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

[flyingsparks]

Here's why you should always prove dead before working! Had been at this house all day doing various jobs to the upstairs lighting and had found that all the lighting was off of the one MCB labelled 'upstairs lights'.. simple enough. Just about to leave the house when she asks me to change a light switch in a bedroom I hadnt been in yet, so I flick off the same MCB and start pulling the switch apart.

Got the earth in one hand between thumb and finger, and grab the live in the other between thumb and finger..... yep u guessed it! jumped back a bloody mile, almost fell over, and really felt it across my chest...

I know i shouldnt have done it but why else would the numpty have put that one bedroom on a different circuit.

I feel lucky to be alive!!!!

 

[Softus]

I feel lucky to be alive!!!!

We all are; sometimes more so than so others.

 

[loafer]

Now.... call me cynical!!!! BUT! Whenever I am asked to sort out anything to do with electrickery, I always test fer dead.
You never know what fool has been pratting around with electrics before you.

For example: a 10kw shower run off 6mm cable???
An immersion heater taken off the ring.
Lighting taken off the ring with fastidiously hidden sfcu's (oooooooh sooooooo common in loft conversions cos some1 couldn't be [bothered] to take a few boards up to extend the existing lighting circuit or jst forgot before they laid the new floor)

 

[flyingsparks]

Yea but at 5pm when you want to go home?!.........

 

[loafer]

5pm!!!??? when you want to go home??? you're lucky (u spotted the pythonesque 4 yorkshiremen skit yet!?)

 

[soontobe]

iv'e had 33 shocks to date..All of them my fault.


dont touch it, because it hurts , a lot.

 

[eskimosailor]

Done similar myself, but now I have only half a thumb pad and a socking great burn mark across my chest. Lucky my wife came along at that moment to ask if I wanted a drink of wine. She saved my life and I spent the next week or so in Morriston hospital. They are brilliant!!!!! Then 3 months off work.
Who says wine is bad for you. It saved my life!

 

[djrichie_t]

i got pretty immune to shocks,

 

[Adam_151]

I wonder what the HSE would make of that...

and besides, I'm not sure that you can become immune to electric shocks, what can happen is you can become more tolerant of the pain associated with mild ones, which fools you into taking bigger risks, familiarity breeds contempt as they say.

Whether you can walk away after a shock depends on a few factors, the current (itself dependant on peak volatage and body resistance), the exact path it takes (between hands is the worst as its directly across the heart), the duration it is sustained for, etc, as well as some people have weaker hearts than others* skin resisatnce also varies, some people have quite dry skin.



*I would suggest that rather than increasing your tolerance to electricity, significant shocks across the heart have a tnedancy to do the complete opposide

 

[JohnD]

I've heard of people who can touch live conductors with their hands, I suspect they have thick, dry skin which has high resistance.

remember Survivor Bias, though.

The only people you ever hear from are the ones who did it and survived.

the ones who were killed don't tell you about it.

the incidence of heart attacks in the few days after an electric shock is much higher than in people who haven't been shocked, so attendance at A&E is now recommended even for survivors..

 

[RigidRaider]

Yep... I cut open a loop the sparks had left on my upstairs ring and got a big flash and a bang. Turned out he'd put the loop in the ring for the downstairs sockets, but I had only turned off the upstairs ring...

 

[Stoday]

Not all houses have an upstairs and downstairs ring.

I used to live in a house that had a front and a back ring.

 

[Alison556]

Electric shocks could actually cause the heart to fibrillate and stop - it works like a defibrillator when you're having a heart attack - they shock the heart into a normal rhythm. An electric shock can knock the heart into an abnormal rhythm.

Anyway, lecture over............

My brother is a sparky and him and his mate were installing lights and transformers on a building site. His mate turned off the power, padlocked the box up and they went away to start their work. One of the other trades on the site was going ape about the power being off and they said they wouldn't be that long.

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....................

 

[ColJack]

they should have sued the contractor that did it.. or the main contractor for not training their personell properly..

I personally would have gotten hold of the git an smacked him one if he cause me a shock..

 

[bernardgreen]

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

And put himself in danger of being charged with manslaughter.....