electric shock

geoffr · 2009-10-07T11:09:31+00:00

Just had a strong jolt when I turned on a double socket when at thesame time I was touching a tap in the kitchen. The tap is a combinedhot and cold one. I tried the adjacent socket and another doublesocket which is also close enough to the kitchen tap to touch both butthey were fine. I then tried the probem socket again and got the samejolt. If it's relevant I was wearing a "croc" type shoe.My electrical tester is broken so I had to rely on an electric screwdriver tester with a neon light. This lit up when in contact with thesocket switch, so assume its a fault with the socket switch.However, what concerns me is how can you protect yourself from this asthe jolt was fairly strong for an adult, it could be more serious fora child.Also, does it indicate a fault with the electrics in the house? Thekitchen is on a separate old fashioned consumer unit with wired fusesand no RCD protection, while the rest of the ground floor is wired viaa modern consumer unit with an RCD and MCBs. The electrics had beentested 2 or 3 years ago and as far as I am aware the metal work isproperly bonded.Any advice would be gratefully received.Geoff

Oct 07, 2009 84 Replies

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PeterC 16 years ago

Looks as if the metric measurements have been kludged to fit.

Thanks for the info.

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Andy Dingley 16 years ago

Don't forget that _inches_ have been metricated for years.

An inch is, by definition, 25.4mm. This is a round number to one dp, so really not that hard to work with, with accuracy, without even requiring 4-digit precision.

The losers, if anyone, seem to be the metric "common sizes", such as

19mm

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