Doesn%26#039;t the power have to be on to get electrocuted?
or what happened to me? My right arm still feels weird 10 minutes later...?|||Check the switch to make sure the black wire is running through the switch and not the white wire. It also looks like the fixture is wired backwards if you got a shock by touching the screw threads of the light bulb.
By the way, yes there is a correct way to wire a light socket. Granted it will work either way, but the proper way is to connect the hot wire (black) to the connection at the bottom of the screw base and the return (white) to the threaded part of the base so that if you touch the screw threads as you are removing the bulb you are less likely to get shocked.|||Oh my god! your switch is connected to the ground cable and not to the phase, so when you turn off the light the ground cable is disconnected but the phase still goes to the light bulb so you get the shock. Someone has to go the breakers connection box and invert the two cables that are going to that light bulb but BY THE WAY, they have to check the rest of the lights connected to the same breaker because they might also be inverted. A phase neon lamp would helps lots to identify the inverted connections. Just to remember, in ANY HOUSE CONNECTION, the neutral cable is also ground, this is a standard safety practice and if you need and extra ground it has to be taken separated to the already ground connection so your cables are inverted. no doubt about it.|||Yes the power needs to be on to get a shock. Did you check with a voltage tester that the circuit you turned off was the one you were working on? The other possibility is that you pinched a nerve in you right shoulder, it has happened. You should see a Dr if the symptoms persist, it could be something other that a shock or a pinched nerve.|||it sounded like it was connected to the ground. and yeah, what the person said above me... PS, it also happened to me before|||Yes the power has to be on to get electrocuted. It sounds like the light was still live. Are you sure you had the right circuit breaker turned off or was this light on a light switch? Either way you need to be sure that the electricity is off to that light. Were you using a fiber glass ladder or a metal ladder? You should always use a fiberglass ladder when working around electricity. It is an insulator. Also wear rubber sole shoes like tennis shoes.|||it is not certain that the switch is connected to the ground cable. first of all a basic light does not need a grounding cable to work. when properly wired the switch would be connected to the hot wire and the neutral wire would continue unbroken to the light fixture. the ground is merely there to keep you from getting shocked in the event of a short. so dont go running to the breaker box just yet. first were you changing it on a floor lamp or a ceiling fixture. if it was the ceiling fixture keep in mind that many times lights and outlets are run in circuits. that means that they are not the last light or outlet on the branch. they might always have power to them. whether or not the circuit is completed at the switch determines if that light is going to be receiving power.
the most likely scenario is that there is a loose or improperly secured wire in the fixture. hire someone who knows what they are doing to come over and take a look.
and a standard light fixture cannot be wired backwards like someone stated. a light works as electricity passes through the element and causes resistance. the resistance puts of light and heat. it does not matter which way the current floxs through it. as a matter of fact just about all electrical devices can run with the hot input coming through either side. except for modern electronics. that is why in your grandmothers house the outlets dont have a big side and a small side. it doesnt matter which side went to which. the hot or neutral. that is one of the beautiful things about ac(alternating current)|||As an electrician, I occasionally get zapped. More often though, I get the felling of being shocked. The same muscle contraction, the same adrenaline rush. This even happens when in a building where power has yet to be installed.
I dont think that I can give you an explanation but you have my sympathy.
There does need to be a complete path for current to flow.
Electricity doesnt take the path of least resistance. It takes every path available to it, the resistance of the path determines the current flow.|||you should always check with a meter to make sure the power is off.. what possible happened is that the switch which controls your light breaks the circuit, but if its switching the neutral instead of the hot then even though the circuit is broken better put..open then there will be a hot wire at the fixture. you became the conductor that will complete the circuit to ground, 120 volts lamp there is one wire that have volts and the other is the neutral back to the panel to complete the circuit.. if the wire that%26#039;s carries the voltage..was on the on, off switch instead of the neutral, then you would not have been shocked.|||carpet shock or wet somewhere/|||Yes, you may have just had a %26quot;reflex%26quot; reaction, especially if you were worried about changing the light, but heres a couple of reasons you may have had an actual shock.
If you light was wired INCORRECTLY, someone may have wired the switch to the neutral side instead of the %26quot;hot%26quot; side. In this case the light will still operate normally since the switch will still stop power FLOW, but there will be voltage at the light all the time.
With the light switched off check for 120 VAC between the white, black (or red) and ground. There should be no voltage between any of these and ground. With the switch on there should only be voltage between the black (or red) and the ground (voltage between the black and the white would be normal at this point, but were using the ground as a common reference). Also, with the power on, verifing voltage between the black and ground will also show that you DO infact have your ground connected.
Although it%26#039;s far more rare, if you had a lower body resistance (ie; damp or sweaty hands) it is possible to get a low voltage shock by even touching the neutral side of the socket and ground (the screws of socket base for example). Since it%26#039;s current flow that cause your muscle to contract (that shock feeling) the lower your body resistance, the less voltage you need to feel a shock and even the netral side can rise a few volts above zero depending what else is powered on in that electrical line.
Anyway, make sure your not touching anything else while you doing that in the future.|||It sure wouldn%26#039;t hurt to pay the $60 , to have a pro come check it out. Small price to pay for the zap eleminator.
