Ok, Somthing very odd happened to me and Im compleatly dumbfounded. If somone can it explain it i’ll be greatfull.
My garage has a light out front. It hasnt been working since we moved in and occured to me that i should try putting a bulb in it.
I climbed up a wooden ladder and realized that the bulb had broken but the base was still tightly screwed in. So i turned off the lightswitch and carved a potatoe to fit tightly in the hole, thinking that i would jamb that in and unscrew the base.
When i jambed the potatoe in and tried to unscrew, it felt a little tingly, like a light sustained shock, i thought it was my imagination but it soon got stronger. The really weird part is that I could feel the electricity in my feet as well(?!) (remember im on a wooden ladder).
I put ski-gloves on to insulate it as i finally got the task finished, and when i did, the lightswitch actually worked! when i turned it off, the lightbulb turned off. NOTE: when it was on, the bulb was a little flickery.
Im at a loss. Can anyone explain this??
Replies
Yes.
You are imagining things.
;)
I think you left out part of the story.
You went straight from an impossible electrocution at the end of a stub of potato sculpture... to a flickering bulb, and an amazingly working switch.
:)
...
Ok, now wait a minnit. I have read your story again, and I think I now have the chronology right...
There is a light somewhere in front of your garage.
There is a light switch somewhere that was not amazingly working.
When the switch was on, the light flickered.
You finally decided to actually put a bulb in the light.
There was what was left of a broken bulb in there.
You quickly put those art skills you learned in high school to work, (Our public education dollars at work...), and carved a potato into a pretend light bulb.
You stuck your potato bulb up inside what was left of the rest of the light bulb. (I will keep this post short and forgo all the sex jokes here. As well as the references to a light bulb looking like Gunner's naked grandma, pulling on a girdle. And the quieries about why you are adept at carving Gunner's naked grandmother out of potatoes.)
You got electrocuted even though you were performing a levitation act over a wooden ladder that was not sitting in a swimming pool. Were you wearing a rubber Er, I mean galoshes ?
When you were finished being electrocuted, you turned the light switch amazingly off. (I'm thinking maybe that was the reason for the electocution. You should have turned it amazingly off before screwing the nekkid Gunner granny potato into the old base...)
So now you have a potato bulb in your light, a permanent twitch beside your left eye, you fart involuntarily when someone flips a light switch, and the switch works amazingly when you turn it off.
To save time...
You should have just carved the potato into a gun and shot the light fixture down. Then you would have an excuse to call an electrician.
I only have one question...
What kind of royalties can I expect for giving you the idea when you begin marketing amazingly electrifried nekkid Gunner granny fries ???
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
"a permanent twitch beside your left eye..."Tough break, huh?He can never attend an auction ever again.
Sounds like a a saying a friend used to use. When confronted with a difficult task he would say: 'It was like conducting an auction on a Tourettes ward'.No meanness intended. Went over big, for the most part, in the medical community.Edited for spelling. Misspelled 'auction'. Statement doesn't work too well as 'action'.
Edited 1/6/2005 11:39 pm ET by 4LORN1
I assume the light was working normally before the bulb went south. If so an explanation comes to mind.
The switch has been installed on the neutral, return line, coming from the fixture and bulb. This effectively breaks the circuit but leaves the fixture live in relation to ground.
When you shoved the potato into the socket the damp potato conducted the voltage to you. You were likely slightly grounded. Because of the greater resistance you received a slight shock. If you were better grounded it could have been much worse.
To prevent any further safety issues rewire the switch to place it on the hot line not the neutral.
And he should flip the breaker before doing that. Otherwise he might carve a pototoe screwdriver to loosen those pesky switch screws, and we know where that will go.
Or he could leave it all alone and next time use an aluminum ladder in the rain.... ;)
That sounds right. after reading your post i plugged in a tester to an outlet and it said reverse ground.-->
measure once
scribble several lines
spend some time figuring out wich scribble
cut the wrong line
get mad
Ron Popeil might like to replicate this setup as the new "baked potato cooker" by Ronco.
I had a house that had a slew of outdoor lights, seems one was always out, somewhere. Almost all required a ladder, over bushes, on a slope...you get it?
My girlfriend asked me change one near the front door one night..as I set up the ladder she went in for a new bulb..I went up and just touched the "burnt out" bulb..and Viola! it came on..she asked how I did that..being a smart azz I said " it's because I have a ####".
we got a slight laff outta that.
A few weeks later another light burnt out..same drill to fix it..and sure enough as soon as I touched it, the damn light lit up..same smartazz line..same (maybe less so time,) smirk.
Fast forward to when the DRYER quit..I was in my shop..and Renee calls down to me.." Honey..Would you please bring your #### here, I have a job for it!"
