[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Getting bit with 120 volt a/c (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 5/12/2017 12:07:47 AM EDT
| Does it hurt or just tingle? |
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Does it hurt or just tingle? Depends on how you touch it. Dry, calloused fingers, light touch, it's not much more than a tingle. Sweaty, thin skin, it's a little painful. If you were doing something stupid like sitting in a bathtub, shoving the cord in your mouth, it would be pretty bad. But for normal "I brushed a hot line" situations, the worst of getting hit by 120V is just the surprise of it. |
i used to assist an "old school" electrician back in the day. rolling hills electric, up in nj. ed kruckeburg used to test circuits inside the panel, by jumping the bus to the breaker, with his thumb and middle finger. he's tap his way up one side, down the other, and verify all the breakers worked. other than being socially inept he seemed to suffer no harm. 
i've been bit a couple of times. once touching a fridge, and the metal edge band of an old counter top. in one hand, through the chest out the other hand, it was startling, and did speed up the heart but it wasn't painful. 
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Got hit with 240 and it wasn't bad at all. Went in my right hand and out my left but my hands must have been very dry/resistive.
Got hit with 120 once when someone turned a breaker on that was feeding a light fixture I was taking apart. That one hurt pretty good. I was touching the ceiling grid with my elbow so it went in my hand and out my elbow. Took a good second to break free from the wire. After that I walked over to the panel and sure as shit there was our breaker lock laying on the floor. I don't know if it fell of or someone ripped it off. Moral of the story, the severity depends on a LOT more than just the voltage. Not that the voltage isn't a big factor. |
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I've gotten across 120VAC more than once, it's an attention getter but if you know it might happen you can get off it pretty quickly.
Worst I've ever got was the 1200V DC anode on an aviation transponder cavitron, the current was low but it still sent me back a few feet. |
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6.28x1018 electrons per second multiplied by the amount of amperes flowing through your body would hurt regardless of voltage... edit: I get what you're saying but technically you could be making the claim that 24v @ 1A would hurt. |
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According to my calculations it's 13.33 times greater than licking a 9 volt battery.
I've been hit with it a few times without load and one time I got in series with it with load. Yeah do t do that last one. Have been hit once with 7200. EH boots and dry leather gloves saved my ass along with the plastic dipped handles on my kleins . |
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i used to assist an "old school" electrician back in the day. rolling hills electric, up in nj. ed kruckeburg used to test circuits inside the panel, by jumping the bus to the breaker, with his thumb and middle finger. he's tap his way up one side, down the other, and verify all the breakers worked. other than being socially inept he seemed to suffer no harm.
i've been bit a couple of times. once touching a fridge, and the metal edge band of an old counter top. in one hand, through the chest out the other hand, it was startling, and did speed up the heart but it wasn't painful. 
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No it wouldn't. Without voltage there is nothing to push the current. The whole "it's not the volts that kills you, it's the amps" is a load of crap. Volts and amps are mathematically locked together. edit: I get what you're saying but technically you could be making the claim that 24v @ 1A would hurt. But it would be really hard for 24v potential to be able to push 1A through your body. You would probably have to laying in water to get anywhere near that high of current. When it comes to the danger of electrocution, it's all relative to the situation. My biggest concern is not to take any electricity across the chest, and avoiding any shock risk when wet. If you can avoid those 2 things, then 120v isn't really all that dangerous. |
| 120VAC almost killed me 20 years ago, got hung up on a lighting circuit and passed out. Passing out saved me as I fell off an 8' ladder and pulled loose. The last thing I remembered was I was going to die. Changed me fundamentally. You never hear me say 'I respect electricity; I don't fear it'. I have a healthy fear and it's kept me safe since. |
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It'll wake you up. In fact, that's how I used to wake up in high school. Nothing else worked.
