How to buy safety glasses for electrical work: the ultimate guide

Yes, there are specialized frames when it comes to electrical work, but not all electrical work will probably need these types of frames, and standard safety glasses or prescription safety glasses can be enough for some cases.

Yet, for those who know they’re going to be working with potentially live electricity, these types of frames will help protect the user’s eyes and not have to cause concern about the frames being a current for the electricity.

• If you’re looking at working at a new construction site, then you should be fine with regular safety glasses. At the minimum, these should have ANSI – Z87+ rating on them, to protect the electrician from high impact and high-velocity projectiles.  
• In general, if you’re working with a standard US 110V or if there’s low to no voltage, this is also another scenario where you’ll want to consider only standard ANSI Z87+ rated prescription or standard safety glasses. Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s a new installation, repairs, or maintenance. 
• For most situations, you want to avoid frames that have any metal in them. That’s due to their conductivity. Our site has an entire section dedicated to nonconductive materials in the frames that help ensure any common amount of voltage. Just make sure to look for the nonconductive logo on the page of our frames. Also, be careful with non-plastic frames to make sure there’s no metal on the inside. That can still be conductive and cause damage to your face. 

• For those working with the possibility of intense amounts of voltage, then look for our frames that have ASTM D149-09, which has been tested to not conduct any electricity up to 1,000 volts of electricity for up to 60 seconds. So here’s a great example of our frames that has this excellent certification. 
• For those working with live higher voltages such as 220, 440, or even more, then it’s a good idea to use face masks with green shades or protective safety glasses with the right type of green-shaded lenses. But, again, we can easily help you find those, and they are best for those handling arc welding and provide arc flash protection. 
• If you opt-in for prescription safety glasses in the green shade lenses or with regular safety glasses with the green lenses, you can then use a standard lower-cost face mask that’s made of polycarbonate or other nonconductive material.
• For ultimate protection against electricity, combining the mask with protective safety glasses is the best way to go. This way, you can have one protect you from the sparks while the other protects your eyesight and protects you against those electrical currents.

In the end – don’t take electrical protection lightly. If you’re going to be in a situation where you’re near live wires, fuses, or boxes, then you can easily protect your eyes and surrounding face area with a host of our nonconductive safety glasses.

They all tend to have ANSI Z87+ ratings, a host of prescription lenses as an option, and are also quite comfortable to wear for the entire day, as they tend to come with adjustable nose pads and rubberized temple guards.