How dangerous is 14 V DC and 0.6 A?

[Elektrotechnik]

As the title says, what kind of shock risk is there with 14 V DC and 0.6 A when coming from a DC Power Supply?

 

[GoldDigger]

As the title says, what kind of shock risk is there with 14 V DC and 0.6 A when coming from a DC Power Supply?

.6A is more than enough current to cause a harmful shock, but not enough to cause a ring or a dropped tool to cause a dangerous arc or burn.
The voltage is not high enough to cause noticeable current through intact dry skin, so the shock risk there is minimal. If you stick a needle into each hand and connect the power supply to them, then the resulting current could be dangerous.

 

[gar]

130801-1543 EDT

If you have very dry hands, not sweaty, then surface contact resistance might be 1,000,000 ohms. Under these conditions about 14 microamperes and you won't feel anything. Change to very sweaty hands, possibly 10,000 ohms, and the current is 1.4 milliamperes. Then you might feel a tingle. On one very humid night in a 6 V car, 1941 model, I felt a tingle when touching the horn ring and car body. Dangerous? No.

Connect a 10 W 20 ohm Ohmite power resistor to your 14 V supply. Let the resistor warm up, hold your finger on the resistor, and you will get a severe burn. Dangerous? Yes.

.

 

[steve66]

14 volts is generally very safe unless you do something stupid like putting the leads on your tounge, or jabbing pointed test leads through your skin like Golddigger mentioned.

0.6 amps would be a very lethal current if it were to flow through your body. But the problem is, and as GAR mentioned, 14 volts is generally not high enough to push more than a few microamps through skin.

 

[junkhound]

data

data

For general interest:

First graph is of sticking electrodes on a subjects tongue, above 10 mA it is painful to most folks.
9V battery is bearable as a battery test though, do it all the time - just a tingle means the battery is dead, very unpleasant jolt mean a good battery. Very slight sour taste sensation from just a 1.5 V battery, 6V lantern battery you know it is a shock.

2nd graph is the change in foot to foot resistance when both feet in separate buckets of saturated salt solutions to above ankle, one foot one terminal, other foot to other terminal - DC slightly higher resistance than ac

You can use this 3rd slide to extrapolate to dc, note that above 20 mA 1/10 of 1% of the population (according to Chuck Dahziel's experiments) will go into ventricular fibrilation, fatal if not corrected (e.g. defibrillator)
Again, this is for the feet in saturated salt solution, at 60 Hz.
As you can see, a very small percentage of the population 'could' die with 14 V under these conditions. The lowest recorded electrocution fatality was at 18 Vac, according to an old paper from Indemnity Ins. company of SF.

 

[domnic]

14 VOLT

14 VOLT

What is a pocket knife danger it depends on how u use it a 1.5 battery could make a bomb go off. very bad thread..

 

[JDBrown]

For general interest:

First graph is of sticking electrodes on a subjects tongue, above 10 mA it is painful to most folks.
9V battery is bearable as a battery test though, do it all the time - just a tingle means the battery is dead, very unpleasant jolt mean a good battery. Very slight sour taste sensation from just a 1.5 V battery, 6V lantern battery you know it is a shock.


2nd graph is the change in foot to foot resistance when both feet in separate buckets of saturated salt solutions to above ankle, one foot one terminal, other foot to other terminal - DC slightly higher resistance than ac


You can use this 3rd slide to extrapolate to dc, note that above 20 mA 1/10 of 1% of the population (according to Chuck Dahziel's experiments) will go into ventricular fibrilation, fatal if not corrected (e.g. defibrillator)
Again, this is for the feet in saturated salt solution, at 60 Hz.
As you can see, a very small percentage of the population 'could' die with 14 V under these conditions. The lowest recorded electrocution fatality was at 18 Vac, according to an old paper from Indemnity Ins. company of SF.

:blink: I hope they paid those test subjects REALLY well.

 

[jaggedben]

For perspective, 14V and up to 1amp or so is typical for model trains. These systems have exposed live conductors (the rails of the track), and I have never heard of anyone getting shocked from such a setup. On the model railroad that I work on, we sometimes use a wet finger across the rails to test the signal detection system. Nobody ever feels a thing. There are some concerns with fire hazards (most notably steel wool), but shock hazard is not really a concern at all.

 

[MichaelKelley]

I have experienced these shocks from this much volts and I do not find this effective for any adult, but for children it may be little dangerous nothing more to worry about.