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

zax47

needaspirin wrote: »

I was watching the electrician who came to install our new meter. He disconnected the cables with his screwdriver and pulled them out of the old meter.

I said, “As a matter of interest have you got that isolated elsewhere?”

He jumped and quickly pulled out the 500amp fuse.

He said, “It’s been a long day.”

I said, “And it could have ended right here for you.”

Maximum domestic single-phase supply fuse would be 100A, not 500A (more usually 60A or 80A unlesss 100A is needed). Either way - you don't want anything that big as the only thing between you and frying, you will melt before it does!

27col

Steel. The fact that the previous occupant of your house completely cocked up the electrics did not absolve you from ensuring that they were safe to use. You seem to have been aware at least, of some of the shortcomings and apparently did not get them tested or any potential faults made good before use. If I was in a house where the wiring was suspect. As a retired electrician I think that I might have at least made sure that all the connections I could find were good connections. If I felt that I was not competent to do this I would have bitten the bullet and paid someone else to do it.

The OP stated that he got a shock even though the power was off. As this is physically impossible, it follows that the power was obviously not off. He only thought that it was off. It would have been easy to prove that the power was off if he had the knowledge. If ever I switch the power off to a circuit I never believe it until I have double checked.
When I was an apprentice in a power station the foreman (who was god) said to me. "Even if I tell you the power is off, you do not believe me. You check for yourself that it is indeed off. If you do not, you are the one that will die, not me." He also made the point that you also made sure that the power could not be switched on again without your knowledge. This is achieved nowadays by lockable switches etc. This knowledge carried through my working life in safety.

needaspirin

zax47 wrote: »

Maximum domestic single-phase supply fuse would be 100A, not 500A (more usually 60A or 80A unlesss 100A is needed). Either way - you don't want anything that big as the only thing between you and frying, you will melt before it does!

Just checked. It actually says 80A on the cover. I would never touch that fuse anyway as it belongs to the supplier. I had it in mind it was 500A as I had looked at one years ago that must have been 100A and wrongly recollected the memory.

Anyway the story is factual as I could see that the electrician had forgotten to remove the (80A) fuse and was working with a live supply.

I didn't want to have to end up trying to resuscitating him.

27col

I expect that all electricians have worked on a live supply at some time. As long as you know that it is live you can work safely, although very carefully. The people who maintain high tension power lines nearly always work on them when they are live. It would be impossible to maintain supplies unless they did.

gmgmgm

Seems to me this comes down to "know your limits". As 27col says, pros who work on high-voltage lines often have them live- but they know what they are doing.

Faceless "accounts" on a money-saving forum advising people on re-wiring clearly mis-connected mains cables terrifies me. Even if well-intended.

Most people on here should be capable of rewiring a plug. Some will be able to rewire a house. Everyone will be somewhere in this range- it's the people who don't know where they are on this scale who are dangerous.

Know your limits! (yes great clip on youtube)

Steel_2

27col wrote: »

Steel. The fact that the previous occupant of your house completely cocked up the electrics did not absolve you from ensuring that they were safe to use. You seem to have been aware at least, of some of the shortcomings and apparently did not get them tested or any potential faults made good before use. If I was in a house where the wiring was suspect. As a retired electrician I think that I might have at least made sure that all the connections I could find were good connections. If I felt that I was not competent to do this I would have bitten the bullet and paid someone else to do it.

Kindly refrain from being patronising when you talk to me on this forum.

I know of no-one who turns the key in the door of their new home and sends an electrician in first to test the system before switching on the lights. Quite clearly we're not as damn perfect as you on moving day.

I don't recall attempting to absolve myself from the responsibility of ensuring my house was safe. I simply stated the previous owner mucked up the electrics and gave examples as they beggered belief that he could have made such errors and lived under such unsafe circumstances.

You have mistakenly assumed I have not acted to correct this. An electrician was brought in quickly to rewire our problematic kitchen and upstairs lighting plus our subsequent new conservatory to ensure any problems have been rectified.

lancedougall

My garage has a separate circuit with two fuses - one for power and one for light. I turned off the light at this secondary fusebox, and started working. I got a shock! I then turned off switch on this fusebox, and started again. I got a shock. I was standing on a plastic step at the time. I cannot be sure, but I may have been touching the earth and one of the cables when I got the shock. If I touch positive or neutral separately, there is no shock. I assume that I was getting the shock via the earth cable. Why is this if the power is turned off?

zax47

Try asking in a new thread, instead of resurrecting a year-old one!

Always check for dead, before you are.