Get tested for thyroid issues.
At least two out of two hypothyroid people in this house used to receive far more, and more unpleasant, static belts when under-medicated.
Never have found a decent explanation.
This sounds like a physiological effect, rather than anything to do with the source of the shock itself. Much of ones protection from shock is as a result of skin resistance, if you are having a response that in effect altering that, it may explain what is happening.
My guess would be that its changes taking place in the body in response to the initial shock which in turn makes the level of current passed increase. Needless to say this will tend to have a cascade effect.
Could it be that you have very dry skin? Most of our innards (to use a technical term) are rather wet more or less salt-solution so conduct electricity very well, so most of the insulation that we get is from our skin. Hence it is dangerous to work on live parts with wet hands.
My father, an electrician for some years, had even dryers skin than I have so he needs to use hand cream rather often, and usually only got mild shocks from touching 240v mains when his hands were dry.
I once used an AVO meter to measure the resistance of me and a few friends with one hand gripping each eletrode, and found resistances that varied over a couple of orders of magnitude. Clammy-handed people have to be very careful with live mains, obviously.
Interesting that you say it like that. Referring back to my thyroid issues response a few minutes ago, one of the hallmark symptoms is dry skin. Certainly I was often unable to survive without hand-cream immediately available. Now reasonably well treated, all the dry skin has gone.
Perhaps the poorer conduction of dry skin is what makes static discharges unpleasant - that is, if nice and wet, whatever you touch can discharge readily, whereas when very dry, the charge builds up and then sharply discharges?
It depends on where the current flows, there are no muscles in the hand to contract just nerves, the hand control muscles are in the forearm so if the current goes up the arm you will get sudden contractions and pain from that.
Interesting that the woman I knew said that she suffered from this too, although I think in her case it was spontaneous rather than delayed reaction to earlier sex. I remember her telling me how she had to keep a straight face and act normally when she and her husband were being shown round a new house by an estate agent and all of a sudden, with no warning, she experienced "my own personal ecstasy" :-)
What manner of wall socket is it even possible to stick your fingers in? What do you mean by "uncovered"?
Tim
I wonder if he means a socket that's been unscrewed from the wall so the screw terminals on the back are exposed. Even then, the screws and the ring of metal into which the wire is inserted are usually recessed by a couple of millimetres so a casual brushing past of the fingers doesn't usually make contact with them.
My worst shock was about 400 VAC from two terminals on a transformer inside a tape recorder: presumably the valves needed an HT that was greater than could be derived by rectifying 240 V mains, so a step-up transformer was included. That one really hurt: my arm tingled for a couple of days and I had a nasty bruise on my hand where I forced it away from the terminals and hit part of the chassis of the tape recorder. Never again.
Given that I had a heart attack and cardiac arrest a few years ago (nothing to do with electric shocks!) I'm always cautious about mains and try to work one-handed where I can, because a hand-to-hand across-the-chest shock nowadays probably wouldn't do me a lot of good.
That was her reaction to the thought of a better house.
My first serious shock was from a meccaono 12V electric motor running off my model train transformer
I had to wait a long time before I understood enough physics top know why I got a few hundred volts shock off a 12V supply
WE always used to get a tingle off the old greenhouse heater we had (no central hearing) (and no proper earth on it either).
Well you can get dehydrated and this increases skin resistance as far as I know. We used to, as kids play either electricity of course, back then health and safety were not even thought about. The old buzzer and transformer in the pocket and leaving charged capacitors around the workplace were normal back then.
Some females, shock horror said it was erotic. Well I'd not noticed myself but I guess it depends on the frame of mind and what brain chemicals are sloshing about at the time. On to heat though, apparently you can take more heat and cold if you swear a lot during the exposure. This is another way to generate those brain chemicals which do not need a member of the opposite sex. However strangeness abounds, I can well recall when Accidentally sat on some hot solder it felt like an itch for maybe 15 seconds before I felt the pain. By then of course it was too late and I got a blister in an unfortunate place. lets just say I did not feel like riding horses for a while. Brian
Yes indeed. However my original comment is about diabetes, as diabetic neuropathy can reduce the feelings in extremities like fingers and toes, so it pays to get it checked. However I'm told by my doctor that most of us do not drink enough water. Brian
Medicine's not really your strong suit, is it?
That's the only thing I can think of that would explain it.
MK (and some others) used to do rather nice surface 13A sockets with the contacts and gubbins mounted on the baseplate which screwed to the wall, and the shutter was on the inside of the front cover which fitted on to the base.
Owain
That sounds incredibly scientific and entirely plausible. I reckon you're wasting your skills clearing out blocked lavs. ;-)
I do. I do, I do, I do!
Yes, 339V I believe.
An interesting suggestion. I *do* suffer badly from static shocks far more than most people and have always wondered why that is.
Uncovered as in removed completely with the bare wires sticking out. Very sloppy on my part I must admit. But there's only me living here so it's not like I have kids to worry about.
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