Electrocuted

[Reefer madness92]

So your saying I could have died, wow

[allan]

Sure. You certainly were open to an electrocution.

[tebstan]

Yeah, I guess I should appologize for making light of this case. Most folks that work around electricity in my field tend to get a bit jaded by it. Primarily because we aren't wet when we do our repairs. Our bodies have about a 100,000 ohms, so a 120 bite is just a wake up. When you're wet or in water your body's resistance drops to about a 1,000 ohms which can make a 120 bite lethal. We also tend to wear grounding bands about are arms, I'm sure they work because each time I get bit, I'm not wearing one.

What's this? Something we'd benefit from while playing with water and electricity?

[allan]

The wrist bands? We typically wear them to prevent an electrical discharge that may damage electronics. Not sure it'd work when dealing with water.

[Sherita]

So your saying I could have died, wow

Certainly. Like I said, it only takes .020amps (the average home breaker is 20 amps) to stop the human heart in the right conditions. No matter what, getting bitten by Mr. Voltage is not fun.

[Reefer madness92]

Glad I've got a pretty strong heart then

[allan]

Well, it has to find a path through the heart to mess with your circuitry. if the path is from arm to arm (typically it's from your hand to foot or what ever point of your body that is in contact with a grounded object), the path the electricity takes will most likely not pass through the heart.

Remember that a paramedic will use up to 360 joules to either restart your heart or reset it if is not beating correctly. Remember how they place the paddles, so that the juice will find your heart and work its magic. The internal paddles are geared for a much lower voltage because they use that right on the muscle itself.

A minor bump on the neck can paralyze you. A bump to the head can kill you. The thing is you have to be in a particular position under the righty circumstances for this to happen. The list goes on, you can drown in a cup of water, yadda yadda.

The point with the .02 amps is prevention. A grounding wire dropped into your sump should prevent you from feeling the stray voltage. A gfci will trip when these conditions are met. Before something does happen.