Earths can be dangerous

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Fuck off and die Hucker. ASAP.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Back on the dole Hucker. It's where you belong. A lot of bad things are coming your way. You have had your chance and as always you f***ed up.

[FMurtz]

You seem to have a severe lack of electrical knowledge.

[whisky-dave]

simple reason, to get a shock you have to touch live AND earth. No earthed stuff all over the place, no chance of a shock. I don't really care for m yself as 240 volts can't kill a healthy human, but I have pets that chew wi res. If one chews an appliance cord while sat on the microwave, it will ge t 240 volts through it's whole body, including it's heart. Remove the eart h and the danger is gone.

I think I'd need proof of this via a controlled test preferably filmed, sit on the microwave and bite through the cable with and without an earth, see which one you survive through or list the damage in each case.

[pamela]

Yes, he posted his certificate once.

Peter Hucker used to work at Kleeneze?

[Unquestionably Confused]

Someday Darwin will educate him. No worries.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

It's you that hasn't given your reasoning. I explained very clearly to you that you need to CREATE A CIRCUIT. Touching live on it's own is NOT deadly. Removing sources of earth and/or neutral reduces the chance of a circuit being created.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

I see you have nothing to add either. Go on then, explain to me why earth saves electrocutions. Explain to me why you think you can get a shock without a completed circuit.

[None]

I installed a giant whole-house isolation transformer.  No grounds now so I'm bulletproof.

[Johnny B Good]

You do realise you're being overly optimistic. It's quite obvious that he doesn't practice what he preaches. He trolls several news groups but here, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Success trolling here can't be providing him quite the same 'sense of achievement' as elsewhere but I guess he bothers this group as his 'go to' source of lightweight amusement. You take your entertainment from wherever you can get it. :-)

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

This could easily be done by the electric company. They save a bit of cash by providing a neutral that's the same as earth. If they fed your house with live and neutral, and didn't ground one of them at the substation, nobody would ever die of electrocution, every house would be operating the same way as a building site does with those isolating transformers. In fact I don't think they're even saving money. In my case I have an armoured wire coming into the house from the substation. It consists of a live conductor inside a red plastic shield, and around that is armour plating which is neutral/earth, then a plastic sleeve round that. They could easily unground the armour conductor then I couldn't get a shock from live to the actual ground when using a mower for example. However, do some appliances need a ground for their operation? Would for example a desktop computer work ok if the chassis wasn't grounded? Does it need that to provide shielding form outside interference? Or would it be happy just to have the casing connected (as it already is) to the 0V line of the PSU output? Surely that would still provide the Faraday cage to keep the interference out?

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

What evidence do you have for this? I can show you a photograph of the unearthed equipment if you don't believe me.

No, you just think I do. I have no reason and nothing to benefit from trolling, and can't see the point of anyone doing so. Everything I write is a truthful event or my opinion on a subject. If you disagree with it, I'm happy to accept explanations as to why I might be wrong. But just saying "you're wrong" doesn't achieve anything.

[whisky-dave]

So how do you remove what is under your feet ? You do know where earth is connected to and why it;s clled what it is. Actually probbaly not, maybe yuo;d be better off gradding hold of one of those overhead cable you see in fields that birds can sit on without being electrocuted why don't you try the same ?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Can just see your cat. Straight out of its shit box and walking all over your work surfaces to get to that appliance.

Is that how you got your brain disease?

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Actually cats don't chew cords. It's the parrots I'm trying to protect.

So, when you cuddle your cat, you magically don't get disease? Do you eat and prepare your food on the top of the microwave or on a plate? Think before you type.

[whisky-dave]

I thought bird, parrots included could sit on high voltage cable without getting elecocuted .

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

+1

[Cursitor Doom]

Try removing the live as well, just to be *totally* safe. ;-)

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

I do try to hide wires as much as possible, but they're clever and can find things I haven't thought of. The less lives and earths available the better. As long as they never find one of each far enough apart to go through their whole body, no deaths.

[Cursitor Doom]

I'm not sure he was trolling. It *is* actually a valid point, although he seems to have gone about explaining it in a bit of a daft way. There are times when it is essential from the safety point of view to remove the Earth reference. When I'm troubleshooting big switching power supplies, I *always* remove the Earth reference by means of an isolation transformer. But you have to know what you're doing, and removing the Earth from domestic appliances is not something a non-electrician should

*ever* even contemplate.