Would touching electric wires from the mains, kill you?

[DrNorm]

You never forget an electric shock! Fortunately however, most accidents with electricity are not fatal - I still don't recommend taking the dangers lightly though!

 

Your story reminded me of a fellow engineer who was repairing a computer printer on a company director's desk with the covers removed and the power switched on while completing tests.

 

The director returned and demanded he take the printer off his desk immediately. My colleague picked the printer up, got an electric shock and dropped the printer to the floor, damaging it beyond repair. (Hopefully there's still some humour there without the original colourful language that the story was first told!)

 

---------- Post added 06-04-2015 at 21:20 ----------

 

Oh and then there's the one about our physics teacher who was stood on an upturned bowl with both hands on the Van der Graaf generator to demonstrate static electricity. you know the hair goes all frizzy and stands up on end. One flaw in the safety plan was that his nether regions were too close to the gas tap on the lab bench. The charge found it's way to earth via the path of least resistance which in this case was his wedding tackle. I wasn't there, but I do hope it's a true story. The animated way in which the story was told tells me it is.

Edited April 6, 2015 by DrNorm

[GLASGOWOODS]

Being an ex TV repair man I've had a lot of electric shocks in the past,I think the one of the worst one was one day I was in a customers house with the back off one of those big cabinet pye TVs,when the lady opened the kitchen door and let the dog out it was a big daft spotty dog,it came running up behind me and leaped on my back pushing me with both hands outstretched into the back of the switched on TV,the one with the big glowing line output valves and lethal EHT tripler,I got a right shock the power went down my arms and because I had out of courtesy took my shoes off in the house shot through my body, I could feel my hair stand on end,I was lucky to survive that one...

 

That's what you call live on tv.

[Cyclone]

I bridged a capacitor on the back of a circuit board with my fingers by accident, it only snapped across my hand, but it actually burned little pits into the sides of my fingers where it arced from one finger to the next! That stung.

[shaunyp]

I think anything over 200 milliamps will kill you if touching the live with your finger and the floor with feet.

Although if you have an RCD on the circuit at your consumer unit, which protects the circuit, then this will trip out before that amount of current flows.

RCD's (Residual current device) are rated at 30milliamps, so they will trip out before anything like 200mA flows.

[Obelix]

60mA is sufficient to kill you if it flows across the chest. Just a couple of mA in the heart itself can disrupt normal sinus rhythm.

[Berberis]

If you accidentally touched the 2 electric (mains) wires, that connect to a light fitting; just for a split second, yes, you'd presumably get a shock, but would it be bad enough to kill an healthy adult?

 

Not really. Im speaking as a person who has had over 500 volts go up one arm and down the other, i.e. across my heart. Much to my dismay I did not develop any super powers.

 

Your mains is AC, so a jolt is only for a split second as your feed is oscillating at 60Hz (60 times a second), so even if your muscles caused you to grip, you would immediately release the electrode, disconnecting you from the supply.

[Cyclone]

What? Just, what?

[shaunyp]

60mA is sufficient to kill you if it flows across the chest. Just a couple of mA in the heart itself can disrupt normal sinus rhythm.

 

I think it is medically proven that anything from 200mA is the KILLER, anything less may kill you, which is why electrical companies produce RCD's set at 30mA which lets fault current flow to a maximum level of 30mA for a fraction of a second until it trips the system in 400 mS.

Although any shock from an energy source whether including an RCD or not...isnt a good thing !!! I sure dont like em anyway !!

[fatrajah]

Just out of curiosity I have done an insulation test on a wooden chair. Even at 1000 volts test voltage, the resistance was too high to be measured. This suggests that you would be safe if you touched a live conductor while stood on a wooden chair. Don't try it though! For the test I used a "Robin" insulation tester as used by electricians when doing periodic reports & when commisioning new installations. I am not suggesting anyone should take the above result as meaning it is always safe to use a wooden chair. However, the test results I obtained are a hard fact; there really is nothing to argue about. If you had the misfortune to touch both the live & neutral, while standing on aforementioned chair, the RCD would offer no protection because there is no imbalance in the current. I am not suggesting that working on wiring that has not been isolated is safe if you stand on a well insulated chair or step ladder.

Edited December 1, 2015 by fatrajah
for the benefit of certain posters.

[scania]

I've often thought that I have a screw loose, and I'm sure many people would agree, but after reading this, I now know there are cases of denseness that are immeasurable.