Electric Shock

[Spkrdctr]

OK, on a different thread there are 10 pages of proper grounding in houses. Interesting but not fun. So, I have a serious question that many might find interesting in this forum. Can everyone post if they have been shocked before and how it happened and also the voltage and current of the shock if they know, or maybe a guess. I will start out as I have been shocked and it was not fun at all. Had me jittery for two days.

I was working at Bosch Automotive Group automation division repairing industrial power supplies and controllers for the line robots and associated machinery. The equipment at that time (25 years ago) was 300volt DC to the controller and then chopped (3 phase) up to the motor. I "fixed" the controller and hooked it up to a motor and turned it on to give it the test cycle I used. The motor was mounted in a stand with wheels and was next to my bench. The motor size was probably 16 long x7 high inches (guessing after 25 years). It was happily spinning away and I had my hand on the controller and put my work shoe up on the metal stand for the motor. I received a shock that went through my teeth, and my tongue, down my back muscles and I turned off the power. I had a funny taste in my mouth, my back and teeth hurt. It really hit me hard. So, I grabbed my trusty Fluke and checked the spot where I had my hand and the motor stand. 108 volts and less than one amp. I "think" 3 milliamps if I remember correctly. After that I never ever made a connection like that with equipment I was working on. Being I needed a quick and dirty fix I just took some 20ga wire and hooked it up to the controller so it was grounded out to near zero volts.

I guess we could also talk about capacitor explosions too, and inadvertent arc welding in front of your face on the bench. Very scary stuff but I lived through it.

I can't wait to hear some good stories from all of the guys on here who have real world experience!

 

[puppet]

Having worked construction my whole life I've seen a few doozees. I remember this electrician who would work on live panels (we're talking large 10 story source here) without relying on the temp service to finish up. Twice I saw this guy get hit. You'd think after the first time he'd mend his procedure .... nope. Second time he got hit he received second degree burns up to the armpit. Lucky he wasn't killed. Company got rid of this fool after that incident. ... and he was the job's electrical foreman, too.

 

[Spkrdctr]

Having worked construction my whole life I've seen a few doozees. I remember this electrician who would work on live panels (we're talking large 10 story source here) without relying on the temp service to finish up. Twice I saw this guy get hit. You'd think after the first time he'd mend his procedure .... nope. Second time he got hit he received second degree burns up to the armpit. Lucky he wasn't killed. Company got rid of this fool after that incident. ... and he was the job's electrical foreman, too.

Not learning after a hit is some serious dumb right there. It is funny now but he was lucky to be alive.

 

[DVDdoug]

I've been shocked a few times when replacing a light switch (or something related to home wiring). Usually I turn the power off but sometimes I'm thinking, "I'll be careful this time..." just because if I turn off the breaker I'll have to re-set the clocks, etc. And sometimes I get-away with it. As far as I remember it's never been "bad" or through my body, just through one hand. I'm in the U.S. so it's "only" 120V.

When I was in high school I got shocked working a tube circuit in an amplifier or radio (electronics class). That was 200 or 300V and "not fun".

Also when I was in high school my mother told me she was getting a "tingle" from the waffle iron. I touched it but didn't feel anything. Now, I knew a little about electricity and I was wearing sneakers, and I didn't really think there was anything wrong so while touching the waffle iron I reached-over and "tapped" the water pipe with my other hand. Blam! Big jolt through my chest! I said, "That was stupid!" and I advised my mom to get rid of that old thing, and I think she did.

But the worst shock I ever got was from the spark plug on a lawn mower. The connector was loose and making intermittent contact so the motor was running but running rough. So, I was just going to put it back... I don't know WHAT I was thinking... The funny thing is, even after it was no longer running I didn't want to touch it. It left me with a temporary irrational fear and I had to "force myself" to re-connect it.

I've never been hurt by an exploding capacitor but I've seen it happen with reversed tantalum capacitors. Also in high school electronics we used to connect electrolytic caps to the AC power to explode them intentionally. (We had a lab and the teacher wasn't always there.)

and current of the shock

Current depends on voltage and resistance (Ohm's Law). Since we don't know the resistance of our body (under the particular circumstances) we usually don't know the current.



