your first and worst electric shock!!!

[Guest112]

Hi I thought it would be interesting to hear about situations that have happenned to different people in the electrical industry and would be a wake up call for perhaps those who are inexperienced or have not had a shock.

My first was when i was a second year apprentice i managed to go two years without a belt and after isolating a main switch for a db supplying a chinese take away below a snooker hall had a belt off a lighting circuit which was fed from the snooker hall upstairs my fault as i assumed everything was dead as shouldve been but as they say NEVER ASSUME

the install was shocking cables were literally selotaped to the wall with connector blocks hanging everywhere, obviously since then ive had a few the worst being my fault while being an apprentice still was running an earth into alive db while forming a bend on the earth slipped and touched my middle finger on the busbar and burnt my hand slightly.

so whats your worst? and ALWAYS CARRY YOUR TESTERS WITH YOU MY T100s ARE MY BEST USED BIT OF KIT and touch wood i havent had a belt for years

(dont particularly want to bring up any negative stories regarding deaths caused from electric shock and if anyone has known anyone to have serious injury/death from electric shock my sympathy towards those and their friends and loved ones)

 

[Deleted member 26818]

My first was when I put my finger in a caravan hook up point. I was about 7 at the time.
My worst was with an old 3 phase board, put my hand across the exposed incoming terminals, got 415V across my hand, made my shoulder ache for about a week.

 

[simpson93]

hmm first shock was while i was working in a hospital about a year after working as a sparks,
i wouldnt say any of the shocks ive had are perticularly bad would it be wierd to say i liked em a little?

 

[Guest112]

i know what you mean,i know a proper old school spark just about to retire now and during a toolbox talk on electrical safety he was telling my old boss and the boys that to check if a busbar in a panel is live hed lightly stroke it to see if it was live or not he reckons its because hes got really dry skin on his hands, and myself can grab a megger at 1000v setting very briefly he can just straight hold it without flinching says he barely feels it ive seen him do it, i suppose we all have different tolerances i dont mind a belt wakes you up lol

 

[keefy]

It's the best cure for a hangover I would say! Many a time working whilst not being quite with it, got a belt by being dumb, felt a million dollars for the rest of the day.

My first and worst was up a ladder working on a pub sign light, the type with a small section of steel conduit going out to the lights. Hot sunny day, climbed the ladder, grabbed the conduit for stability (where was the scaffold you may ask) and got a big belt. It turns out the earth to the pole was damaged down below and the box screw had gone through the live cable.

I have also had a shock from 2000volt neon transformer. Not much fun as it kind of stung rather than giving that muscular pain you normally get.

Whilst I'm waffling on I may as well tell you all about the 'best' shock I ever had. Working on a building site in the winter, fixing some temporary lighting, 240, not 110! Finished the the job, got the lamp and plugged it in. It came on straight away. Apparently I was working on a live cable all the time but because it was so effing cold, and it was only a small supply and I have a really high skin resistance too I didn't feel it. I would not endorse this kind of working, and I still question myself as to whether it was live at the time, but everything pointed to the fact it was.

But hang on a minute, are we not told to NEVER work on live cables? So none of us could have ever had an electric shock...

 

[diditrain]

my first was when i was about 10 years old, trying to replace a lamp in a pendant on my landing in total darkness. My finger went straight into the lamp holder. Might be why i dont have much hair these days

 

[Mark_Burgess]

First was when I was a little child and remember either putting in or pulling out a plug and caught a finger on the uninsulated pins somehow.

Very recently when working in a 3 phase board my little finger brushed a cable into a back of an MCB lower down that was off, the cable into the MCB was stripped to long. The ISOLATED board I was working on had a circuit back feeding from another board to that MCB.

 

[alli]

When I was a kid, my mum gave me the old broken iron to dismantle. I pulled the back off, thought I'd fixed it and pluged it into the mains to see if it would heat up. I saw I had not but a cable back so put my fingers in and got a belt. I was sitting against the wall at the time and my head and back where thumping the wall as I got electrocuted. I finally let go and still can hear the cries from my mum, ...............WILL YOU STOP MAKING ALL THAT DAMN NOISE UP THERE!!!

 

[millwall ken]

As a mate, I tried lifting a floor socket; stuck my mitts underneath and got a belt like you wouldn't believe. You could smell the roast pork...

