Earths can be dangerous

[Rod Speed]

And how builders tools are powered.

Still very unlikely to kill him.

[Rod Speed]

Nope, its done like that to in theory make them safer in those wet areas.

We have a clue and allow normal power points in the bathroom with some restrictions on where the power point can be so that say falling into the bath cant splash over the power point.

The system has been designed so that you don't get killed even when that does happen at times.

[Clare Snyder]

No, it is not. Builder's tools with no ground are "double insulated" = meaninf there are no conductive parts in contact with the operator that have any possibility of becoming "live"/ NO isolation transformers are involved.

Says you - who knows NOTHING about even something as simple as a "double insulated" tool

[trader_4]

+1

IDK what exactly "builder's tools" even means, but I've never seen a transformer isolated power tool, just double insulated. Plus today we use GFCI/RCD at building sites, outdoors, wet locations, etc.

+1

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Have you not seen the big yellow boxes they use? Those are transformers. You get 110V (as opposed to 240V in the UK that they're supplied with) out of them, isolated from the mains.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

They're yellow boxes, transformers that isolate all the equipment from the mains, so you don't have anything 240V away from ground.

[trader_4]

Must be a UK code thing because we don't use them here at building sites and Clare says not in Canada too. Funny, I thought you said there were no codes in the UK. We have double insulated tools, GFCI/RCD, and you need isolation transformers too? WTF?

[ARW]

You have not posted anything worth quoting

[ARW]

I wish he would try it.

[Clare Snyder]

+1 - or 2 - or even 240

[Cursitor Doom]

I'm not wasting more time on that oaf, but just wondering whether we should be moving on to a 'post-earth world' for other reasons. The original reasons for earthing appliances don't apply anything like so much any more, so maybe... maybe....there's an argument for saying the balance of risk has shifted to the extent that earthing should no longer be regarded as essential? And might even be positively dangerous? Not my field, so I can't form a worthwhile view on it. :-/

[trader_4]

What are you talking about here? What no longer applies?

so maybe... maybe....there's an argument for saying the

If it's not your field, then what's the previous comment based on?

[Cursitor Doom]

Of course. But are those reasons still as compelling as they were 60 or

70 years ago?

[Cursitor Doom]

Something to do with phone boxes, he said. I'd have thought a phone box (traditional type) would form a protective Faraday Cage for anyone inside anyway.

[trader_4]

Did Maxwell's equations change in the last 70 years?

[Rod Speed]

Cursitor Doom wrote

To some extent we have with double insulated appliances most obviously.

But there is still a problem with washing machines, dishwashers, electrical water heaters and ovens and stoves etc which arent really practical to do double insulated.

Yes, again, most obviously with double insulated devices.

See above.

Yes, that?s always been one argument for double insulated devices.

[trader_4]

Early power tools had metal cases, two prong receptacles and cords at the time did not have a grounding conductor, nor were plugs and receptacles polarized. So the power tool safety you're attributing to earthing in the early days didn't exist. You're both barking up the wrong tree.

[Clare Snyder]

Not a british style "phone box" - but the phone demarcation point - where the phone wire enters the house

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Moaning about somebody and not saying who they are is ridiculous.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

On building sites they're over the top here. In houses they don't care what you do, after all it's you're own home. Only if you rent a house out do you need to get it checked.