P.S.
I didn't get a shock, but one time at work I was changing an outlet to a different kind of 220V socket. Somebody told me which breaker was associated with that circuit and I turned it off. But they were wrong and I didn't check. There's a lesson there... I had to cut a wire (insulated wire cutters) and when I did the guy on other side of the wall yelled, "Shit". He was working on his computer at the time, obviously doing something important that wasn't saved yet.. (His computer was plugged into a regular 120V outlet but sometimes split phase 240V power is shared with 120V outlets.) It would have been the same "shit" if I had turned-off the breaker a few minutes earlier but I was trying not to work on a live circuit .

 

[j^j=e^-pi/2]

Got shocked when I was 12 from my ham radio tube plate cap. Just plain being dumb. Just put my finger on it. Dumb.

Hurt bad. Passed out for a while.

Didn't tell parents because I didn't want them to take away my ham radio.

From that moment onward, I always have my left hand in my pocket to avoid inadvertent shocks if I'm working on gear.

 

[digitalfrost]

I was doing my civil service (as opposed to military service) in a rehab clinic (like for broken bones and stuff). My tasks were janitorial, doing garden work, sweeping the street, painting walls, just keeping the building and surroundings in good order.

My boss informed me the heating lamp in the massage room had a broken bulb and to replace it. He specifically told me to remove the power plug before touching it.

I've never been in the massage room before. So I go there, and I was really...confused, surprised. There was some relaxing music playing, and there were curtains everywhere. So it was one big room with multiple massage tables separated by curtains and half naked people getting massaged.

So I had to find my way to this lamp. Once I found it I was so out of it that I completely forgot his advice to remove the power before touching the lamp. It was a huge thing with multiple red ~12cm bulbs in it. So I turned it on, found the broken one, unscrewed the bulb and then touched the inside of the thread while holding the case with my other and felt 220V running through my body.

It's interesting, you know you should remove your hand, but because of the power running through you you can't really control your muscles. I took quite some mental strength to make my hand let go.

So anyways I let out a loud scream in the middle of a massage room and probably shocked a lot of formely relaxed people.

 

[Madjalapeno]

Friend did pee on an electric fence once, and yes, the electricity did travel.

Some poor sod apparently died peeing on the live rail of a underground train line, but not sure if that is an urban legend or not. (apparently a myth - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wo...killed-while-urinating-on-Chicago-subway.html)

 

[mansr]

I've accidentally touched mains voltage (Europe/UK) a few times, only ever with one hand though. It stings a little. On one occasion, I carelessly touched a bank of capacitors charged to about 300 V. That produced a distinctly different sensation than an AC shock. I don't recommend either.

 

[sergeauckland]

I've had too many belts off 240v mains, mostly when fiddling inside vintage kit that didn't insulate the mains terminals properly. Not nice.
However, the worse was when I got across the 450v HT of my old valve amps due to faulty insulation on a meter probe. That shot me across the room, and really hurt.
Fortunately in each case it was just one hand and prefer not to dwell on the consequences if I'd been across the volts properly.

It's the volts that jolts, it's the mills that kills.

S

 

[mansr]

faulty insulation on a meter probe

A good reason to only use reputable brands. Even if you go cheap on the meter, getting a set of Fluke or similar probes is a good idea if working with dangerous voltages.

 

[egellings]

I have personally conducted a bit of current at times; unpleasant it is, but it really wakes you up.

 

[mansr]

The scariest shocks are when you touch the mains and the ground fault breaker doesn't trip.

 

[BDWoody]

A couple decades ago I made a power cord to go from my generator to a 50a circuit installed for the purpose, in order to backfeed my house during power outages..

This cord had a male end that plugged into the generator..

