Electric sHock !!! Was I lucky ??

[njkmr]

Good Evening ,
I recently had a bedroom decorated and decided to put new light fitting and sockets in .(old ones were 20 odd yrs old ).
Carpet fitters were due to arrive in an hour so I thought get them done beforehand so no dirt on new carpet .
Clicked switch off at consumer unit marked up back bedroom .Hoover left on so I knew sockets were dead when it went off .
Did three of them no probs ,got to 4th one ,took old socket off and in my haste thought ,"that felt funny ".For some strange reason then took hold of live and neutral to see if one of them did actually feel funny !!!!!
Made a rather "silly " sounding "ooooeerrrraghh " noise and let go .
It was then I realised it must have been live and was fed from a different direction being the bedroom behind it .!!Why do they do this ???
The trip switch had switched on the consumer unit .
Did this save me and could it have been worse ???

No harm done ,and for any other non experts ,dont try this at home .
Regards
Rob.

 

[Spark123]

Sounds like you tripped the RCD - this probably saved your life.
If you had bridged live and neutral without enough leakage to earth they you may well have ended up being electrocuted.
Next time - don't take anything for granted and test that the circuit is dead every time.

And I wear non electric socks too

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Why do they do this ???

Laziness.

OOI, when crossing a one-way street, do you always assume that nothing will be going the wrong way, or do you look, just in case?

Did this save me and could it have been worse ???

Yes, and most definitely.

 

[njkmr]

Thanks spark123 for reply.
I was kneeling on a Limmer floor at the time (bedroom on ground floor ).

Dont know what compelled me to test them by holding them both but will know better in future .!!!

 

[RF Lighting]

Was I lucky ??

No, you were stupid to not test the wiring was dead before you started to work on it.

I hope you have learned a valuable lesson.

 

[njkmr]

I shall stand in the naughty corner for half an hour RF .!!

I wrongly thought they were dead ,when the hoover went off !!

Indeed a lesson has been learnt .

 

[Lectrician]

Did you not test your "british standard voltage indicator" (the hoover) in allthe outlets you intended to change.

 

[njkmr]

Did you not test your "british standard voltage indicator" (the hoover) in allthe outlets you intended to change.

LOL unfortunately no .
Good one .

 

[kevindgas]

Did you not test your "british standard voltage indicator" (the hoover) in allthe outlets you intended to change.

I knew that hoover in the back of my van had a use, now i know what it is

 

[experience]

Before i touch any conductors i ALWAYS test! The amount of shocks i would have had if i didnt.
You wouldnt believe what people do - most common are sockets fed off lighting circuits, lights fed off sockets - some people tap off whatever is easiest circuit to get a supply from.
And even if you plug your hoover in to see if its dead its no guarantee its not live - could easily have a broken neutral which would make it appear dead. So you can't trust on turning the circuit off at the board for it to be dead

 

[securespark]

Prove your tester!

 

[LiamPope]

...took old socket off and in my haste thought ,"that felt funny ".For some strange reason then took hold of live and neutral to see if one of them did actually feel funny !!!!!

There's something called a Darwin Award specially for people like you. You very nearly won one, too.

 

[ColJack]

are they awarded posthumously for idiocy leading to death??

 

[LiamPope]

are they awarded posthumously for idiocy leading to death??

Spot on

 

[plugwash]

Actually that they just have to render themselves unable to procreate. Usually this means death but not always.

see for example http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2003-19.html