hbiss
EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
- Location
- Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
- Occupation
- EC
Just received the September issue of EC&M yesterday. There is a "Forensic Casebook" article written by a forensic engineer that has me a bit confused.
The author was called in by the Police to aid in their investigation of a woman found dead in her shower. Seems the husband (who was under suspicion) hung one of those cheap drop lights or hand lamps on the shower curtain bar to illuminate the shower because he had taken down the ceiling light. Long story short- overweight woman was found by husband on floor of shower blocking drain which caused water to fill the pan. Hand lamp was found in the water, plugged into a GFI receptacle, GFI receptacle was tripped.
In his investigation the author performed a hi-pot test on the hand lamp which revealed that there was a close spacing (but no actual contact) between the neutral and ground contacts of the receptacle in the handle. He asserts that this caused leakage between the two under high humidity conditions such as in that shower.
After performing a battery of UL tests, as well as dumping the whole thing in water and measuring the leakage :roll: he claims that this close spacing between the neutral and ground energized the whole lamp and probably caused the electrocution when she touched the hand lamp reflector. Further, he theorizes that this may have caused the GFI not to trip as designed in a timely manner.
His testimony was used to exonerate the husband.
-Hal
The author was called in by the Police to aid in their investigation of a woman found dead in her shower. Seems the husband (who was under suspicion) hung one of those cheap drop lights or hand lamps on the shower curtain bar to illuminate the shower because he had taken down the ceiling light. Long story short- overweight woman was found by husband on floor of shower blocking drain which caused water to fill the pan. Hand lamp was found in the water, plugged into a GFI receptacle, GFI receptacle was tripped.
In his investigation the author performed a hi-pot test on the hand lamp which revealed that there was a close spacing (but no actual contact) between the neutral and ground contacts of the receptacle in the handle. He asserts that this caused leakage between the two under high humidity conditions such as in that shower.
After performing a battery of UL tests, as well as dumping the whole thing in water and measuring the leakage :roll: he claims that this close spacing between the neutral and ground energized the whole lamp and probably caused the electrocution when she touched the hand lamp reflector. Further, he theorizes that this may have caused the GFI not to trip as designed in a timely manner.
His testimony was used to exonerate the husband.
-Hal
