Hello sparks & all, what is the "worst" electrical belt you have had ?

Question

Hi All,

As an old hand at power engineering, I have had a few belts from the juice.

I observe all the regs, but like keeping a wild animal, it may just turn & bite you one day

Oh, household 240V doesn't bother me anymore, so I can tap

a finger on a live cable instead of a meter.

Whoops, perhaps that is not a wise thing to show an apprentice.

Across phases, 415V is a bit shocking, but still not a problem.

Perhaps I have built up a bit some "immuity" to current running through me ?

The worst one was fiddling on in an HT cabinet in the Mid-East, when I got 11kV between right shoulder & left knee.

Apparantly I flew out of the back, leant against a wall and said " That's working now"

I was no good for a day or so, but am here to tell the story.

I have yet to have a bigger belt, but I have heard of those that have, and survived.

Some say it is naturally down to some folks having a low conductivity, perhaps I am one.

Any notions ?

Bob

Answer 1

Only a complete and stupid assed idiot would brag about something like that.

RESPECT.

Answer 2

I heard some old twaddle in my time, ever one can put a finger on a phase cable as long as they do not make a return path to earth or to a different phase nothing will happen because the potential is zero.  If a finger on the other hand touches eart neutral or another phase then you will suffer a hand to hand shock which is the worse type you can have.

Nobody has immunity to current running through them unless they are dead, A hand to hand shock will kill you ignore what this fool is saying,  I have been thrown across the room by a 240 volt shock and sadly I saw a fitter on fire from a severe 660 volt DC shock which killed him.

And quite frankly I do not believe you, when you say you had a two part body contact on 11KV  you would have been killed

I suggest if you are an electrician or electrical engineer you treat working on the kit with more respect and awareness otherwise you will join the list of fatal accidents

Answer 3

As a child I lived in an area where we had DC mains. I received a DC Shock that threw me into the air and I landed on my head.

Later in life I noticed the spark gap on the Radar I was servicing activate. However instead of going from one silver plated copper ball to another attached to earth (They were a thumbs width apart) The spark from the EHT transformer headed toward me! As it was 25000 volts at least I literally took off. I was in the air when the spark reached me and several feet away when I landed outside the radar on desert sand. The spark had broken before I landed otherwise I may have been killed or seriously injured. I was hot and sweaty (Ambient temperature 125 Fahrenheit) The earth spike of the Radar was on investigation found to be grounded in dry silica sand. Not known for its conductivity. It was resolved by importing soil from Cyprus in which to embed the earth system.

Answer 4

Well only a 240 tale  ..   But  in the 60's in a shop selling TV  ,  radio etc   we had a little electric ring out the back to boil a kettle  or do something to eat,..  We boiled potatoes to go with a steak the butcher gave us  in exchange for the use of a TV...The water boiled over to the ring  .  As we stabbed the potatoes with a fork to see if they were done,  got 240   through the fork to hand.   happened a few times   .  Wow  hot potatoes

Answer 5

660 volts put me across an elevator motor room once. I didn't know much about it but it felt like someone had hit me really hard with two fingers right in the centre of my chest.

I was using a piece of wire to short out the switch gear, and I didn't realise that the one end of the wire had popped out of the contact and onto the cabinet that I was leaning on at the time.

The wire was welded to the cabinet.

Answer 6

Whatever the secondary voltage was off the high voltage transformer on an old TV I was working on, but of course, that's pretty low current. Probably over 20kV though. In terms of regular old electricity, 240 V is my max to date. I tend to be extra, extra careful around 480V, because that 240 left my mouth tasting kinda smoky for a day or so.

Answer 7

I got a 650 volt AC whack when I was working on the railways.

Different people do indeed have different body resistances.

Answer 8

Had quite a few 1000V+ but never bothered me...the worst was a simple floating voltage on a unearthed osccilloscope, as i reached behind the thing my eyeball very nearly touched( It was highup on a shelf) the BNC scope plug. at which point it arced to my eyeball...... most uncomfortable...

Answer 9

5KVat 2 Amps, off the anode side of PSU I was building for a microwave transmitter, uing 2C39 valves... OUCH!

Answer 10

There are people walking around who have been struck by lightening. 11kv is peanuts to that. No I'm not one of them I'm glad to say.

Answer 11

Really silly to brag about getting belts. The only reason anyone is still alive to brag about them is LUCK. If the shock is such as to cause the muscles to spasm such that you are forced to grasp the power connection, you WILL die. If you are lucky enough to be thrown away from the connection, give thanks and learn by your mistake.

Answer 12

You guys have me beat. Most I ever took was 350 volts DC from one arm to the other (ie, right thru the heart).

but then I was an instrumentation engineer.

Answer 13

Guys!

This kind of boasting about lucky escapes, here among

the amateurs is likely to get someone dead.

I'd like to point out that the ones who didn't survive

similar situations won't be answering.

Bob, posting that '240V.' bit without the caveat about

a ground path was indeed irresponsible at best.

Only 120V. once paralyzed my right arm for about

a minute. If the path had been different, I wouldn't

be responding.

"Shocks 'r' bad kids ...OK?"

Answer 14

When in the Army as a Radar Mech. I was to remove a large resistor from across the terminals of a Capacitor (condenser). The Radar set was shut down and power off.

The resistor however being damaged didn't allow the capacitor to discharge. It was carrying 6,000 V. As I took hold of it, it's the last I remembered for 5 or 6 minutes and was woken to find myself upside-down against the wall.

(Fortunately the current was minimal and otherwise a minor burn to my hand was suffered).