you don't get shocked if you touch only the hot screw on outlet?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Stevenfyeager

Senior Member
Location
United States, Indiana
Occupation
electrical contractor
One of my employees swears that if he touches the hot screw on the side of an outlet or switch, he won't feel anything. He says only if he happens to touch the outlet metal or ground or neutral at the same time, then he gets shocked. But I'm sure I've gotten shocked many times in 20 years by touching only the hot screw. Am I right ? My body acts as a ground, right ?
 

winnie

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Occupation
Electric motor research
Your body acts as a capacitor to ground, and _may_ have continuity to ground via incidental paths such as conduction through your shoes.

If you are _entirely isolated_ and touch just the hot screw, you won't get shocked.

Watch a video of 'bare hand bonding on' line work.

-Jon
 
One of my employees swears that if he touches the hot screw on the side of an outlet or switch, he won't feel anything. He says only if he happens to touch the outlet metal or ground or neutral at the same time, then he gets shocked. But I'm sure I've gotten shocked many times in 20 years by touching only the hot screw. Am I right ? My body acts as a ground, right ?
Bird on a wire. If you are not also touching something that is grounded (path back to the source) then you can touch that hot wire or terminal all you want and you won't feel a thing.
 

roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
One of my employees swears that if he touches the hot screw on the side of an outlet or switch, he won't feel anything. He says only if he happens to touch the outlet metal or ground or neutral at the same time, then he gets shocked. But I'm sure I've gotten shocked many times in 20 years by touching only the hot screw. Am I right ? My body acts as a ground, right ?
You may be right if you were standing on a conductive surface but other than something completing a circuit your employee is correct.

Roger
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Ive done it quite often. Choose your shoes wisely and watch what else you come in contact with…

Used to make up service drops bare handed on a fiberglass ladder.
Barehanded 115kV. It still hurts…
Gave me a major headache.. haven’t done any of that in 25+ years.
don’t miss it a bit
 

roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
Ive done it quite often. Choose your shoes wisely and watch what else you come in contact with…


Barehanded 115kV. It still hurts…
Now that's a little more than I would want to do. :)

Roger
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
Depends a lot on your body chemistry too, The big boss and I went to Miami to meet with an inventor that claimed he had “safe” electricity that wouldn’t shock you. He was wanting some financial backing, so the boss took me with him. The inventor had videos of his device running mixers and hairdryers, and of people touching two prongs sticking up out of an outlet. The inventor touched the prongs, and appears not to be shocked, so I touched it, nothing. Boss’s wife touched, she said she was getting a little tingle. Boss touched it, it knocked fire out of him! He tried it a couple more times, still kept getting shocked. I tried it a couple more times, even pressing down fairly hard on the prongs, and nothing. After we left, he kept asking why he was getting shocked? After I got to thinking about it, I asked him if he used hand lotion? He said he did. That explained it, everybody else’s hand were dry, but his was moist!
 

qcroanoke

Sometimes I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag
Location
Roanoke, VA.
Occupation
Sorta retired........
Ive done it quite often. Choose your shoes wisely and watch what else you come in contact with…

Used to make up service drops bare handed on a fiberglass ladder.
My dad did that all the time. I once paid him like 50 dollars to hook a service back hot because it was probably 30 feet up and I just didnt want to do it.
Ive done maybe 6 and i wont be doing it again. To old.
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
When I was in tech school, we would help the campus maintenance people. The head electrician would test for voltage by wetting his finger, and touch the buss bar! Nobody wanted to follow his example!
 

drcampbell

Senior Member
Location
The Motor City, Michigan USA
Occupation
Registered Professional Engineer
Thanks, guys. I'm still not willing to test it. Maybe I'll let him show me. :)
Personally, I lean toward a reminder that intentional contact with a live circuit is an OSHA violation and grounds for termination. There are just too many unknowable variables at play.

I actually had a guy tell me it was okay because he was wearing gloves. I reminded him that his gloves were leather, and that leather is skin. (just ordinary used work gloves, not even clean & dry leather)

Even if you had "perfect" insulation, (if there were such a thing) AC current can still flow through the capacitance formed by two conductors (one of which is you) on either side of an insulator. And even if you removed most of the capacitance, your body can still radiate energy like an antenna.
 

4x4dually

Senior Member
Location
Stillwater, OK
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Ex-Electrician
Lots of things affect the body's ability to carry current....with skin moisture/sweat being one of the heavy hitters, literally. Tell your employee to stop being stupid and turn stuff off before he touches it. That's just dumb.
 

4x4dually

Senior Member
Location
Stillwater, OK
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Ex-Electrician
Thank you. I didn't know how to suggest that so nicely.
I retyped it a few times because that was NOT the first words that came to mind. LMAO I'm still kinda new here still so I didn't want to risk going to forum jail. Seriously though, who says to their selves..."I think this screw may be hot, I should touch it with my wet finger and see if it is!"

Natural selection started failing in the 80's. It's almost non-existent now. A notion of the past.
 

drcampbell

Senior Member
Location
The Motor City, Michigan USA
Occupation
Registered Professional Engineer
Broadcast stations often have an ammeter in the antenna cable, which indicates a significant amount of current flowing (dozens of amps) despite the fact that the antenna "isn't connected" to ground or anything else. They also go to some pretty extreme lengths to minimize the current flowing from the hot conductor to the grounded one. Even solid polyethylene or PE foam is often too much of a "conductor" for their liking.

Screenshot_20220330_090750.jpeg

Granted, there's a big difference between 50-60 Hz and 560 kHz, but there's also a big difference between the dozens of amps flowing in a broadcast station's antenna and the dozens of milliamps necessary to really goof up the rest of your life.

Even so, you do not want to be that antenna.
 
Last edited:

qcroanoke

Sometimes I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag
Location
Roanoke, VA.
Occupation
Sorta retired........
Personally, I lean toward a reminder that intentional contact with a live circuit is an OSHA violation and grounds for termination. There are just too many unknowable variables at play.

I actually had a guy tell me it was okay because he was wearing gloves. I reminded him that his gloves were leather, and that leather is skin. (just ordinary used work gloves, not even clean & dry leather)

Even if you had "perfect" insulation, (if there were such a thing) AC current can still flow through the capacitance formed by two conductors (one of which is you) on either side of an insulator. And even if you removed most of the capacitance, your body can still radiate energy like an antenna.
I can remember when not working it hot could get you fired.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top