Electric shock

[Spunky]

There seems to be a fair bit of confusion here about AC, even about whether or not it can harm you.

Firstly current, 10mA is enough to make you grip something and not let go, 30mA (if it passes through the heart) can kill you.

Voltage, 50VAC is considered dangerous, at above 400v the skins resistance is overcome and you start conducting internally, and around 600 to 1000v you start to burn (depending on current too of course).

Those screwdriver tester things are a joke, most of them don't even have a fingerguard. Best to buy a voltstick or test with a decent multimeter. And yes carpets do conduct electricity, and no the fact that AC is at zero potential some of the time won't save you.

A GFCI, ELCB, RCD, RCBO, RCCB etc is probably your best protection. But don't expect it to work if powered from an inverter or generator.

[dfmischler]

The worst I've had was ~600VDC out of an oscilloscope.

I remember two incidents from my early teenage years.  I remember playing with the telephone line where it entered my parents' house (tapping it?  adding an extension?) and stripping the wires with my teeth (!) when the phone rang.  I can assure you that CO ring voltage (80+ V RMS) in your mouth is quite unpleasant.  I think that is the incident that got me to stop stripping wires with my teeth.

When I was about 14 I once built a battery operated relay oscillator circuit and hooked it up to a reversed line transformer and found that I could draw an arc well over a centimeter long.  I was playing with it and was zapping bugs or something and, trust me on this, even a very low current low duty cycle high voltage arc really hurts.

[G7PSK]

Voltage hurts, current kills. It really does not matter whether its AC or DC.

[ResR]

I had also nasty experience with electricity. It happened at my workplace, when I was scheduled to do electrical repairs&cleanup in section P-6 of the pig farm. The electrical system is like it is from early 1980's with almost no maintaneance done past 10 years before I got there, nobody knows where the circuit breaker is and I had no idea, that the neutral is going through the switch and live is straight into the lamps. My voltage tester was also buggy and didn't show presence of the voltage at the moment. So I took a wet rag and start to clean off the fly s**t from the 36/40W T8/10 fluorescence tubes, it was so much that the 3/4 of the light was filtered out by it. It was fifth lamp, russian T10 tube. I almost cleaned the whole tube until I made it to other end metal cap with 2 electrical pins and I got my hand stuck on 230V 50Hz, current path from my hand to my legs into metal ladder. I fell backwards (I would died if I fell onto the ladder), ripping the bulb out of the soviet era fixture, breaking the socket in progress, fell down 2,5 meters onto the concrete floor centimeters from the pig cage steel sheet wall. I must had some sort of guardian angel, but I survived it somehow. It took me whole week to restore to normal capability.

[Spunky]

Switched neutral wasn't legal even in the 80s. But then in the 80s any farmer was allowed to do his own electrics so who knows what you might come across.

[ddavidebor]

different country has different law.

for our europeans, USA laws for electricity in house is just a bad joke

[Monkeh]

Switched neutral wasn't legal even in the 80s. But then in the 80s any farmer was allowed to do his own electrics so who knows what you might come across.

Farmers still can do their own electrics, as can you and I.

[WarSim]

Switched neutral wasn't legal even in the 80s. But then in the 80s any farmer was allowed to do his own electrics so who knows what you might come across.

Farmers still can do their own electrics, as can you and I.

In all the countries I have looked into. 
Detached freehold yes.
Coop/Strata/communal/leased no.
Attached freehold,common-hold maybe.

[Corporate666]

The worst I've had was ~600VDC out of an oscilloscope.

I remember two incidents from my early teenage years.  I remember playing with the telephone line where it entered my parents' house (tapping it?  adding an extension?) and stripping the wires with my teeth (!) when the phone rang.  I can assure you that CO ring voltage (80+ V RMS) in your mouth is quite unpleasant.  I think that is the incident that got me to stop stripping wires with my teeth.

When I was about 14 I once built a battery operated relay oscillator circuit and hooked it up to a reversed line transformer and found that I could draw an arc well over a centimeter long.  I was playing with it and was zapping bugs or something and, trust me on this, even a very low current low duty cycle high voltage arc really hurts.

LOL!  I did almost the same thing.

I was into electronics as a kid, and offered to wire up a new phone line in my sisters room.  So I run the wire, and before I connect it, I figure I'll test it.  I stick the two wires in my mouth on my tongue, and my sister goes to living room to call the new line from the old one.  That rang my bell for sure.  For some reason, I thought phone lines were low voltage.

[Corporate666]

different country has different law.

for our europeans, USA laws for electricity in house is just a bad joke

Huh?

I've traveled extensively in Europe and I've seen some shocking (pun intended) home electrical work there - stuff that would have the cops at your door in the USA.

[c4757p]

On the telephone line note: When I was a little kid playing around with electronics, I discovered that if I put a speaker across the telephone line, I could listen to it. I'm not 100% sure what happened (if I understand how the lines work correctly, the low impedance should signal 'off hook', so it shouldn't ring), but it rang. I'm not sure what impedance that highish-voltage ring signal comes at, but I'm pretty sure I shit myself...

That was the end of me messing with phone lines.