 

[i=p/u]

My first was an electric fence getting chased by a farmer(was young yob) and never had one since. But i did work for a family firm recently and there son was bossy and young but i held me tounge like the supervisor told me we were searching for psu for camera in a hotel when we found it he was using my voltage tester to test fused spur and psu anyway he was shouting to me turn off and turn on and i was like rolling my eyes and doing what he said, he must of thought off and touched and dived off ladder and by ---- was he awake then.. Quite funny but scary too

 

[Richard Burns]

Messing around at the back of a tumble dryer at uni trying to get a thermostat further from the source of heat and put my thumb across the supply terminals, stood there for a few minutes shaking away, with no space to move, eventually managed to think enough to lift my thumb off and had to sit down for about twenty minutes to recover a bit, heart going like mad. Still got the current in and out scars on my thumb 25 years later.

 

[Jonesy83]

my worst was probably off a capacitor on a motor was standing on step ladders at the time after the belt i was sitting on the floor with a broken arm

 

[telectrix]

my worst electric shock was the last leccy bill !!!

 

[DurhamSparky]

First Shock was working on a pump bowl...i was reconnecting the mechanical side of the priming system and the monkey spark re-fused the motor which was still sat on the deck plates with cables flapping in the wind.! any way long story short i managed to touch 2 phases and with me stood in water surrounded and touching metal deck plates and supports it did not take long to achieve the capacity to blow the 63A fuses..!

that hurt!!

 

[TNS]

All my own fault, working on a Reyrolle 11KV protection panel. I sat on top of the gear and passed the new loom I was putting in down from the back top panel to the front lower cubical where my mate would pull the loom through. It kept getting caught up so I pushed my hand and arm down into gap between the two bits. My arm went across 110V! I squealed, my mate laughed (b”*stard!). I ripped a 2” lump of flesh out of my forearm.

The reason it was my fault, guess who’d put the 110V inter-tripping in less than a month before! I’d pulled all the fuses for all the 130V & 30V DC control and totally forgot about the 110V AC!

 

[trev]

When I was serving my time and just starting to get to connect things up we got a little job to change some lights in a bungalow. So my gaffer isolated the circuit and told me to start stripping the old fittings, up the ladder goes me loosens the ceiling rose at this point he screamed BANG! After recovering from the ftight he gave me I understood his point.
Safe isolation is the only way.

 

[silva.foxx]

It's the best cure for a hangover I would say!

I'll second that. My first was on 'the morning after'. I'd run in a new supply for some fridge kit and left it til the Saturday morning to complete at the Merlin Gerin board. One of the MG boards that you fit the 6mm wires into the spring-clamp distribution rail. Using an uninsulated driver I left it in the hole ready to lever across on inserting the wire... touched the shaft and you can guess the rest.

A recent one I got was on a neutral in a control panel. Hadn't realised there was an unswitched live feeding the lights that were still on in said panel. Thick or what?

It always serves as a great reminder to respect the phenomenon!

Be safe.

 

[vernam616]

Rather oddly my worst was from a car HT lead, had a issue with car low on power so started pulling HT leads to check for spark, one of the leads hit the manifold managed to flick over and catch my hand, thousands of volts not nice


As a electrician i can count around two shocks i had, first was a celing grid being live! Went to lift a tile and got zapped, i always always double check and work dead wherever possi ble

 

[sim22]

Got thrown down a flight of stairs after putting my hand in the back of a machine at work " sorry switched the wrong plug on" said the customer as I staggered back up picking up the tools that followed me :33: had a few more but none so memorable

 

[Dcf]

in my 2nd year i got sent with the old jobbing spark to faulty lighting circuit wired in mi. he had the notion to put a bulb and holder across the fuse terminals so when the intermittent fault came on it would light up that bit brighter, to help pinpoint the fault. i got sent to take a brass lamp holder down n got the biggest belt I've ever had had one hand on the live wire and cut my belly with the terminal driver i had in the other, only stopped when i fell off the steps.the old git only came through to see what was taking me so long! i do like a bit of isolation these days.

 

[RogertheBodger]

First one – self inflicted, new apprentice, third or fourth time at day release college, simple lighting circuit using real live electricity, (the thrill) well you just have to know don’t you, brushed the live with the tip of my finger and ouch, Jesus!
Ok well, that’s that out of the way, don’t need to learn any more on that subject……….

Most SERIOUS, twenty story office building, disused, sheet metal air duct coming down from the roof, straight into the basement, ran along the floor into the air handling equipment, this duct was approx 3 metres square, where it went from vertical to horizontal was a huge 90 degree bend, like you would see on small trunking, with a curved back.

