[HELP] Electric Shock from Shower

[JordanFern]

Yep, Electrictian has ran out of ideas, time to speak to TJ Anderson

 

[ses]

Is this a house or flat?
I had one and the shower tray was leaking onto the lighting circuit of flat below

 

[JordanFern]

Its a house, i have messaged TJ but no response, doesn't look like he has been online for a few weeks

 

[Resu]

This probably won't put your mind at ease but we came across a similar issue a few years ago. Around 50v off the shower trap/mixer valve etc. Turned out fault was in a void property a few doors up and due to a supply issue it was interfering with our client's earth.

 

[Midwest]

Interesting problem, if not deadly. OP; you mention an RCD, did that 'trip' when you received your shock, and in the last vid, is your meter showing 234v? Have you got hold of an electrician yet?

 

[JordanFern]

No it's reporting 57v max
still can't get ahold of an Electrictian

 

[Midwest]

Did the RCD trip? What supply have you?

 

[JordanFern]

No the RCD hasn't tripped
Not sure what you mean by supply? Isn't everything 240V?

 

[Midwest]

The 3rd vid has a reading of 234 something, wasn't sure if that was 234v, 2.34v or 23.4v? Sorry the type of supply, perhaps you could provide a pic of your meter & main fuse with supply cable. It could be, that the electric shock you received is from the shower tiled wall via you, and then the metal shower hose to copper pipe, if you see what I mean. This may well be were a cable has become mechanically damaged. This could of happened in you refurbishment, or could of happened some time ago, and perhaps the new pipework has been better earthed, although I think you said you had an electric shower.

 

[Kamikaze]

Time to track this problem down systematically! Post No 19 is your next logical step. This will at least indicate which circuit the voltage is coming from. Also check if you got any earth continuity from the shower head back to the origin?


Edit: just spotted something in the videos. I’m willing to wager there is no earth continuity between the shower head and the origin.

 

[Midwest]

This may well be were a cable has become mechanically damaged. This could of happened in you refurbishment, or could of happened some time ago, and perhaps the new pipework has been better earthed, although I think you said you had an electric shower.

As an example; a colleague told me of an instance when a property was having a bathroom refurbished. While the room was stripped out, the plumber was getting a shock off the copper pipes. The electrician put one end of a tester on the wall and other to the copper pipe, he had a voltage. After alot of work, it was found a cable going to a nearby light switch, had a screw put through it. Only the live conductor had been screwed into, and not broken so the switch/light still worked. This had been done some years previously. The end effect was that the whole wall was 'live', but only was noticed when a person was in contact with a good earth, the copper pipe.
In any case, you will need to get competent electrician in and it may take some time to locate the fault. Think we would be all interested to see how you get on.

 

[JordanFern]

Time to track this problem down systematically! Post No 19 is your next logical step. This will at least indicate which circuit the voltage is coming from. Also check if you got any earth continuity from the shower head back to the origin?


Edit: just spotted something in the videos. I’m willing to wager there is no earth continuity between the shower head and the origin.

Are you asking if its earthed to the fuse board? Yes it is.

I planned to get round this at the weekend but otherthings took priority

Ill start tonight, ill stand outside the shower and ask my mrs to flip each of the mains fuse switches to see if i can isolate which cirucuits its happening on...

Will report back tomorrow

 

[GrahamBrighton]

Had a similar issue, customer was getting a mild shock when in the bathroom vs the pipes. Turns out there was a screw through the floor beneath the tiling into the lighting below. The whole floor (well, wet grout channels) were live. Thankfully he had some plastic pipe fittings which actually saved him from getting a full 240v belt off the pipework.

Get an electrician to perform a long lead test back to the MET and place the probe on the surfaces in the area, in theory the location with the highest voltage is probably where a damaged cable is leaking voltage.

 

[JordanFern]

right, so with everything turned off (literally every switch turned off) there is still a residual 0.3V in the shower. (http://s2.postimg.org/x15hasfyh/IMG_0098.jpg)

toggling each switch one by one makes negligible difference (turning on a socket under my stairs made it go up 0.1V).

The spike was at 'RCCD Switch', here are a few photos:

 

[Kamikaze]

You’re either not checking it properly or you have a physics defying problem. A quick google check throws up 151 electrical contractors in the Derby area. Make some calls, they can’t all be busy and difficult to get hold of.

 

[JordanFern]

haha love the stargate avatar...

I assume the voltage reading at 0.3 was the multimeter slowly resetting back to zero.

The electrician is back round tomorrow

 

[Barry White]

The RCD needs to be on then turn on each circuit one by one to pinpoint which circuit it is, The only photos showing are a consumer unit and a link to a testmeter showing 0.223v

I would advise as above get in an electrician

 

[JordanFern]

Ah, so RCD on (everything else off) then turn the rest on one by one?

Yes the electrician is back tomorrow

 

[Kamikaze]

I bet Colonel Carter would have worked it out by now…lol. So don’t keep us in suspense. How did it go today?

 

[JordanFern]

So he was here 4 hours today, has removed pretty much every plug socket in the house and retested the shower, narrowed it down to the USB plug socket I have in the main bedroom and the sockets that power the TV - BUT - even with these removed there was still a small voltage reading from the shower

He has also been round and checked all the sinks / taps etc and made sure the earthed

He is back at the weekend...