After a multi-day outage, street lights were on so it was time to switch back. Turned off the generator, unplugged the power cord, went inside and turned on the main breaker and the house came to life. I didn't turn off the 50amp breaker that was now energizing the unplugged cord with bare metal ends facing up. The electrodes fit perfectly in my palm as I went to pick it up and got a very special kind of feeling I hope not to be dumb enough to ever feel again.

It is high on my list of stupidest things I've ever done.

 

[gene_stl]

When I got my first apartment I drilled a hole in the wood floor of the dining room and ran a 230 volt line to run an air conditioner someone gave us. I had a female receptacle on the line but didn't initially install the rear hood. After getting my hand across the two lines and being bitten I shut off the power and installed it.

I once got bitten by a Dyna Mark III. circa 1976. That was fairly memorable since it had KT-88s. I don't remember how much the plate voltage was but it was enough.

Recently I was working on a Crown Class AB power amp and discovered (the hard way) that the Heat Sinks were at the rail voltages which I think were 70 or 80 volts each. Didn't really hurt compared to the Dyna which I still remember and not fondly.

Fortunately Ground Fault Interuppter Circuit breakers are much more common now. These probably help a lot when appliances become leaky.

 

[Lambda]

I have been shocked many times.

Thankfully electricity is way less deadly then generally thought of
Highly recommend reading trough this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair

 

[SIY]

Got shocked when I was 12 from my ham radio tube plate cap. Just plain being dumb. Just put my finger on it. Dumb.

Hurt bad. Passed out for a while.

#metoo, but just brushed against it. Still enough to knock me across the room and on my ass. About the same age, too.

 

[Tom C]

One of my earliest memories in life is that of taking my mother’s house key and placing it into a wall outlet in our home. Was maybe three or four years old. I remember a spark, and turned my fingers black. Some of us have to learn the hard way…
Years later, as an adult in training, we had a young man on our service who was a lineman for the local power company, and had suffered a severe electrical burns to both hands and forearms. Basically, his hands were skeletonized, only bones and tendons remained. Bad deal.

 

[Larry B. Larabee]

Thankfully these tales have a happy ending since most have had 'one hand in their pocket’ at the time.
Everytime I get electrocuted I end up running for a bandaid after being startled enough to bash my hand on the sharpest piece of metal in the vicinity. My advice wear sneakers unless it's a gfci.

 

[Jim Matthews]

Worked at an engineering college back in the 1990s.

Respect for "Lock out - Tag out" was not observed by the unqualified buildings tech. We had 3 phase, 400 volt supplying the overhead bus bars with dedicated drops for 208 single phase.

During an early HAAS universal Install, I was asked to isolate the leg supplying the new space.

Over a weekend closure "someone" cut off my tag to energize the endmill array for student work. Come Monday the new HAAS controller is fried and my neck is in the noose.

On examination, my cut tag is found in the breaker panel with a pair of dykes. The initials of the buildings' tech are on the dykes - still in the breaker box.

Closed circuit cameras, and a keypad logging after hours access were installed, shortly thereafter.

Assistant Dean of the College gave a "Dangers of high voltage power lines" discussion to incoming Freshman after that - with the $45,000 control panel on display.

I found another line of employment.

 

[Larry B. Larabee]

Worked at an engineering college back in the 1990s.

Respect for "Lock out - Tag out" was not observed by the unqualified buildings tech. We had 3 phase, 400 volt supplying the overhead bus bars with dedicated drops for 208 single phase.

During an early HAAS universal Install, I was asked to isolate the leg supplying the new space.

Over a weekend closure "someone" cut off my tag to energize the endmill array for student work. Come Monday the new HAAS controller is fried and my neck is in the noose.

On examination, my cut tag is found in the breaker panel with a pair of dykes. The initials of the buildings' tech are on the dykes - still in the breaker box.

Closed circuit cameras, and a keypad logging after hours access were installed, shortly thereafter.

Assistant Dean of the College gave a "Dangers of high voltage power lines" discussion to incoming Freshman after that - with the $45,000 control panel on display.

I found another line of employment.

How times change,eh. These days you would be in the same position just for saying dyke. (jumping happy face just kidding smiley thing).