Working inside this, running large conduit for a ups system, someone had cut a hole three quarters of the way up the radius to allow entry and to pass tools/materials in and out etc.

To talk to the guy outside, we had to take a run up the curve, (picture a Hamster on an exercise wheel) grab the lower lip of the hole, and hang there while getting your message across, few more clips, tools, another length of conduit, whatever.

So I’m in, gets up to the hole, nobody there, stick my head through the hole to see what’s happening, felt something brush my cheek and that’s when the fun started.

Turns out later that what had touched my cheek was a hanging festoon lighting cable, and you know how they all had the odd broken lamp? No glass but the filament is still live? It swung away from me and when it swung back it went straight in my ear (feel free to laugh from this point on)

Well, my arms and legs shot out and I was shaking my head trying to get this thing out of my ear, all my body and arms inside the duct, my head outside, the worst part was, my chin was caught on the lip of the duct and I couldn’t get it off.

So I’m hanging there, arms and legs thrashing about for all they were worth, trying to get some purchase on this smooth metal so I could unhook myself, couldn’t do it, panicking, must have passed out, because I woke up on the floor of the duct some time later with a good sized gouge out of my chin, how did I release myself ? Don’t know – never will, but lucky, lucky me.

It was 110V. Good job, or I probably wouldn’t be here now, and it came from nothing, so BE CAREFUL !

 

[dingledong]

my best shock was a light fitting in a gardem it went right across me . i got up and was f,ing and blinding when a sweet voice said "shall i leave your tea here then " ooops but i dont know why but my nose really really hurt but it hadn't touched anything

 

[ExArmy]

first was when i was reall little, peed on an electric fence, and i swore blind for ages either my dad or my brother had snook up and whacked me on the shoulder, i didn't belive it was the fence because i couldn't understand it.

worst was when i was in afghanistan, sorting out lighting in a tent. was having to move a few lights so i had to unclip and move the cable aroud the tent and i grabbed hold af a bit of the cable that had been rubbed through to bare copper (tent canvas, wind, rubbing on metal pole etc..) and after what felt like an eternity of getting zapped I flew backwards across the tent and landed on my mates bed which he was tucked up in as he had been on nightshift.
whole compound was without power for about 2 hours untill I found the key to the DB (it was held by the germans and the language barrier got the best of us) and I was not the most popular person cos all the night shift woke up covered in sweat as it was the middle of the day and without air conditioning the inside of the tents quickly reach 50 degrees!

 

[DurhamSparky]

thats a dirty trick...!! what camp was that ... bastion!

 

[Mr.Ian]

I was climbing a ladder to run a steam pipe at ceiling height, around the edge of the room was the remains of an old dropped ceiling and it was about a foot deep basic framework all around the room. Just to steady myself while getting near the top of the METAL ladder I put my hand onto the wooden framework and managed to find one of those 'U' shaped cable clips that nail into place. Not a bit problem but this flippin thing over the years had cut through the insulation and was live, yes I was stuck actualy STUCK at the top of a ladder one hand on the live gripping and the other on the ladder gripping and couldn't let go. Nothing happened to the supply it just kept on and I was getting a bit worried. I trid pulling my hand off of the cable but couldn't as my hand was gripping the framework, also neither could I release the ladder. I eventually tipped the ladder so I could fall from it to the concrete floor and get myself off of the cable. Both hands burn't and blistered / twisted ankle / heart rate through the roof and shaking. Hence my vast respect for electricity now.

 

[asqs342]

only qualified friday and first job today and took a zap. Owwwww. anyway still not sorted CU change from old Wylex. Wiring is like a mad womans shxx to say the least. split installed with rcd protection each side. energise one and the other pops. ant hekp would be great.

 

[Mr.Ian]

First shock was many many years ago with the old round 2 pin plug on my 70s scalextric, lying on the floor under the couch to get it plugged in (as you do when young) finger across both pins as I plugged it in !!!!!!!!!! no insulated plug pins in them days.

 

[Richard Burns]

only qualified friday and first job today and took a zap. Owwwww. anyway still not sorted CU change from old Wylex. Wiring is like a mad womans shxx to say the least. split installed with rcd protection each side. energise one and the other pops. ant hekp would be great.

Neutral bars still have copper link between them, remove link.

 

[whitespark]

i was bout 8, i put a pair of Scissors in the fuse board

 

[DNS1]

For me it was when I was reversing a 2 gang light switch... barefooted... on a carpet that I'd just run a carpet washer over... Oops!