I've been lucky, only had about 6 electric shocks and several tingles, no 3-phase belts, no HV close encounters in 50 odd years but not without several 3036 fuse wire/lead cable fast melt experiences. I think the saving grace is insulation to other phases/earth. As an Electrician you cannot 'insulate' yourself from contact with live electrical terminals/conductors and survive without insulation because you are invariably in 'contact' with it all the time.
This doesn't apply to non electrically competent persons who are more likely to put themselves into harms way without realizing or indeed understanding what has happened before its too late.
Instantaneous electric showers are more dangerous than most domestic heating appliances primarily because the insulation between you and the electricity supply is at a minimum when immersed in water with no clothes on.
We tend not to bath in water heated by electrodes, for obvious reasons, but there are cases where non-insulated heating elements are used to supply heated water. This is another potentially dangerous method of heating which is quite common in foreign countries, and I expect this was the rascal that caught our French chap..
So it appears our only protection when showering in an earth fault condition is a fast reacting RCD, unless you wearing your Hunter wellies and Marigold gloves,gaffer taped up, in the shower room or indeed the the bath tub !
I've been lucky, only had about 6 electric shocks and several tingles, no 3-phase belts, no HV close encounters in 50 odd years but not without several 3036 fuse wire/lead cable fast melt experiences. I think the saving grace is insulation to other phases/earth. As an Electrician you cannot 'insulate' yourself from contact with live electrical terminals/conductors and survive without insulation because you are invariably in 'contact' with it all the time.
This doesn't apply to non electrically competent persons who are more likely to put themselves into harms way without realizing or indeed understanding what has happened before its too late.
Instantaneous electric showers are more dangerous than most domestic heating appliances primarily because the insulation between you and the electricity supply is at a minimum when immersed in water with no clothes on.
We tend not to bath in water heated by electrodes, for obvious reasons, but there are cases where non-insulated heating elements are used to supply heated water. This is another potentially dangerous method of heating which is quite common in foreign countries, and I expect this was the rascal that caught our French chap..
So it appears our only protection when showering in an earth fault condition is a fast reacting RCD, unless you wearing your Hunter wellies and Marigold gloves,gaffer taped up, in the shower room or indeed the the bath tub !
