Electric power lines - Where am I allowed to drill?

I have never turned off the power before drilling. At least not when drilling into walls. However, I would do it for a lamp.

What is actually different about a lamp? ;)

Guys, if you expect to be able to drill into a cable, you turn off the power in the respective room... we have always done it that way. Of course, not when drilling where you are sure nothing will be hit.

What is actually different about a lamp? ;)

I mean the ceiling lamp. Somehow gut feeling ;)

um, well I already drilled into a cable in our previous apartment! And I'm actually quite glad that I did NOT turn off the power beforehand! Otherwise, I would have put in dowels, screwed in a screw (back then for a bracket for speakers). If I had turned the power on AFTERWARDS, the construction COULD have been part of the electrical circuit. Of course, only if the screw had made contact with the cable. By the way, that was a cable to an outlet. With a lamp cable, the drilling might only have been noticed after turning on the light switch. I am currently screwing on the baseboards and am also thinking about this and reviewing the rough construction pictures showing where cables run. But with some electricians, you can never be sure - for example, behind our door frame, a cable was quickly laid along because they had forgotten one outlet!