Too Modest

As I have mentioned before, I have received two shocks in my life I would class as 'near fatal'.

One disconnected by prompt action of a friend, the other by an RCD.

The first at school, from a flex with a live plug (instead of the more conventional live socket ! ) that was part of the theatre lighting lit. For the several seconds before I was disconnected by the prompt thinking of a school friend with me at the time, I was unable to breath, and apparently I was making a strange growling noise. Afterwards I was shaking for a good half hour, and missed the afternoon's lessons. The burns to the palms of my hands from the entry and exit of the current (the other hand was holding a well earthed fitting at the time to complete the circuit) took ~ 2 weeks to heal. This circuit had no RCD.


The second was when re-locating the wiring to an immersion heater that ran through the loft of a friends house. - The wiring ran through the loft, and knowing the whole house was RCD wired I carefully cut through the 2.5 mm T & E strand by strand to avoid an earth-neutral trip.

I was happy in the illusion that I had isolated the correct circuit at the board.

Only this was the wrong wire - a socket drop from the main ring ran in nearly the same place as the immersion heater, and in the dimness of the loft I had not realised. Once again good contact, this time with tools to sweaty hands, the no-let-go grip, and the same pain and shakes, but only for long enough to think

"Oh *&%%$ I've had it this time",

and then at about that point the RCD cut the current off.

Still the shakes and dizzy feeling, but no burns, and I needed no help to get myself down from the loft after a minute or two of deep breathing.

I was able to go back and re-connect the mis-cut cable, and solve the original problem, later in the same day.It is possible some of the shock was live-neutral, rather than all live-earth but clearly there was still enough to fire the trip - fortunately the place had a simple TT feed, all tripped at 30mA.


Yes a 30mA RCD can save you from more serious injury, and no, if the shock is hand to hand, the sensation is very far from painless, but it is at least as good as a friend sprinting across the stage and pulling a big switch for you, and that fact it is probably faster reduces the burns !

I'd recommend them

regards Mike .

As I have mentioned before, I have received two shocks in my life I would class as 'near fatal'.

One disconnected by prompt action of a friend, the other by an RCD.

The first at school, from a flex with a live plug (instead of the more conventional live socket ! ) that was part of the theatre lighting lit. For the several seconds before I was disconnected by the prompt thinking of a school friend with me at the time, I was unable to breath, and apparently I was making a strange growling noise. Afterwards I was shaking for a good half hour, and missed the afternoon's lessons. The burns to the palms of my hands from the entry and exit of the current (the other hand was holding a well earthed fitting at the time to complete the circuit) took ~ 2 weeks to heal. This circuit had no RCD.


The second was when re-locating the wiring to an immersion heater that ran through the loft of a friends house. - The wiring ran through the loft, and knowing the whole house was RCD wired I carefully cut through the 2.5 mm T & E strand by strand to avoid an earth-neutral trip.

I was happy in the illusion that I had isolated the correct circuit at the board.

Only this was the wrong wire - a socket drop from the main ring ran in nearly the same place as the immersion heater, and in the dimness of the loft I had not realised. Once again good contact, this time with tools to sweaty hands, the no-let-go grip, and the same pain and shakes, but only for long enough to think

"Oh *&%%$ I've had it this time",

and then at about that point the RCD cut the current off.

Still the shakes and dizzy feeling, but no burns, and I needed no help to get myself down from the loft after a minute or two of deep breathing.

I was able to go back and re-connect the mis-cut cable, and solve the original problem, later in the same day.It is possible some of the shock was live-neutral, rather than all live-earth but clearly there was still enough to fire the trip - fortunately the place had a simple TT feed, all tripped at 30mA.


Yes a 30mA RCD can save you from more serious injury, and no, if the shock is hand to hand, the sensation is very far from painless, but it is at least as good as a friend sprinting across the stage and pulling a big switch for you, and that fact it is probably faster reduces the burns !

I'd recommend them

regards Mike .