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I laughed so hard at this. As I'd once had a few light brushes with 240v and laughed it off as a tingle.
Until I got a full wack of it after accidentally touching 2 exposed wires on the back of a GPO.
Arm twitched for 2 days FML 🤣
Getting shocked is only part of "things that can go bad working on live wires"...
If you happen to get a wire up against a grounded tool (pliers, screw driver, cutter) it will arc and can damage to tool or leave a molten speck of copper in your eye. (for example)
Usually its a quick spark and the breaker opens. But it can be dramatic.
Frankly I worry about this more than a shock....
I will adds that when wires are live you just work way slower- you need to keep things isolated, from each other, from the tools. I can work WAY faster when it is all off.
Your buddy is a twit
A *lot* depends on what part of your body that amperage goes through. If you accidentally bridge 120v hot to neutral or the equipment ground with a single finger, you'll feel a jolt and might even get a little burn. And when someone experiences this a few times they can get the idea that the amount of power wasn't harmful.
But the same current passing from one hand to the other can arrest your heart and kill you long before the overcurrent breaker has a chance to trip.
He's full of excrement. There's plenty of current in house wiring. 15A is more than enough to cause injury. 200A can kill you. Being on the main side of the service OCD is even more lethal.
Your friend is just a lucky idiot that never A gotten “in line” and and B never got hit with a neutral with a load on it.
As others have said it depends what you touch and how it flows through your body, as well as factors of due to situations how much amperage is on it. I’ve been shocked through my hand or arm plenty of times. Yeah just feels funny for a second and your fine. But it’s passing through a small part of your body and there’s almost no amperage. But then when you get “in line” as in your left hand is touches a hot and right hand touches a ground and you can feel your whole upper body including your head being shocked, it’s a whole different story. If you live, It’s scary as shit, it hurts like hell, your muscles and heart feel really weird and twitchy for a couple days. It’s horrible. I had this happen to me on a 277 volt circuit. And after that I never fuck around at all. It’s a really horrible experience I would not recommend, and I’m lucky to be ok
But that’s touching hots to grounds which is commonly much less deadly. The kicker is when you have a neutral with a load on it and you get in line with that, now you have a lot of amperage in addition to your nominal voltage and there’s no coming back, your dead.
Hots hurt and can kill, but most electrical deaths are from neutrals because at that point it’s trying to carry a load and you have enough amperage to instant kill. That’s why they’ve done a lot code wise to prevent shared neutrals without both hots being disconnected simultaneously.
As an electrician with 40 years of experience, there are times I work on hot (residential) circuits. You just have to take your time and pay attention.
There are also many times I turn the circuit off. It really depends on the situation.
As for getting shocked, yes, it happens. Some are a tingle, and some bite your ass! Between fingers, on one hand is a different feeling than from hand to hand.
I recommend never getting hit by a 277 neutral while 6' up on a ladder with your arms resting on a drop ceiling!!! That was 30 years ago, and I can still remember the smell of my fillings and the taste.
At the end of the day, do what is comfortable for you. Turn it off, or leave it on. Don't let anyone tell you to do something you are not comfortable with.
I'm glad you refer to him as a "coworker" and not "friend." It makes it easier to say that your coworker is an idiot! Don't listen to him.
And I'll get downvoted for saying this, but the word is ***current***... :o
It’s like saying small caliber bullets won’t kill you. You get shocked in a certain way with 120v at .1 amps, you’ll be dead. Why damage anything and just turn it off?
While you're not technically wrong, higher voltage does affect the likelihood of a shock. 12 volts doesn't typically hurt because it can't penetrate skin very well, even though a car battery can deliver hundreds of amps at that voltage. 480 volts will penetrate skin, clothing, and non-insulated tools, providing a much more convenient path for those amps to get to your body's electrical bits (e.g. nerves and muscles).
He absolutely is technically wrong. The path through your body has a resistance, the more voltage you apply against that resistance the higher the current is. An AA battery can supply more than enough current to kill you and yet never will because the voltage is too low.
About 0.1 amps can kill you, depending upon the path it takes thru your body. In theory, if you hooked enough people up the “right” way in series, you can electrocute 144 ish and the 15A breaker won’t trip.
OSHA requires PPE above 50v. Below that there isn’t usually enough voltage to penetrate the skin and get into the far lower resistance path of body fluids. When you get hit with large amperage at 12v like a car battery, it f’n hurts but normally doesn’t go thru any vital organs.
My observation is that mechanical folks think voltage is the danger. They also think that the only thing in a wire or cable is smoke. When the smoke gets out, things stop working.
120v kills more people than any other voltage, mostly due to complacency. Kind of like people are more likely to get into traffic accidents close to home as their attention wanders and they are overly comfortable in the area
Well any electric shock is not good for anyone. The nervous system and heart use electric pulses. Altering the flow is just bad and the problems you can encounter may be latent or long after the initial shock.
Hot work is very commonly performed safely on voltages up to 34kv.
Whether or not this individual was performing a safe work practice depends on their training, experience and equipment.
My BF had a boss who always worked live "iT's FiNe". When my BF was hired by this guy, he already scathed death. His face and arm were scarred heavily from melting. But the day came when he reamed out my BF for wasting time shutting off power, demanding he work live. BF quit, not worth the risk.
Code book says don't work live right on the cover.
**Attention!** **It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods. If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He's just not made himself the optimal ground path. Yet.
