Safety
Look up. Look out.
Every ACE cleaner works to this before a pole comes off the van. It is the single most dangerous thing about our trade, and it is worth you knowing how we handle it.
Electricity does not need to be touched
On 6 April 2024, Jason Knight was cleaning windows in a domestic garden with a telescopic water fed pole when 33,000 volts arced 2 metres through the air to his pole. He never touched the cable.
He lost his left forearm and several toes, suffered severe burns and extensive damage to his legs, and has been through more than twenty operations.
He survived, and he and his father now run Look Up Look Out, a non-commercial, not-for-profit public safety campaign, so that it does not happen to somebody else.
Minimum distances
These are the distances you must not go inside — they are minimums, not something to aim for.
- Domestic supply, 230V / 400V
- 1 metre
- Distribution lines, 11kV / 33kV
- 3 metres
- Transmission lines, 132kV
- 6 metres
HSE GS6, Avoiding danger from overhead power lines: Working within 10 metres of an overhead line is high risk and needs expert advice before it starts.
What we do before every job
- 01
Look up before you unload
Not once you are set up and not once the pole is out. Cables are easy to miss against a bright sky, and easier still when you have done the same house forty times.
- 02
Walk the whole working area
Look for lines crossing the garden, feeding the house, running to an outbuilding, or hidden in trees. A service cable to a garage is still lethal.
- 03
Measure the gap honestly
Judge it against the length of the pole you are about to extend, not by eye from the van. A 40ft pole is twelve metres of conductor in your hands.
- 04
If there are lines near the job, do not do the job
Clean what you can reach safely and tell the customer why the rest is not being done. No window is worth this, and no customer is owed an explanation you would not give a coroner.
- 05
Call the network operator if you are unsure
They will advise, and in some cases arrange for a line to be shrouded or turned off. It is free and it is what they are there for.
If we leave a window
Occasionally we will tell you we are not cleaning something — usually a window under a service cable running to the house or a garage. We are not being awkward and we are not trying to reduce the job. We will clean everything we can reach safely and tell you exactly which panes we have left and why.
If you would like those windows done, your electricity network operator can often shroud or isolate the line, free of charge. Ask us and we will point you at the right number.
Look up. Look out. One simple habit before every job.
Look Up Look Out is a non-commercial, not-for-profit public safety campaign run by John and Jason Knight. ACE supports it. lookuplookout.org