Strange happenings that go witha bang

[diyisfree]

I was decorating today and had to remove a plug socket to aid what i was doing, i asked the wife to knock of the mcb supplying the plugs in the fuse box. Now i know she did this because the TV went off.

To cut a long story short, i grabbed the phase wire without getting a shock so all ok there , but when the phase touched the earth, there was an almighty flash and 220v shot up my arm


Is this normal or do i have something weird going on ?

 

[festa]

Its a suprise you can still breath,let alone type that out

 

[bernardgreen]

I was decorating today and had to remove a plug socket to aid what i was doing, i asked the wife to knock of the mcb supplying the plugs in the fuse box. Now i know she did this because the TV went off.

To cut a long story short, i grabbed the phase wire without getting a shock so all ok there , but when the phase touched the earth, there was an almighty flash and 220v shot up my arm


Is this normal or do i have something weird going on ?

Well first thing is the power was NOT switched off ( maybe the wife turned the TV to hear what you were asking her to do.)

You can hold a life wire and not get a shock. There is only a shock when there is another part of you touching earth or neutral ( or a lot of capacitive coupling to earth ) to complete the circuit Birds can perch on 11Kv power lines without problems.

The flash was the live shorting to earth, the shock up your arm was possibly radiated nerve pain from a shock across your hand.

NEVER work on power without checking YOURSELF that the breakers are open

 

[RF Lighting]

Reversed polarity?

SP MCB disconneced the neutral (in this case the red wire), leaving the live still connected (the black)
This may also explain why you didn't get shock when you grabbed the red wire

Are you certain the red shorted to earth? or could it have been the black?

 

[Spark123]

Maybe the socket is fed from another circuit?
Theres a lot to be said for testing your circuit is dead with a voltage detection tester using the correct isolation procedure i.e. prove the instrument is working before and after testing.
http://www.niceic.org.uk/downloads/Pocket Guide 5.pdf

 

[securespark]

DIY. There are some excellent responses here that you should not ignore, especially the RP post. If you are not confident to make sure your circuit is healthy, get someone in to check it asap.

 

[diyisfree]

Cheers guy's.

I have been doing a little investigating. Firstly the point regarding switching off the mcb myself and then checking phase is dead has been taken on board.

Even the wife said " Well you should have bwoody done it yourself"

Yes the phase (red) did touch earth. I have a black finger nail to prove it.

To cut a very long story short, I did a trace that meant removing the upstairs floor boards in my bedroom, followed the wire (incidently is a spur) nd followed it back to of all things a knock out box installed under the floorboards.



The box had 1 cable going in and 2 out ? The first was my wire and the second went into the bedroom next door?

This was now getting interesting, I followed the cable and again it went into a knockout box but that was it. It had a choco block on the end. I then traced it back to the CU and found that it had been terminated to the downstairs lighting radial

Well your guess is as good as mine, but whats with using steel knock out boxes instead of junction boxes. I have now removed all the crappy wiring and installed the socket has a proper spur on the downstairs ring.

Just goes to show, you never know whats gone on in the past do you

EDIT

Whooo whats with words being changed ? i would never say "rubbishy"

 

[Steve]

steel knock-out boxes are, IMO, better, as you can crimp connections, but every cable must be glanded.

I would have a full electrical check done on the house, since it sounds like somebody's done a bit of "slapdash and slipshod" on this house, you dont know what else they did wrong. Ask a local spark for a Periodic Inspection Report, expect to pay £100-150 for a few hours work. They will be able to tell you a lot more than you can see yourself, and IMO it is worth it for peace of mind.