Funny..except, I had a customer wanting an alter for the local baptist church looking at wood samples..
edit: got zapped on the Enis with a P word.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
I'll just do it>
Edited 1/6/2005 8:58 am ET by SPHERE
That was a good one--did you get the job--I mean the altar job?
BTW--what's up with Prospero?--everyone is "unknown".
The first post is a good example of why you should open the circuit at the box and not rely on switches (though I often don't bother with the circuit breakers).
My wife complained that her outside light (I "inherited" ownership of the house by marrying her, so I still sometimes think of this hovel as hers) wasn't working. I did everything I could think of (ok, I replaced the bulb and checked the circuit breaker)--no luck. Had a guy from down the street who actually knows some things come with a circuit tester and we traced the wires and so on--some were knob and tube and the neutral was switched with the power in a couple places, but what the heck. Finally I turned on the switch next to the one my wife told me operated the outside light and it came on. She said, "Oh, I guess it is that switch!" (Why none of us noticed the basement lights turning on and off when I was trying to operate the outside light remains a mystery--except that it was during the day.)
--Danno
Yeah, I had the job in the bag already..luckily. LOLI know all about "her house" vs Our house..BTDT.
I can just imagine what some new residents in MY old digs are finding out about switches and such..I think some are gonna be over the edge by now..I once had cars going too fast in front of my house, so I made a POP UP deer..for night time..it was hooked to a an old motion senser..when a car approached the "deer" would spring up by the side of the road..of course I used a small reflecter for it's eye..The switch was in the bed room..by a night stand @ outlet height..the deer was 200 yrds away. I turned it off in the daytime, on at dusk.Nuthin but an old Sears garage door opener and a big sprocket with a limit switch from a pallet nailing machine to reverse it to another limit switch. It was cool as all get out.I made variations for halloween pranks..almost gave a neighbor a coronary.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Watch out for the edges, it's really fast out there...
Miswired. The bozo who wired it has his hot and neutral crossed somewhere, or is switching the neutral.
bad switch...
bad ground...
corroded nutral...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Switched neutral or there's a 3 way switch and you don't know where the other one is. It happens. "I had a switch in my living room that didn't do anything when I flipped it. One day, I got a call from a woman in Germany telling me 'stop it!"
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
About the unknown switch and the phone call from Germany--what I love are houses that have a switch that operates an outlet--and in one house I had, the refigerator was plugged into such a switch and in another the furnace was somehow on that switch. Lot's of places I've seen the switch with tape holding it "on" or a big note beside it explaining things.
According to Donald Norman, a hand lettered sign always indicates a design error.
Right--and I wish there had been signs explaining other messed up jobs I've seen!
Keep a quija board in the service truck for those 'hard to diagnose' problems.When Murphy, dumb luck, 'aww shucks good enough' handymen, corrosion, normal wear and tear and a couple of service calls from various trades too busy and tired to do it right or see what they are messing up all come together things can get downright strange. A wonder anything works. A minor miracle more are not injured or killed.Many times I have seen myself shaking my head over some difficult problem with an obscure origin and it crosses my mind that the problem would go away if I was to drive a D-9 through the front door of the ill constructed shanty and flamethrower the wreckage to oblivion. I could plea temporary insanity. It would be a public service. There would be much glee and cheering. Fireworks. A festive BBQ over a fine bed of coals. Property values would immediately rise. Neighborhood aesthetics vastly improved. They might give me a metal. A parade. Cute women in tiny outfits would hug and kiss me. All would be right in the world.And then I get back to work cobbling together a solution for the issues at hand. One day ...
I've over the years gotten pretty good as hunting down a "feechur" left by the previous guy. Comes from years of computer programming, combined with living in a house built by Mac McDonald. Along the way, in addition to things like stupid miswirings and disfunctional framing, I've run into out-and-out design errors in several computer and electronic products and at least one automobile.My #1 rule is, when you find yourself saying "That doesn't make sense", suspect an idiot has been there first.
I'm with you on the bulldozing and burning the wreckage--the parade and the cute women in tiny outfits too.
In Saginaw, where I used to live and is about 11 miles south of wher I live now, they had a slew of abandoned houses that had been gutted and turned into crack houses. Every "devil's night" several would catch fire. I never understood why they just didn't let them burn down. The governor at the time was going to get the National Guard to demolish them with tanks, but it never happened. Once in a great while the fire department will burn one as a training exercise. (Almost lost a newsman who was covering a training exercise where they lit up a Christmas tree--very poor planning, he got disoriented and almost didn't make it out.) (Then there was the time another newsman asked a nice young man in army camo pants and a T-shirt where the hostage incident was and it turned out the nice young man was the perp and took the newsman hostage, but that's another story.)
