My biggest shock yet.....Always prove dead!!

No,,, what happens is you get grease all over your hands :LOL:
 
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And what do you think would happen if you grasped both terminals of a 12V car battery with your bare hands?

I had an argument/discussion with a guy about this. He knew his stuff pretty good about mains (had some electrical qualifications that he was ok to do mains work in a school). He seemed to think that as you could measure a low resistance over an ohmeter across two hands that a 12v battery would shock/fry you. I could see the logic but explained it wouldnt happen because the voltage is too low its not enough for it too happen (and I knew from experience). So although a battery can deliver a huge current albeit for short periods I grabbed the terminals in front of him :)
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Firemen also test for hot surfaces with the back of their hand for the very same reason. It is more sensitive than the palm and if you do involuntary grip some thing then it will be fresh air and not a cable or door handle.

I'll confirm this from personal experience; although I've never been a professional fire fighter, I did work for a major oil company on a refinery and had fire survival training (in particular zero visibility, breathing apparatus).

The protocol is to constantly check for obstructions at head height and below with the back of your hand, and for lower obstructions with your foot (again using a sweeping motion) before moving forward. The worst that can happen is that you get a shock and step back the way you've come (which you've already checked).
 
Doctors are taught feel for differences in temperature with the back of their hand too as more sensitive, eg a warm inflamed joint compared to other one...
 
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And what do you think would happen if you grasped both terminals of a 12V car battery with your bare hands?
A little current would flow through your body, probablly not enough to be noticed.

try searching for a bad earth on your tail lights at night when its p!55!ng down and wet through. you CAN get a crack from a 12 volt dc battery.
same applies to arc welding, specially when its wet. (bout 48 volt, 20 - 90A)

oh, and ever played with a set of contact breakers for the coil? they get you too!

landrover's ace apart from when its bust after playing out....
 
Next minute, my bro's mate was thrown across where they were working.

Turns out, some numpty went and broke into the box (bolt cutters on the padlock) and turned the power back on....................

Hope he reported this to the HSE.
 
Had quite a few shocks in my time. Basically always because some one else could not be bothered to do the job correctly.

The worst one I had was at work, it was a hospital so we had to ensure any supply that was disconnected was out of working hours, so we go along 5am in the morning to remove a peace of equipment that was attached to FCU.

The equipment was inside a service cupboard at the back of the OR that backed onto a service corridor. Opened up the cupboard started to work, proved everything was dead, started to work, full HS kit so we had fibreglass ladders, gloves, boots the lot. Supply was locked off we both had keys so no way was the supply going to come back on without both of us away from the service cupboard.

About 10 mins into the job all I was doing was removing the FCU and feed cable, I noticed a big flash, feel an immense pain in the back of my hand. The neutral was still live, the live was dead. I brushed the cable with the back of my hand. Good job I was not holding onto the earthed metal cupboard. Thinking back I should have guessed what they did as I traced the neutral back to a contactor. There was two cables in it one was the control feed one my neutral so the control feed could have been live and in this case it was.

Now I remember the guy I was working with told me I should always prove dead, as it turns out this feed neutral was attached to a contractor and picked the live up else where, the contactor fed from a BMS setup that would have been dead at 5am but not when the heating comes on at 6am!

Still got the scar today. Just proves you can test dead and still manage to get a shock because some one just could not be arsed running some more t+e / pyro to a socket on a ring final.

The supply they picked up was from a 3 phase supply so they took one live from one phase and a neutral from a control circuit.

The rest of my shocks were down to shared neutrals on lighting circuits back in my domestic days.

Saying that in the last 3 years I have not had a single shock.

