electric shock - what injuries?

[BeaverDiva]

Is there any way of finding out the types or extremes of injuries received from a 240V electric shock - i.e. the best and worst case scenarios or any inbetween? Someone I know says they had such a shock, but their boss is saying they can't have because their injuries would be much worse if they'd received a 240v shock (the shock was from a lighting element in a fridge by the way). If someone can point me in the right direction of where to research this, i'd be very grateful.

Many thanks.

[vulcan]

This might be useful
http://www.emedicineh...ic%20Shock%20Overview

[woofgang]

as my DH always says, its not the volts that kill you its the amps...so what was the fuse on the fridge rated at?

[one-big-letdown]

As docspock said, it generally will only be fatal passing through your heart and/or brain.

It is useful to know that in electrocutions, it's the AMPS that kill you, not the VOLTS. So, a 240V Electric Shock using 1 AMP will generally be harmless, whereas a 240V Shock with 101 AMPs is probably going to do some damage.

Best advice? Don't go playing with electric! :)

All the best.

[woofgang]

snap OBLD

[4getmenot]

I electrocuted my lil sis once. We were at a friends looking at her horses they'd turned the electric fence off. My sis went up and was holding onto the fence watching the horses. I found the box.... I couldnt resist

[one-big-letdown]

Yeah, sorry about that lol. I would have been the second answer but by the time I had typed it up, realised I hadn't signed in and sent it, you'd already said it lol. Sorry :)

[ChuckFickens]

I've lost count of the time I've had a shock from the main and I've never suffered any more than a slight numbing/tingling of the arm that has received the shock and a very minor burn.

though it's not something I'd advise doing often!

[kawakiri]

Had at least 3 shocks from 240v supply, I do need to be more careful LOL.
Still here.
One was in the mouth stripping wires on Xmas tree lights, what a muppet. I asked someone to unplug them as it was around the corner, I thought I heard the plug come out but obviously not the right one.

[rowanwitch]

An idiot electrician (I don't think he was...but the landlord sent him) managed to make a wall of wet plaster live...landed on my bum after touching it halfway across our kitchen.... no damage... to me though

lighting element in a fridge is going to be very low amps if you know the make/model of the fridge you could look up what fuse it takes that will help you target your googling

[rowanwitch]

Can I book you next time I need some work done....

Sounds like you are to DIY what Sqad is to medicine..

[paddywak]

when I worked for British Coal safety was a big thing and it was usually stressed that voltage burns ampage kills. under normal conditions most normally healthy people will,as doc says, get a shock with no ill effects, especially with the RCCD's that they use to day, proof of this is that virtually everybody who does DIY has at some time had a shock. We regularly worked on voltages up to11kv (surface) and 6.6kv (underground)and some of the injuries we saw in the various safety films we had assocciated with this sort of work were horrific. I was personally involved in whe incident while still an apprentice when an electrician was "burnt" while working on 3.3kv he survived but recieved terrible burns to his hands and arms and just thinking about brings it back the sickening smell of burnt flesh. Having said this electicity is funny stuff you read accident reports were people have survived virtually unhurt HV incidents while somebody else dies from a 240v shock

[paddywak]

It' easy to work out current using the the formula that Power in Watts (W) is proportional to the Voltage (V) times Current (I) ie
W = I x V
so if your appliance is 1000w the corrent is 1000 divided by 240v
so the current a kettle say with a 1000 wat element would take 4.16amps