I had considered a bad neutral connection between that point and the panel. Very possible. I have seen a few in my time. Those electrons are desperate to get home.On the other hand electrical repair is a game of odds. Nine out of ten times it would be a miswired switch. Also mentioning to to turn off the power would have been nice. Safety foist. I try to remember this but at some deep level I figure anyone who doesn't know this shouldn't be playing with wiring. A quick introduction to the Darwin Awards.A real long shot would be the voltage coming from outside the box. I have seen this. While checking out a problem a helper gets a slight shock 'from' the neutral in a box. We run around a bit tracking this down without much luck until we figure it out. Goes like this:The box had a some boxes and bags in front of it. To work it you had to lean over them and support yourself on the plaster wall. The stray voltage was not coming from the neutral but from the surrounding masonry wall and plaster. As most know, at least in moist climates, masonry absorbs water. A nearby receptacle had two faults. A bad ground connection and the receptacle had been slid over when a desk was moved. It hit the cord plugged into it causing the hot lead to contact the metal box. The lack of a good ground connection prevented the breaker from clearing the fault.The metal box was in contact with the metal mesh that supported the moist plaster. The mesh was tested at a full 120v to ground. A wide section of the wall was live. Anyone touching the wall and also coming into contact with anything grounded would get a shock. I also once saw this involving an aluminum ladder conducting voltage up from a faulty conduit poured into the slab. It looked like the voltage was coming from the box in the ceiling. We couldn't detect a problem while we stood on our fiberglass ladder. Lady said her husband was nuts. Only when we ran a long line, known good ground, and start probing around did we get a clue.Those electrons, or holes if your of that persuasion, are sneaky.
My favorite "electrical experience" was when I was in Mexico and there was an electric switch in the shower (!) to turn on the water heater for the water to the shower. Touching the switch, or the handles of the faucets would give you a tingle even if the heater wasn't on. For a long time no one even told us there was a way to have hot water, but I guess we sort of had it anyway--a hot shower at any rate.
A classic 'electric shower' experience. I have seen them in various forms. Most common is an electric water heater with a defective element and no ground. Given some metallic supply plumbing, it needn't be complete just mostly so as the water itself will conduct a bit, and either an iron tub or some grounded drain line and the scene is set. Interestingly enough I have never seen a serious injury from this.I have seen where the ladies in the rental unit wore rubber gloves and shower shoes in the shower to prevent a painful shock. I have also seen the current going the other way, grounding through the water heater. Sometimes not even an electric unit. Which tends to throw a curve in the diagnostic effort.Once saw a defective sump pump lacking an effective ground electrifying the shower drain. One of the weirdest was where a defective and ungrounded AC condenser was feeding current back through the copper freon line that was draped across an iron drain line.Those little electrons do love to play.
Which is why it's good to ground the heck out of everything, plumbing-wise. I have a ground jumper across our water heater, and the wire continues on to the input side of the water meter. If I had any metal drain lines I'd ground them too.
> Those little electrons do love to play.
They also pay no attention at all to deeds and property lines. If your neighbor on the same transformer gets neutral swapped with one of the hots, you can find some substantial voltage gradients in the dirt.
One thing I learned from the fire department guys is that they always set their nozzles to produce separate drops rather than a steady stream when they run into electrical equipment. This breaks the circuit, and may be why we don't see more shower electrocutions.
-- J.S.
This is a case where it would really help to have one of those $15 non-contact voltage detectors, the ones about the size of a sharpie. Probing with one would have revealed that the broken bulb was still hot. I always check with the detector before I touch anything, to be doubly sure that I've found all the relevant fuses or breakers.
Instead of a potato or carrot, try a rubber ball or a rolled up scrap of indoor/outdoor carpet. If you keep them dry, they provide better insulation than vegetables -- lower in carbohydrates, too. ;-)
-- J.S.
I just use a pair of insulated needle-nose pliers. Grab the edge of the aluminum base and twist -- it'll come out.
that is a good idea, thank you-->
measure once
scribble several lines
spend some time figuring out wich scribble
cut the wrong line
get mad
"So i turned off the lightswitch and carved a potatoe to fit tightly in the hole, thinking that i would jamb that in and unscrew the base."
I think besides being miswired, it sounds like you carved the skin off the spud, which eliminated any insulation the spud may have provided.
I think besides being miswired, it sounds like you carved the skin off the spud, which eliminated any insulation the spud may have provided.
Bingo!
Never underestimate the insulating qualities of a good skin.
New potatoes are ok for low voltage and red potatoes are ok for everyday house current but for the shop 220 use the big unpealed russets. If you got 440 or bigger your gonna have to get you an...
assistant to use the russet.
Supposedly raw potatoes make good silencers for .22's, (I suppose only if the skin is left on) but I wouldn't try it--seems like a good way to blow up the barrel. I (shoot, how can I say this without getting in legal trouble?) wouldn't try the "ghetto silencer" of a 2-liter pop bottle either. Maybe I should have emptied the pop out first? What a mess! :-0 ouch! ;-)
Roar!