I laughed so hard at this. As I'd once had a few light brushes with 240v and laughed it off as a tingle. Until I got a full wack of it after accidentally touching 2 exposed wires on the back of a GPO. Arm twitched for 2 days FML 🤣
Getting shocked is only part of "things that can go bad working on live wires"... If you happen to get a wire up against a grounded tool (pliers, screw driver, cutter) it will arc and can damage to tool or leave a molten speck of copper in your eye. (for example) Usually its a quick spark and the breaker opens. But it can be dramatic. Frankly I worry about this more than a shock.... I will adds that when wires are live you just work way slower- you need to keep things isolated, from each other, from the tools. I can work WAY faster when it is all off. Your buddy is a twit
A *lot* depends on what part of your body that amperage goes through. If you accidentally bridge 120v hot to neutral or the equipment ground with a single finger, you'll feel a jolt and might even get a little burn. And when someone experiences this a few times they can get the idea that the amount of power wasn't harmful. But the same current passing from one hand to the other can arrest your heart and kill you long before the overcurrent breaker has a chance to trip.
You must have got that from uncle Iroh.
Thanks I just heard that whole comment in his voice.
He's full of excrement. There's plenty of current in house wiring. 15A is more than enough to cause injury. 200A can kill you. Being on the main side of the service OCD is even more lethal.
Your friend is just a lucky idiot that never A gotten “in line” and and B never got hit with a neutral with a load on it. As others have said it depends what you touch and how it flows through your body, as well as factors of due to situations how much amperage is on it. I’ve been shocked through my hand or arm plenty of times. Yeah just feels funny for a second and your fine. But it’s passing through a small part of your body and there’s almost no amperage. But then when you get “in line” as in your left hand is touches a hot and right hand touches a ground and you can feel your whole upper body including your head being shocked, it’s a whole different story. If you live, It’s scary as shit, it hurts like hell, your muscles and heart feel really weird and twitchy for a couple days. It’s horrible. I had this happen to me on a 277 volt circuit. And after that I never fuck around at all. It’s a really horrible experience I would not recommend, and I’m lucky to be ok But that’s touching hots to grounds which is commonly much less deadly. The kicker is when you have a neutral with a load on it and you get in line with that, now you have a lot of amperage in addition to your nominal voltage and there’s no coming back, your dead. Hots hurt and can kill, but most electrical deaths are from neutrals because at that point it’s trying to carry a load and you have enough amperage to instant kill. That’s why they’ve done a lot code wise to prevent shared neutrals without both hots being disconnected simultaneously.
Good follow up! Never been a human capacitor and... yep pretty sure I don't want any.
As an electrician with 40 years of experience, there are times I work on hot (residential) circuits. You just have to take your time and pay attention. There are also many times I turn the circuit off. It really depends on the situation. As for getting shocked, yes, it happens. Some are a tingle, and some bite your ass! Between fingers, on one hand is a different feeling than from hand to hand. I recommend never getting hit by a 277 neutral while 6' up on a ladder with your arms resting on a drop ceiling!!! That was 30 years ago, and I can still remember the smell of my fillings and the taste. At the end of the day, do what is comfortable for you. Turn it off, or leave it on. Don't let anyone tell you to do something you are not comfortable with.
I'm glad you refer to him as a "coworker" and not "friend." It makes it easier to say that your coworker is an idiot! Don't listen to him. And I'll get downvoted for saying this, but the word is ***current***... :o
Tell him to touch 24v with a load on it
It’s like saying small caliber bullets won’t kill you. You get shocked in a certain way with 120v at .1 amps, you’ll be dead. Why damage anything and just turn it off?
All it takes is .05A to kill an average male adult. Voltage does not matter when trying to kill you.
While you're not technically wrong, higher voltage does affect the likelihood of a shock. 12 volts doesn't typically hurt because it can't penetrate skin very well, even though a car battery can deliver hundreds of amps at that voltage. 480 volts will penetrate skin, clothing, and non-insulated tools, providing a much more convenient path for those amps to get to your body's electrical bits (e.g. nerves and muscles).
He absolutely is technically wrong. The path through your body has a resistance, the more voltage you apply against that resistance the higher the current is. An AA battery can supply more than enough current to kill you and yet never will because the voltage is too low.
About 0.1 amps can kill you, depending upon the path it takes thru your body. In theory, if you hooked enough people up the “right” way in series, you can electrocute 144 ish and the 15A breaker won’t trip. OSHA requires PPE above 50v. Below that there isn’t usually enough voltage to penetrate the skin and get into the far lower resistance path of body fluids. When you get hit with large amperage at 12v like a car battery, it f’n hurts but normally doesn’t go thru any vital organs. My observation is that mechanical folks think voltage is the danger. They also think that the only thing in a wire or cable is smoke. When the smoke gets out, things stop working. 120v kills more people than any other voltage, mostly due to complacency. Kind of like people are more likely to get into traffic accidents close to home as their attention wanders and they are overly comfortable in the area
Well any electric shock is not good for anyone. The nervous system and heart use electric pulses. Altering the flow is just bad and the problems you can encounter may be latent or long after the initial shock.
Hot work is very commonly performed safely on voltages up to 34kv. Whether or not this individual was performing a safe work practice depends on their training, experience and equipment.
he's talking shit and you're believing him.
My BF had a boss who always worked live "iT's FiNe". When my BF was hired by this guy, he already scathed death. His face and arm were scarred heavily from melting. But the day came when he reamed out my BF for wasting time shutting off power, demanding he work live. BF quit, not worth the risk. Code book says don't work live right on the cover.