how it works.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, reports Electrocutions are the third highest cause of workplace deaths, behind falls and being struck by an object.  The organization reports an average 81 electrocutions each year in the workplace.  While far fewer people are exposed to the danger of working around wiring in their own homes, the Consumer Product Safety Commission still shows there were 354 electrocution deaths caused by consumer products between 2002 and 2009, including 15 deaths caused by “household wiring.”

If protecting your life isn’t enough of a miracle, the voltage detector I happen to own, by Milwaukee, also comes with a flashlight.  Flashlights rule!  You can never have enough around when you’re working on stuff.