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| Just zapped myself (electrical wiring help) |
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| Vocalitus:
I still test batteries with my tongue. |
| bobbyb13:
Getting hit with a loaded neutral sucks (hurts worse than getting shocked by a regular ungrounded/powered conductor)- and it means something is wrong in the way that circuit is wired. I would look in the wall switch box that operates that thing for the issue myself. There is power trying to return through that grounded conductor (white/neutral/return/whatever else anyone wants to call it) through something else that is currently (pardon the pun!) asking for power. Fans have a black and a blue in case you would like to run the fan and light separately from the wall switch location (both of those are ungrounded conductors.) Da Old Man is absolutely correct. Kill the power before you work on a circuit- and verify there is no EMF in the box you are working in before you stick your fingers (or tools) in it. If there is still power in that ceiling box after you shut off THAT breaker than you need to turn ON all other switches in the switch bank in question and keep turning off breakers until everything there is completely dead. If you see a red wire in that switch box than reply to this with a picture of what you find if you are still having problems. If you are lucky it is probably made up wrong in the switch box. Bobby |
| Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: pbj on August 22, 2020, 09:53:52 pm ---I’ve been shocked so many times I could probably identify the voltages without a voltmeter. --- End quote --- Si... Si... Six............Si Sixty Si Si..... Sixty Six times.... in the head!!! |
| Titchgamer:
--- Quote from: jennifer on August 22, 2020, 07:12:25 pm ---The wasting wire, would be the running 2 complete sets as opposed to just hooking them together, But I get what you are saying, always been curious about the differences...Well Mimic, it could have been worse, aparently if you lived in England, that ZAP would have been 220, not 110, That much voltage may have blown you off the ladder too...Sorry for laughing at your misfortune friend.😁 --- End quote --- Do you mean separate wires going from/to the same location? If so most of our domestic wiring is done in twin and earth cable where the Live, Neutral and earth conductor are contained within a single cable. Its actually a flat cable with no insulation on the earth wire (we stick that on during installation). We also use 3 core and earth for lighting circuits which is the same thing but with 3 insulated wires instead of 2 :p As for the Voltage difference we have a very different safety system to you guys. I could be wrong here so please correct if I am but I believe your supply is centre tapped so you have 110v over 2 phases is that correct? 55v phase to earth/ground whatever you call it? Anyways our supply is as mentioned 240b live to neutral but we rely on very high currents to operate our breakers in a timely manner to prevent injury or damage to stuff. For instance a direct short over here could produce several thousand amps but has to operate the protection device in less than half a second. We also have RCD’s etc which detect current differences going down the lines which are for protecting people as opposed to the circuits but I assume you guys use them to? |
| DaOld Man:
Thanks for the info on European wiring titchgamer! Believe it or not, I have worked on some machines made in Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Though most use our standard of wiring I guess to accommodate us, I have worked on some using the 220 volt layout like you describe. Our system in US normally has 3 wires coming into a home from the electric pole or transformer. (Im not talking 3 phase). Factories use 3 phase, whereas there are three hot wires and a ground (or earth). Anyway, back to home usage, we have two "hots" and one "neutral" coming into the house. One hot wire is 120 volts to neutral, Other hot wire is 120 volts to neutral, and we get 240 volts between the two hot wires. Our neutral is tied to ground by either attaching it to a metal water pipe (not as common as years back), or a ground rod, 8 feet long and driven into the earth. So hence, hot to ground neutral to ground. Our appliances are mostly 120 volts, some are 240. we run a hot, neutral, and a ground to each 120 V appliance or outlet. The hot and neutral carry the current. The ground does not unless there is a fault. Ground is connected to metal frame of the appliance. Why do we do this? When a loose connection in a current carrying wire occurs, the loose connection will get hot. The connection will eventually open, and if you are using the neutral for the ground, then you are now making the frame of the appliance hot. The ground doesnt normally carry current, so you dont have that worry. We run two hots and a ground to 240 volt appliances. Again ground does not normally carry current. If the appliance uses both 240 and 120, we must run 2 hots, a neutral, and a ground. (Clothes dryer, which in latter years we were allowed to use the ground for a neutral, so my dryer outlet has only 3 prongs.) And our normal colors to identify neutral are white, and ground is green or bare. I think your color for neutral (or common) is blue, and ground is green or yellow with green stripe. Anyway, sorry for the rambling. And as far as 220 being more dangerous than 120, some electricians will argue that the 220 will knock you away faster. Ive been shocked by both and cant tell any difference LOL Jennifer, if you have a tool that is shocking you will you touch it, make sure the ground prong is not cut off on the plug and that the outlet is grounded. All else fails, attach a wire to the metal or case and run it to a know grounded thing such as a metal water pipe that runs a good distance in the ground. Here is a diagram of how our homes use 120/240 from the electric company's transformer, usually on a pole. The neutral is attached to a ground rod at the pole, then again at the entrance into the home. |
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