How many of you have had 240v shocks before?

[roberta1000]

No shock but shooken alright.

A sort of resurrection shuffle (just like this thread).

 

[dormermike]

No shock but shooken alright.

A sort of resurrection shuffle (just like this thread).

Whoops! I browse via the similar discussion links and keep digging up old threads!

 

[conny]

About 14 I wired up a rubber faced 5A socket and screwed it direct to a block of wood, (no backing box, just the face plate holding it on to the wood with 2 long wood screws), and then put a 13A plug on the other end of the 2 wires, (yes, 2 wires-no earth!), and plugging it into my brothers bedroom socket as I didn't have one in my bedroom.
When my dad saw it he told me to get it out at once. As the cables ran under the carpet I couldn't be bothered to unplug it, disconnect the wires and pull them back through so I just got a pair of scissors with the intention of cutting both ends off and leaving the cables under the carpet.
Unfortunately I decided to cut the socket end first! DOH!! Should have unplugged the other end first! I remember a big bang, a big flash and a feeling that someone had hit my elbow with a cricket bat! Found myself flat on my back with my chest heaving as I tried to control my breathing and my whole body felt like jelly. One harsh lesson!

 

[ebee]

I suppose I could claim to make you eat that hat.

As an Adult I have never had a "mains shock".

That is not to say I have never been prey to that age old trade game "Catch this (charged up) capacitor" Ouch.

About 12 years old in hospital early one morning I wanted to watch TV so finding the plug I plugged it in - small fingers and unsleeved pins - say no more, hurt like hell and frightened me to death - lesson learned, never again.

That`s not to say I am 100% sure I have never touched live, I suspect I have a few times but never (yet) been unlucky enough to be grounded enough at the time to even feel it.

I just hope my own combination of diligence and pure luck continues

 

[viewer]

Like the others my shocks came when you and curious, but not all contact with live wires leads to a shock or death. A couple of years ago one of the students tried to fix her washing machine whilst still connected. She needed skin grafts to her arm for the next year. Not nice.

 

[martinxxxxxx]

I've had a few, enough to avoid them.

My most recent (non) shock was when I was taking some sockets off for redecoration, had turned off the first floor RFC and tested for dead. I was doing one of the sockets and I heard a faint tick and the lights went out. On examination, I discovered that just one first-floor socket was served by the ground-floor RFC.

Luckily there was a whole-house RCD at the time.

This has caused many near misses with me too.

LET THIS BE A WARNING

Turning off the circuit is NOT enough. The way most of the wiring in this country has been dis-organized, you are likely to receive a shock if you rely on just turning off the circuit you think you are working on. Especially if you are DIYing it. Better to turn OFF the main switch and test for dead (See safe isolation procedure) than to risk death by electrocution.

It is amateur to get a shock and nothing to be proud of. I say this as someone who has had too many and most were my own fault. Should have checked those leads, should have turned off the whole house etc

Be safe and not sorry

 

[bhm1712]

sometimes electric shocks can be purely accidental and not caused by negligence.

I had one once when i wasnt even working on electrics. I was mopping the floor at work after a nasty spillage of sodium hydroxide and wanted a rest so i layed my mop and bucket down and lent my hand on a support column. What i didnt know was that the cable cleated to the column had been hit by a fork lift truck and some strands where poking through the braiding (S Y cable). The braiding had not been earthed at either end and so it hadnt blown the fuse (no RCD)

That was the worst shock i have ever received! it threw my arm off and made me trip over my mop and bucket and land on my arse. My arm hurt for about 5 days after that.

 

[martinxxxxxx]

sometimes electric shocks can be purely accidental and not caused by negligence.


That was the worst shock i have ever received! it threw my arm off and made me trip over my mop and bucket and land on my a**e. My arm hurt for about 5 days after that.

That was not your negligence, but it was surly someone elses; remember where there's pain theres a claim

 

[SpecialK]

Had a few 240 ac and ~90vdc, but worst was stripping a 24v cable with my teeth whilst forehead on metalwork. Quick flash of white via eyes. lol.

 

[RF Lighting]

I had a few at the firm I served my apprenticeship with. Looking back I now realise how appauling their safe isolation was, but at the time I didn't know any better.

I had one working in a school. Wiring was original from 1920s/30s. I was replacing as faulty light fitting. Pulled out the fuse at the fuse box. The light went off. I started to swap the fitting. Turned out it was a neutral fuse that I'd removed.

Had one pulling out a wylex fuse where the fuse wire was poking out beyond the fuse carrier.

Most recent was a borrowed neutral / neutral feedback while trying to fault find on a lighting circuit.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Tut tut. Don't any of you have a neon screwdriver?

 

[XtraRaptor]

Tut tut. Don't any of you have a neon screwdriver?

My foreman used to hate neon srewdrivers so much he would swap the resistor for a brass screw.....

Oh how we laughed!!!!

 

[17thman]

a shock from one hand to the other is awful.

I've never experienced that but after the post from 'ban-all-sheds', I definitely don't want that to happen to me

No, you don't - it is awful, and very scary.

And yes - I do know. Live -> Earth from one hand to the other, fortunately for me and all my avid readers it was to a TT earth which was probably not very good (very well drained chalk soil), but even so...

ahh, safe isolation. practice what you preach. you can be as busy as you like or be worried about getting home to the misses, there is no excuse. always test.

 

[securespark]

I had a shock just yesterday.

From the electric blanket I was using while I was in the bath.

Funnily enough, when I unplugged it, I didn't get a shock off it anymore.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

ahh, safe isolation. practice what you preach. you can be as busy as you like or be worried about getting home to the misses, there is no excuse. always test.

Actually it was nothing to do with anything like that - I was a teenager, and working on a stereo amp I was building. Simply did not think about the fact that even though I'd turned the power switch off on the front panel, because I hadn't unplugged it or turned it off at the socket the back of the fuseholder would be live, so when one finger touched that whilst the other hand was gripping the chassis, a very never-to-be-repeated experience of current flowing up one arm, across the chest, and down the other arm ensued.

I was lucky in two ways. First, the obvious one - I didn't die, or even get injured.

And secondly a more subtle one. Because of the first I could easily have thought "well, yeah - not much fun, I'll grant you, but these electric shock things aren't anything to be scared of".

But for some reason I sat there sweating thinking "jeez - that could have killed me - I'm lucky it didn't". Dunno why - at the time I knew nothing about TT supplies and high Zes, but looking back I think those factors could easily have been a life saver.