- Reaction score
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@ Dylan. It sounds like you are lucky - if daft.
Assuming your shock was live-earth (to the metal part of your lampholder), then you also have no RCD protection in your lighting circuits - which wasn't a requirement till a few years ago. You might like to ask a friendly electrician to do something about that for you.
In the industry we typically take a worst-case resistance of the human body to be 1000 Ohms. This can vary wildly, and that is a figure we use for bathrooms, and assumes you would be a bit damp. The resistance figure can be considerably higher if you are completely dry. It probably would be similar arm-arm as arm-leg (You probably got arm-arm by the sound of it if you were holding the lampholder with both hands. )
If the shock went only through one hand, the resistance might have been less since you hand is small (hence more current), but since much of it not going through your trunk or head, makes it more survivable.
So at 240 Volts, the worst you are likely to have received would have been 240/1000 ~ quarter of an amp.
Since this could easily have killed you, and you aren't dead, I suspect you received a lot less than this since your skin was dry.
So now it's guesswork. You might only have received a tenth of this, or less. Perhaps 1/40th an amp or less? No real way to say.
Just don't repeat it with two wet hands, - and better to switch the power off.
And see this RCDs explained - http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/guides-and-advice/electrical-items/rcds-explained/
Assuming your shock was live-earth (to the metal part of your lampholder), then you also have no RCD protection in your lighting circuits - which wasn't a requirement till a few years ago. You might like to ask a friendly electrician to do something about that for you.
In the industry we typically take a worst-case resistance of the human body to be 1000 Ohms. This can vary wildly, and that is a figure we use for bathrooms, and assumes you would be a bit damp. The resistance figure can be considerably higher if you are completely dry. It probably would be similar arm-arm as arm-leg (You probably got arm-arm by the sound of it if you were holding the lampholder with both hands. )
If the shock went only through one hand, the resistance might have been less since you hand is small (hence more current), but since much of it not going through your trunk or head, makes it more survivable.
So at 240 Volts, the worst you are likely to have received would have been 240/1000 ~ quarter of an amp.
Since this could easily have killed you, and you aren't dead, I suspect you received a lot less than this since your skin was dry.
So now it's guesswork. You might only have received a tenth of this, or less. Perhaps 1/40th an amp or less? No real way to say.
Just don't repeat it with two wet hands, - and better to switch the power off.
And see this RCDs explained - http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/guides-and-advice/electrical-items/rcds-explained/
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