Adam
 
I unscrewed a metal light fitting so I could paint the ceiling rose without getting paint on the light fitting. Afterwards I screwed the the light fitting back on whilst stood on metal steps holding the light in one hand whilst screwing with the other hand. As I put the last turn of the screw I must have trapped the live and cut through the insulation causing the whole light fitting to go live. I couldn't let go however hard I tried and after about 30 seconds took the decision to jump from the steps still holding the lighting firmly. In doing so I ripped the whole lighting from the ceiling braking the wire and cutting the electricity supply. Only at that point could i release my grip. Not injured from the fall arm shook for a while. Good job I was up a ladder and could take advantage of gravity
 
When I was young and stupid I decided to make a circuit testers using a three pin plug a battern lamp holder and some probes made from fencing wire
yes I know,

I was 15 and lucky to see 16

So plugged into the mains with a 60w bulb in circuit I grasped each probe the insulation tape failed and I was energised in circuit fortunately I was crouched down on my haunches when I was being electricuted despite my muscles freezing I was able to move my centre of balance to fall backwards thus breaking the circuit.

That hurt and left me with entry and exit burns but no other damage as far as I know. Taught me to respect electricity though test for dead and don't use your home made test instruments
 
I unscrewed a metal light fitting so I could paint the ceiling rose without getting paint on the light fitting. Afterwards I screwed the the light fitting back on whilst stood on metal steps holding the light in one hand whilst screwing with the other hand. As I put the last turn of the screw I must have trapped the live and cut through the insulation causing the whole light fitting to go live. I couldn't let go however hard I tried and after about 30 seconds took the decision to jump from the steps still holding the lighting firmly. In doing so I ripped the whole lighting from the ceiling braking the wire and cutting the electricity supply. Only at that point could i release my grip. Not injured from the fall arm shook for a while. Good job I was up a ladder and could take advantage of gravity

Rubbish :rolleyes:
 
I've had 2 padlocks cut off isolators, both because they were not recognised by the on-site maintenance guys.
HSE called to both, one was on CCTV, other police were called forensics found the guy.
Both went to court.
 
The rest of my shocks were down to shared neutrals on lighting circuits back in my domestic days.

Yes, they've given me a buzz or two in the past :rolleyes:

Nearly had another one today. Took the lighting fuse out and proceeded to disconnect an old light switch...wires out so I set about tidying them up, managed to briefly contact the two neutrals and bang!

Thankfully no shock to me...apart from psychological. But I was moments away from baring more wire so the whole board was switched off followed by much cursing. Person who wired up the conservatory, must have put it on another ring...my own fault for not checking :(

Edit: Found out why today when the house alarm went off at 06.30 this morning, they've wired the conservatory lights to the garage's 30a feed :(

Steve
 
Not in the trade myself but know what it feels like...

When I was about 8 a button came off the front of out washing machine. I decided to put it back in as it was running. The shock sent me across to the other side of the room.

We had a fish tank with a light wired via a two pin plug. Plugged it in one day but had my fingers between the pins (they were bare, no part insulation). My small, young fingers were thin enough to allow the contact to be made between the plug and socket. Another shock.

Last one I can remember was when I was around 18. Was making a power amplifer and finishing off some soldering. Of course, had forgotten that I still had it plugged in and switched on. The shock went up my right arm, right across my chest (could feel my heart physically contract) before exiting down my left arm. Burnt the solder out I was holding and tripped the main mcb.
 
i recently found out, that if you manage to unfortunately end up gripping a live cable it is absolutely impossible to let go because the electricity causes your upper arm muscles to tighten and as they are much stronger than your hand muscles the only solution - apart from turning off the power - is to break every finger or chop your hand off. :eek:

That's why they teach firemen to use the back of there hand when feeling around a room.

Apparently for 240 to stop you heart it got to hit your heart at certain point in your cardiac anthem so i'm told.
 
My GF plugged in our sandwich toaster a few months ago. It hadn't been used for a while and there was no back on the plug. Rather than fit a new plug (or ask me to do the same) she proceeded to push the plug in whilst touching the live and neutral pins :!:

After she picked herself up off the floor she blamed me for not switching off the socket :rolleyes:
 

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