I am wondering how dangerous an electric shock of 120 volts is?
Friday, July 11th, 2008 at
5:24 pm
jjrousseau asked:
In my apartment, the maintenance person badly wired an electric outlet during a repair, and when I went to switch a nearby light on, I was jolted with a full load. I was not wearing shoes for insulation (just socks). I experienced some moderate pain and tingling in the arm. Is there any chance for long term damage? Or can I assume that there are no serious problems as the pain seems to be receding?
Tagged with: Electric Outlet • Maintenance Person • Shoes
Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs
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sussex electrician
If the electrons missed your heart, you’re safer.
sussex electric
yeah i wouldn’t be worried. tazers are a looottttt less than that.
sussex electrical
If the pain is lessening and you regain the use of the arm, there is not much cause for worry. If problems persist, see a doctor (a neurologist).
brighton electric
Nothing will come of it. Amperage has more to do with the fatality of a shock. Really, the only way that shock from an outlet can be dangerous is if you close a circuit with your body in which the electricity passes through your heart. However, I would suggest getting that fixed since although you probably will not die from shock, you could easily die from a fire that is started from the outlet shorting out.
sussex electric
The volts do not really matter. Since you are still alive, you will probably be ok in a bit. It does mess up your nervous system for a while. Apparently, there weren’t a lot of amps behind it. 120 volts can make your muscles tighten up so that you can’t even let go of it. A sustained amount can do more damage. I’ve gotten bit by 277 volt current, with no serious damage. 277 tends to knock you off it right away. Ever grabbed a spark plug wire while the engine was running? That’s anywhere from 50 to one hundred thousand volts, but has no amperage at all behind it. That’s specifically designed that way so it won’t kill you. You should be fine, after a time.
sussex electric
It takes 6 milliamps of current to kill you. That is 0.0006 amps. It doesn’t matter what the voltage is and it doesn’t really matter if you were wearing tennis shoes or not. If the current takes the right path, it will kill you……usually across the chest through the heart. Your muscles react to electrical signals from the brain. When you get shocked, all of your muscles in that area started spasming and those muscles will feel like you just did a 1000 reps during a workout on those particular muscles. As long as you’re not experiencing chest pains or irregular pulse, you should be fine. I’ve taken 277 Volts through my temple once and had a headache ALL DAY LONG……and besides the irregularknvj;ldwnvioawn jitters I getjalfjklafvwaej…..every now and thenkjafklnjasdklfnmsadklfnm……..I’m finekhjasklfn;lancvekn……lol…..just kidding. I should have went to the doctor after that happened, but I didn’t. I’ve been shocked several times before that and since then too. Eventually an electrican learns to be careful and turn the power off no matter what. In your case though…….the maintanence dude needs to be fired. Hopefully when you reported it to the main office, they filled out an accident report…….you did fill out an accident report……RIGHT????? Cover your# just in case.
brighton electrics
Hi, sorry to here you got bit. That’s just a name some electricians give when they get a slight shock.
How many times have your heard that it’s not the volts that’ll kill you, but the amps? While mostly true (it takes only 100mA to stop your heart), amps and volts are eternally bound together by Ohm’s Law:
V = IR
In plain English: volts (V) equals current (I) times resistance (R). So, assuming resistance is constant, voltage and current are in lockstep. As one goes up, so does the other, and vice versa. You can’t have a lot of amps without a lot of volts.
So, back to which kills you, the amps or volts. Given your body is a constant resistance, it really is a combination of both. Higher voltage means higher amperage, and thus higher voltage has more potential to kill. It takes only 100mA to stop your heart. I believe the resistance of a person with dry skin is somewhere around 100,000 ohms. This means, even touching 120V is far from lethal. The problem is wet skin is around 1,000 ohms, and the inside of your body is even lower, thus making 120V potentially lethal. So be careful! Have the problem corrected asap.
brighton electrical
You should still see a Dr. the electricity goes in and has to come out somewhere, sometimes it can damage your vital orgens… Better be safe than sorry, get looked at by Dr.
sussex electrical
There will be no long term damage if the pain is getting better. More people are killed with 120 volts than any other voltage. An unlicensed person doing electrical work I imagine. What were you standing on or touching. Email me if you would about the details.
Any so called electrician who gets shocks is a **** poor electrician. He wouldn’t work for me. Or anywhere around me.