Shock - 120V vs 480V Electrocution

From personal experience, 120 volts causes muscles to contract. if you are holding something, your grip will tighten.
July shutdown with no ac in a building and I was soaking wet. 120 across both elbows and I got knocked out of the panel when my muscles contracted. I looked like popeye the sailor for an hour.

james

If the shock doesn't get you the fall from the ladder will

Fatal current levels start in the 50 ma. range. Yes, higher voltages will cause more current, but the big variable is the total resistance in the circuit to your body. Rubber sole shoes, sweaty hands, etc. Your body resistance can also change from various causes. Even those "surviving" a bad shock can have internal organ problems later on.

Worst pain was from an old POTS line. A call came in while I had too many wires in my hand. Not sure why that one hurt so much, but I'll take a brush with 120 over a ringing telephone.

Worst overall was getting hung up on a 120v circuit while wedged in between some duct work. Luckily for me, I passed out and fell off the ladder. If I had set the ladder up differently, well bad things would have stopped ever happening to me.


Bubba.

I've had 277V (480 line to ground) across my heart once and survived, I've had 120V shocks many times and survived. I consider myself very lucky in all counts.



There is no difference in safety, there is only luck and there is no qualitative difference in the level of death one might experience from either one if luck fails you...

Guys I know that have been hit by 480 (or maybe 277) say they could not let go as if their muscles contracted.

Keep in mind that the neutral wire can suprise you sometimes. There could be a connected load downstream and breaking a neutral connection creates one conductor grounded and the other is hot, connected through the load that you’re not thinking about.

Or wiring errors...

I've been hit several times with 110 and just shook it of , I've never been hit with 480 and I hope to keep it that way , though I have also been hit with 10k volts but that was from a ignition transformer , getting hit with that really wakes you up

mendonsy said:

An electric fence charger will get your attention also. Not much current output, but typically at 8 - 10 Kv.

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Yes, but that's the open circuit voltage. The power supply is not capable of maintaining that voltage under load. It's one quick burst of current, much like from a static charge.

Here, this guy explains things.
https://youtu.be/XDf2nhfxVzg

jaden said:

Even those "surviving" a bad shock can have internal organ problems later on.

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A lot of the people that have been hit by lightning end up with organ problems... I saw a couple interviews with people that have been hit and some are so screwed up inside they wish they did not survive

A couple weeks ago there was a man working on a sign that was damaged during a storm, he was in a lift and he hit the power line running to another building, the wife ran over and tried to help him, they both died... not sure but I think it was the low voltage side of the transformer but that side would of had all the current that it needed to do a lot of damage to anyone

I've been in contact with hot 277 but on an open neutral. I had let go of an MC cable that was on and the 277 neutral landed on my cheek. I fell off a 6' ladder pulling down a lot of T-bar ceiling. Another time was across my thumb. Not much contact with hot 120, though.
A friend out west (Nevada) where I used to work told me of his friend who had been working for Nevada Power (NV Energy) at the coal burner just north of Vegas, and for reasons unknown removed the bus cover on the outgoing bus from one of the generators (13.8 KV) and fell into this enclosure, landing on his back. Of course it tripped the generator and almost tripped the station. He had told me this when a young guy was asking us if there was anything worse than getting killed by electricity. My friend told us that after about 8 months in the hospital, with numerous skin grafts, that his friend was sent home, hideously scarred and unable to have full motion. His 3 family members that had given him skin grafts had to discontinue because of no more available skin and too much pain in healing for them. He tested positive for drugs, lost 75% of his workman's comp claim, and was terminated from NV Energy.

It's the current that kills you, and how it passes through your body, and your personal makeup.

Fatal current is about 0.1 Amp through the heart. Higher voltage passes more current, per Ohm's Law.

I worked with an electrician that survived 4160. It went through his legs, not his torso. On the other hand some folks have been killed by 120 VAC.

Heard a story of someone killed by a multimeter. Apparently, he was testing his resistance, and punctured both thumbs with the leads. without skin, your internal resistance is low enough that a 9 volt battery will give you a lethal shock...