Experienced electrocution?

Here in India, the electric current is supplied in 220 volts. At times, , we try to repair electric gadgets/appliances ourselves and get a shock, mostly due to carelessness after touching the *live* spot. This shock can be very painful. I once tried to adjust a tubelight without switching it off and touched a metal portion. My fingers were aching for two days.

You are lucky to be alive! Half that much current once killed a kitten on my porch. Be careful!

Luckily on contact with the live wires we seem to be thrown off.

Here the electricity is supplied in 230 volts & 50 Hz. I've never had an electric shock, nor has any of my relatives or friends :}

Wow - ours is usually 110 volts, except for appliances. The only shocks I've had were minor, one from an electric fence (curiosity got the better of me) and once when I was wallpapering and accidently let the knife get into the outlet (always make sure the current's shut off to the room you're working on!!). The latter just popped and repelled me, but it left the blade of my utility knife snapped off and singed!

I've been wondering why is it only 110 volts there?
I have touched an electric fence as well in Finland and France :D (you know, those for sheep and cows)

I remember when we were in India (Goa), the electric and phone cables were everywhere, and they looked pretty dangerous at times. There were a lot of blackouts too, I kinda didn't like them. We only have them here if we get strong winds and a cable breaks etc.

Evert, many of our appliances don't need the higher voltage, so it isn't necessary to supply it to ordinary outlets. We do have 220 outlets for some things, like heating furnaces, some air conditioners, electric water heaters and most clothes dryers and electric kitchen ranges. I often think we should have it as it is in other parts of the world, all 220, so wires wouldn't be overheated. People frequently overload circuits, and after a time that can cause house fires.

The voltage in the U.S. is 120V 60KHz, but working for an electronics manufacturer, we also make units that work at 127V (Mexico), 230V, 277V, 347V, and 480V. We make ballasts fof fluorescent lighting, and these get hardwired into fixtures, so I am guessing that somewhere in the world, electricity runs on these higher voltages, too.

I just bought several transformers to use while in Turkey.
When we were growing up, we had transformers in every room of the house, and 2-3 in the living room. Those transformers were pretty big, about the size of 2-3 shoe boxes stacked up on each other, the one I got yesterday fits in the palm of my hand...technology....go figure.
But these days, you can buy some things here with dual voltage. I bought a hair drier that is both 110 and 220, and also I had a travel iron that is equipped with both.
A friend told me that you can go to 'Indian" shops and buy small appliances with 110 - but she was from L.A. where there might be some indian shops, none in the portland/vancouver area that I know of. she was saying that maybe I wanted to take some things to turkey, I looked on line, and the ones that I could find that were dual, or even just 110 were like double what we would pay for the 220 ones we can get at walmart etc., but then again, I was looking at the website of a mover/packer, where the prices might be jacked up...

Dinu, be careful playing with electricity! you got away easy this time, who knows what can happen next time.

I forgot to mention that we are only told our household current is 120. In actual fact, it surges to near 130 quite regularly in this area. For that reason, I buy light bulbs marked 130 instead of 120, and they do indeed last longer without the more delicate filament.

Pebble, I remember when I first went to Asia I bought an iron and hair dryer with dual capability. When I went to Iraq, my iron was damaged in transit, so I was forced to buy another one there. I asked one of the housekeepers at the hotel to direct me to a good shop. She had an iron designed for 120 that someone had left behind. She asked me if I would trade her for that one when I was ready to leave, so I bought the one I wouldn't use at home and left it for her when I returned home. Oddly, no one noticed on my receipt that it wasn't the same iron for which I had papers. Or maybe that happened often enough that they understood.

A few years ago, I went to a moving sale, and found an almost new coffee grinder for $3. I knew the people who were moving, and that they were going to some third world country to do missionary work. I asked why they were selling the grinder, when I knew they loved to make espresso and used whole beans, and the woman told me they wouldn't be able to use it in their new location because of the current. My lucky day. All because the world is so diverse.

my dad got 220V electric shock on last week...
not funny....but he had wellingtons..

I never liked electric fences. Having worked on livestock farms it seems the fences singled me out to shock but the reason I now hate them is because one Boxing day (26th December) a few years ago, I went out to check sheep that another farmer had put out on our land (sheep keep). It was a suprisingly warm day and I was out there in my shirt sleeves.

First off I spotted 2 dead ewes from a dog attack right in the middle of the field. Then I saw a ewe on her side over by the fence in a corner of the field. I saw to her first as she was moving and I thought, initially, that she was lambing early.

When I got there she was jerking because she'd been panicked by the dog attack and was completely tangled in the fence, the electric pulse went right through her body. To my utmost horror, I saw she was still breathing, even worse, she was terrified of me standing over her and couldn't get away from me although she tried. I ran sliding across the clay and turned off the power to the fence. The voltage is low but it's a nasty shock even so. I had no knife that could cut the wire with so I disentangled her legs. The wire had cut right into her skin and it took me a good few minutes to remove it without causing her more pain. I talked to her in a hushed voice the whole time, as much to calm me down as anything.

While I was doing this it started to blow a harsh wind and the rain came sudden, cold and hard. Soaked to the skin in a minute, I lifted the terrified, drenched ewe (a good 100+ lbs) who was still stiff and jerking hard from the muscle spasms. Slipping and sliding in the sucking deep mud, I wept in frustration, pain and horror at the whole thing as I bodily carried her across that long field. I managed to find the strength despite it and bundled the poor thing into the back of the car (I couldn't drive across the field and risk the car getting stuck) and took her back to the yard. I made her as comfortable as I could, building her a straw nest.

She died a couple of hours later from shock (she must have been tangled most of the early morning), she was slipping away as I built her nest. I'll never forget that morning.

What a sad episode, Baa. Such a pity. (I can only imagine that poor creature entangled in the fence wire and how much worse it could've been when that rainstorm came. If you hadn't of found her, and turned off the power, that would have been true electrocution.)

What an incredible story Baa - I'm at a loss for words....

It had been raining earlier that morning, I hope she was still sleeping and happy when the early rain came.

I intended to go and make myself a cup of tea but the memory has left me still sat here reading the words, I still feel numb and my heart still pounds at the look in her eyes. Writing can be cathartic they tell me and there are much worse horrors in the world that people experience but, to me, that was a truely awful thing to witness and be unable to help the poor animal. One of the rare times I wished I owned a rifle.

I am no expert on electricity, but the volts do not kill you. It is the amps that do the deed. As far as voltage for running things, 220 volt motors use less wattage than 110 volts do. Maybe we would save energy if everything was higher voltage. Large motors in factories & also things in hospitals and such use 440 Volt, 3 phase power. That is a lower cost but you need to have a large demand to hook to it. I hope this is easier to understand than it is to explain!
ßernie

Yes Baa, putting down an animal in agony is something not many have had to experience; but in your case the agony of not being able to put her down in an instant must have been an agony only few suffer.

Baa, I can imagine your frustration and horror. I found it difficult enough to see my dead animals left after a dog attack, but to find that one in such a condition and to look into her eyes and see the fear would have been almost unbearable. I am sitting here reliving it with you, and it just plain feels bad, especially knowing it was probably her attempt to escape the dogs that caused her to run into the fence. I am sorry, and I truly understand why you would hate electrified fences. Of any voltage.

Oh, that must have been horrible, Baa. I fully understand your belated wish of a swifter death for her, a good death. Poor thing.