Electric shock

[ericmark]

Wind up mega, who has not been caught?

 

[pete01]

My wife had an electric shock when she was a kid on holiday with her parents, they told me she was playing outside the caravan and she leaned against it and got a pretty bad one.

Must of been a lost PEN conductor...maybe, she was pretty lucky, not sure what the caravan park said I'll ask her later....probably told her to be more careful...

 

[ericmark]

Either I was doing something silly, or someone not following the rules. We know not permitted to run horizontally around corners, so I got caught when someone did, and not doing electrical work.

Working on a Robin TBM was about the worst, I hate IT systems.

 

[Jurassicspark]

- 400 V DC (rectified mains), in a switch-mode power supply, where I didn’t appreciate that a heatsink was live. I had modified a “class II” power supply to use inside a 19-inch rack enclosure; I removed the plastic case to help it cool, and after running it for a while touched the heatsink to see how warm it was.

Was it an active pfc one?

 

[mattylad]

I can remember as a youngster, sticking my non insulated screwdriver in a cb power supply to wind the voltage up a little, touching the transformer primary tags (best Chinese non insulated quality), the screwdriver ended up in the ceiling.

I had a tingle while at work changing a light fixing once, could not identify where to turn the circuit off and it was giving strange readings with my meter.

Oh about a month ago I got a tingle off a DB as I was touching a breaker, could never figure out why lol.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Avril, just yesterday! RCD, two of them in series, both failed to trip, so wasn't much of a belt.

Moving the caravan, with the mover, and the hook-up connected, she was put in charge of watching the orange cable, wasn't driven over during the process of the move. She obviously wasn't paying enough attention, because the caravan, drove onto the cable, it tightened, and ripped the plug out of the battery box, nicking the cable in the process. She grabbed hold of the live cable, trying to free it from where it was jammed, between box case and lid, and got a belt.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Oh about a month ago I got a tingle off a DB as I was touching a breaker, could never figure out why lol.

Often happens to me, that a nerve, or something twangs, and it feels just like an electric shock. Another possibility, is a static discharge.

 

[Jurassicspark]

Oh about a month ago I got a tingle off a DB as I was touching a breaker, could never figure out why lol.

Is it properly earthed?

Last week, I encountered a small arc when removing the cover of the fuseboard turned out it wasn't earthed properly.

 

[JohnW2]

Followup question: Who knew someone who died? My father did. Don’t trivialise the seriousness.

Your father died, or knew someone who did? Personally, I've known a very small number of people who have died as a result of some sort of trauma, but none related to electricity.

I agree that it would wrong to 'trivialise' any death, or any risk of death, but I would say thst one also has to try to keep things in perspective, give that few things in life are totally without any risks.

 

[JohnW2]

Last week, I encountered a small arc when removing the cover of the fuseboard turned out it wasn't earthed properly.

An arc between what and what?

 

[SUNRAY]

Three, in order of painfulness:

- 240 V AC, where a fine stranded wire had been threaded through a bit of heat shrink, and one of the tiny strands had poked through it, leaving a virtually invisible tip, like a splinter, exposed. Painful mostly because it was on a piece of equipment that was under a desk and I hit the back of my head on the desk when I got the shock.

- 400 V DC (rectified mains), in a switch-mode power supply, where I didn’t appreciate that a heatsink was live. I had modified a “class II” power supply to use inside a 19-inch rack enclosure; I removed the plastic case to help it cool, and after running it for a while touched the heatsink to see how warm it was.

- An electric fence. Definitely the worst!

Followup question: Who knew someone who died? My father did. Don’t trivialise the seriousness.

I know someone who was lucky to survive a stupid error:
A single phase DB in a commercial building, very high up in a 'services corridor' had a fault. The initial callout diagnosed the board required replacement, marked the wires and removed the board, following day it was replaced by someone else and seeing all blue and black wiring terminated as blue neutral. On the opposite wall are several cable trays supported on Unistrut cantilever arms.
My colleague was there testing the replacement board which had been made live. Getting his hand on the neutral bar and being full phase voltage he was thrown away, I'm not sure if the step ladder toppled or he was thrown off it but his back landed against the ends of the arms , several vertebrae between his shoulder blades were damaged by the arms and then he fell down ripping much of his flesh off his back and head.
He was unconcious for a while, very poor use of his legs, restricted use of one hand & arm. Not worked since.

 

[SUNRAY]

My wife had an electric shock when she was a kid on holiday with her parents, they told me she was playing outside the caravan and she leaned against it and got a pretty bad one.

Must of been a lost PEN conductor...maybe, she was pretty lucky, not sure what the caravan park said I'll ask her later....probably told her to be more careful...

Oh yes, completely forgot that one; We booked a week in a log cabin wooden shed late 80's, got a tingle from the stainless steel sink then the water heater or ultra slow kettle were on, when either of those were on the lights dimmed significantly and TV picture flicked as the loads switched.

 

[endecotp]

Was it an active pfc one?

Very unlikely, though I don’t know for sure.

 

[SithLordHood]

Had a few in my time, most recent replacing a up/down combined 2-way lighting switch. Isolated downstairs as I was replacing others downstairs and progressed through them to the one at the bottom of the stairs. Shorted the upstairs live i/p to myself and the earthed metal faceplate, slight melt to the flat bladed screwdriver!

When i was an apprentice, in college, the favourite was (with the socket powered off) to connect a low voltage electrolytic capacitor across Live and Neutral then turn on the socket, BANG!! The good old days..

 

[JBR]

I have. As a child, I once touched our three bar electric fire and received a shock. I touched one of the wheels at end of the a bar and felt a shock but fortunately wasn't killed, probably because I wasn't earthed being knelt on a thick carpet and touching nothing else. Strangely, none of the bars were hot at the time and I wonder whether the fire had been incorrectly wired, the on-switch only closing the neutral connection?