Strong, pulsing tingle, not unlike banging your funny bone. This, I got popped by an extension cord a my parents house that someone put a nail through to hold it to a joist. I also acted as the ground circuit for a wiper motor in a 60's corvette, that was more painful I think. A buddy on my crew in the steel mill I worked at got banged by a 480 dc arc when he unplugged the big magnet from the overhead crane and it was still powered up. He had q-tip hands for a couple of weeks. |
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Depends on how you touch it. Dry, calloused fingers, light touch, it's not much more than a tingle. Sweaty, thin skin, it's a little painful. If you were doing something stupid like sitting in a bathtub, shoving the cord in your mouth, it would be pretty bad. But for normal "I brushed a hot line" situations, the worst of getting hit by 120V is just the surprise of it. Disconnecting a water line that some asshole used as a neutral for the greenhouse lights, while soaked, standing in a mud puddle on the other hand...... Probably would have died if the pipe hadn't been ripped out of my hand when I fell over. It made me latch on so hard to the pipe it torn the skin on my hand pulling it away. |
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Finger in light socket once as a kid. That was almost seemingly funny.
Then touched an open breaker box at a construction project for my parent's commercial property. Not sure if it was 120 or 240 at the box but entire panel was hot. Thank god it was a reached out with an E.T. phone home finger to touch rather than a full grab. I was in like the 3rd grade and felt like I jumped 5 feet. Then again another breaker box on our house that was tripping the mains any time the AC turned on. Had a bad short that had melted the insulation back on two leads. Didnt find that out until one of the times I went to try to reset the breaker and felt a very week jolt. Thankfully I was standing on a giant bed of dried leaves underneath of me. |
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j This, I got popped by an extension cord a my parents house that someone put a nail through to hold it to a joist. I also acted as the ground circuit for a wiper motor in a 60's corvette, that was more painful I think. A buddy on my crew in the steel mill I worked at got banged by a 480 dc arc when he unplugged the big magnet from the overhead crane and it was still powered up. He had q-tip hands for a couple of weeks. |
| I've been bit at least a 100 times. 120 mostly, but 230 a couple of times (that hurts.) 120 makes your bicep throb, but nothing to freak out about. Never wet though. Knew service tech that would swipe the back of his hand to check for voltage, but I never had the courage. Grow a pair. |
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I've been shocked so many times I can't even remember all of them.
The worst by far was on a drilling rig standing in water and some asshole had wired up a 220V pressure washer with a 110V switch that just killed one leg as a way to turn it on and off. I was leaning over a trailer and had my chest on the trailer rail and my feet in the water and my pliers on the hot side of that circuit. That hurt like a motherfucker and it was the day that I decided that unplugging stuff wasn't just a suggestion. Never ever trust that it is done correctly. Always make sure it is before you assume. |
| When I was in high school, the kitchen sink leaked and water ran into the basement and got a plastic space heater wet (the kind with a built-in fan). The heater wasn't turned on but it was plugged in and I didn't know that it was wet, so I grabbed it with my right hand to move it. My hand and arm up to the elbow instantly went numb and tingly. Fortunately, my reflex was to let go/throw the heater away from me. Scary moment when I realized what had just happened. |
| My question is when I hear someone got hit by 240 or 480...how? That is a phase to phase voltage correct? So more likely it was 120 single phase, 277 single phase? I just can't see hitting two phases at once, though anything is possible. Thanks and stay safe out there! |
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Depends on the AMPERAGE !! 120 volt AC @ 1 amp will do little to nothing. 120 volt AC @ 50 amps will probably hurt pretty good. Anything over 100mA (0.1 amp) is considered lethal. |
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My question is when I hear someone got hit by 240 or 480...how? That is a phase to phase voltage correct? So more likely it was 120 single phase, 277 single phase? I just can't see hitting two phases at once, though anything is possible. Thanks and stay safe out there! |
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That is what happens until it isn't what happens. I'll change a ligh fixture or switch if I can verify no power but that's about the extent of it. Any job I've worked at has professional electricians that take care of everything before I even start. A guy I went to school with was killed basically right out messing with a motor. I think in general a lot of safety stuff, LOTOs and what not is BS. But not when it comes to electricity. Not to be fucked with. |
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My question is when I hear someone got hit by 240 or 480...how? That is a phase to phase voltage correct? So more likely it was 120 single phase, 277 single phase? I just can't see hitting two phases at once, though anything is possible. Thanks and stay safe out there! BUT it is most likely to only get one leg for sure. 480V can be single phase. In fact I was diagnosing a unit with 6 480V single phase heating elements today. One of those was bad and it made a few people jump when I hit it with a load and the breakers blew. lol That unit is 90Amps of 460V 3 ph. Those are units I tend to be extra careful when messing around with them. Even just checking the voltages. |