Got an electric shock - power was off?!!?

MORPH3US

Hi folks,

Any sparkies on here or keen DIY'ers?

Our bathroom light stopped working a couple of days ago so I took it down today to make sure the cables hadn't come loose.

Obviously turned the power off first but half way through I got a massive electric shock :eek:

How on earth can I get a shock when the power is switched off??!?!?

SpursDave

Did you switch of the lighting circuit or just the ring main??

maninthestreet

SpursDave wrote: »

Did you switch of the lighting circuit or just the ring main??

My thoughts exactly. OP - did you check that the lights in your house, both upstairs and downstairs did not work when the power was switched off?

MORPH3US

B*ll*cks, think I might have switched the wrong thing off....

Now no lights upstairs are working at all... checked the circuit breakers and they are all still on... is it possible I have blown the circuit breaker? I suppose it'll need a call out for an electrician to sort that out?

Alias_Omega

Check the bathroom light again, and then Undo what you have done...

Suspect the bathroom light maybe the first light in the series of upstairs lights, and if you have left a live or neutral out, then none of them will work.

A light...

Spot -

The reds (live) together in the middle
The blacks (neutral) together
The black with the red sleeving (switch live) on its own



Taken from here -

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/diy/electrics/light_fitting/index.htm

zax47

With all due respect, you need to get an electrician in and stop arseing about with something you know apparently know nothing about! At best you'll kill yourself, at worst you'll kill someone else.

(Professional Electrician, 1987-date).

MORPH3US

Thanks Alias, realised I hadn't connected the three lives up quite right.

Problem now solved.

M

moonrakerz

"What is Electrocution?
Electrocution is the sudden and involuntary introduction of large - or persistent - amounts of electricity into the human body. Electrocution is something that kills many people every year and normally it is simply the result of an accident.

Many Do It Yourself enthusiasts have been the unfortunate victims of Electrocution and this is because of an inability to rewire properly or simply because they are unsure as to what they are doing. Many people find themselves at the receiving end of one of nature's most dangerous elements without considering the ramifications." (My highlighting)

There is a video on the web of a man being electrocuted on the roof of a train - you were nearly as dead as him !

ormus

just because the odd person forgets to switch the power completely off and gets wacked, does not mean that sparkys should have the sole rights to change even a light bulb.

weve got enough problems with dodgy plumbers/gas fitters.

jonesjw

ormus wrote: »

just because the odd person forgets to switch the power completely off and gets wacked, does not mean that sparkys should have the sole rights to change even a light bulb..

I do agree. Having qualifications to do a job doesn't mean they will adopt a professional attitude or even care about the quality of the job. Anyone with a reasonable degree of technical competence is better off doing the job themselves.

In the last 30 years, my self employed father has had at least 4 different qualified electricians doing work at his business premises, some with good reputations. Due to shoddy workmanship & eventual failure, I have had to correct the work from every one of them.

Do the job yourself & you can take the time to double check every terminal is properly tightened & so on.

Incidentally, it is quite farcical that the government require people who do major wiring on your house to be qualified, but there is no legal requirement for people who (say) Engineer nuclear power plants to be qualified.

That's what you get with MPs who don't have the technical competence making decisions on technical matters.

vaio

jonesjw wrote: »

I do agree. Having qualifications to do a job doesn't mean they will adopt a professional attitude or even care about the quality of the job. Anyone with a reasonable degree of technical competence is better off doing the job themselves.

In the last 30 years, my self employed father has had at least 4 different qualified electricians doing work at his business premises, some with good reputations. Due to shoddy workmanship & eventual failure, I have had to correct the work from every one of them.

Do the job yourself & you can take the time to double check every terminal is properly tightened & so on.

Incidentally, it is quite farcical that the government require people who do major wiring on your house to be qualified, but there is no legal requirement for people who (say) Engineer nuclear power plants to be qualified.

That's what you get with MPs who don't have the technical competence making decisions on technical matters.

Whilst it’s unusual for me to be defending the government against allegations of farcical legislation I think anyone who commissions a nuclear power station will have enough design review to catch any errors from incompetent engineers, the same can’t be said of householders who generally go with the cheapest quote with little if any assessment of technical competence.