Re: wat have you been electicuted by ?
Unfortunately, this thread could be interpreted by some as saying that receiving an
electric shock is no big deal. That is not the case.
Electric shock can have many different effects dependent of the severity of the
shock. Electrocution being the most serious of these. To quote propmonkey from an old thread on
electric shock, "... shocked(electrocution is being killed by the way)...". None of you has ever been electrocuted. You are all still alive since you are able to post.
There have been several other threads on
electric shock in the past. Some of them are:
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1926
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2989
Is is the amperage flowing across the heart which is the primary factor in determining the likelihood of death. Some sources say as little as 30mA is fatal. I have in the past seen a chart that shows the effects of
electric shock at different currents. I however cannot remember where I saw that. What does have to be remembered is that for every 10000 volts of electricity, it will jump 1cm in dry air, further in air with a higher moisture content. So, it would follow that on a humid day, you would be more likely to sustain a
shock. Similarly, your skin's resistance is highest when dry, so if you are wet, your resistance decreases and so the likelihood of
shock also increases. So too does the likelihood of the
shock being a severe one.
We all need to be careful in how we treat electricity. There are protection devices such as RCDs / GFCIs that should help to reduce the risk of
electric shock. These have been discussed here:
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3201
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3257
We all need to be conscious that being shocked is not something that we should strive to achieve. Instead, let this thread serve as a means for posting how people have been shocked so that others may not make the same mistakes. I suspect that most shocks are preventable and so, ensure that you take all possible precautions to ensure that you do not get shocked.
Chris15 said:
There is a principle in electrical work that goes along the lines of assume that something is live until you have proven that it is dead. In this instance something like metering it and obtaining 0V or very close to it would be considered to be proving it dead.
As I have said in the thread on follow spot repairs
here, I do not want to be sending condolences because someone did not treat electricity with the respect it deserves.
In Australia, it is required by law in most states as part of occupational health and
safety requirements that all electrical equipment is tested by an electrician or other competent person and tagged to show that it passed the testing. Australian Standards prescribe the intervals at which this must occur. I believe that for things like theatres it is every 3 months, while for say office equipment that does not get moved it is only every 6 months. This is one strategy that can help to reduce the risk of
electric shock, but I have to say that it is a flawed
system, as I know of a
followspot at another school that was tagged as having passed testing and yet, the technicians there told me that prior to testing, it had almost given someone an
electric shock.
If we can all be observant of what is going on and remove if at all possible electrical hazards, we should not see high instances of
electric shock.
With the
safety warnings out of the way, I have not been shocked to date. I make a
point of ensuring that precautions are taken and if I don't feel competent, I get a licensed electrician to do it for me. I have however heard that one of our music teachers plugged an amp
in one day and got sparks from the back of it to a metal table
leg that was behind it.