Last nights storm

[Vic1]

Can anyone explain this?

During last nights electrical storm I was putting a plate in the dishwasher when lightning seemed to hit somewhere in our backyard (not our house). At the precise moment it hit I got a large shock from dishwasher :o (proving once and for all that household chores are dangerous). ;D I thought the lightning would have to hit the house to get a shock........Any ideas?????

Was one hell of a storm, lightning for a good 2.5 hours almost constantly lighting the sky, would not have wanted to be out at sea.........

[brentasauros]

yer what a light show :o

[Derek_Bullock]

I remember once when living at Beachmere. Lightning hit the other side of the road from my place and power shot up the phone lines and blew my answering maching to pieces. Yes it literally blew up.

Never forgot that one and have never used a phone in a storm since.


Derek

[Angla]

Vic1,

I think that it generally charges the area,( everything touching earth at the point of connection) and that your body may have recieved a inrush of charge. Because the body has no other reference point(or polarity to the strike) then there is no real path for the surge to go but just to saturate the body with charge.......very much the same as a helicopter doing live line work, they connect to the live line while hovering to stop a flash over while workers do their work. This keeps all objects at the same polarity or charge.(simple answer)


Did you sustain any long lasting effects and did it damage anything electrical within the house?

Angla

Lets see if these comments do not draw a response from the crowd

[Fishinmishin]

Could have hit the ground around the water mains. I've had a freind that has been shocked in the shower for the same reason :o.
Lets hope the surge of power through your body has brought you 'TUNA PULLING POWER' ;D ;D.
Cheers, Jay

[Fishin_Dan]

Your house electricals are all grounded to the earth... Might've come up that into the electricals in the house, and then through to to the dishwasher :)

You could get a lycra body suit made up with ST (Super Tuna) printed on it! It would not only protect you from the sun, but also allow you to drive around the bay catching tuna at will ;D ;D ;D

[Navi]

Great storm lightning just didn't seem to end , we lost power at 9 pm till 3am and I could have put the boat in the back yard and done some lap's.lmao...

I belive that with the amount of rain that the lighting could have got you if you were touching any thing that was plugged in to a power outlet, say you were drying your hair with the misses hair dryer....bingo you can get a boot form it to....

cheers Chris

[Steven78]

We call this in the Teleco industry Earth potenial rise. The ground will conduct the charge and decay out from the strick zone.

Thats why when you see down power lines you dont go any where near them and your STEP POTENIAL could be very dangerous.

Example if a 11,000 v feeder went down for every meter on the ground it would decay 300v if you took a 1m step between both feet you would get a 300v shock which mostl likeywould kill you.

You dont have to touch or be near for lightening or down power lines for bad things to happen.

[Navi]

steven78..

so if we were driving our car and power lines come down in front of you you back up and don't get out ??? would the rubber tye's prevent us from getting a shock???

Cheers Chris 8-)

[4x4frog]

say you were drying your hair with the misses hair dryer....bingo you can get a boot form it to....

cheers Chris
Mate in my house I'd get a boot from it too anyways if I used the hairdryer...wouldn't have to be a storm. :o
I was almost going to go and have afish last night, glad I decided not to now. The storm seemed to last ages. My wife drove along Cavendish Rd from Mt Gravatt to Camp Hill this morning and said you can see where the storm went through.

[PinHead]

All we got on the north side was a bit of rain...could see the lightning over the bay but bugger all here

[theoldlegend]

Hi Vic1,

Are all of your electrical connections OK after that? By that I mean is your PC (if you have one), phone and other stuff like a VCR all right?

We've had them blow in the past. A few years ago, we lost a 700 litre freezer due to fusion after an electrical storm. Best freezer I've ever had. You could lie down in it.

PS: Why were you putting dishes into the dishwasher? I pay wife a lot of money to do that for me.

Regards,

TOL

[Vic1]

All the electrical connections are fine...whenever we get a storm I'll actively pull out the TV and computer from the wall

Angla.....I'm fine too, it was a decent jolt that sent me backwards....only thing that needed changing was my jocks ;D

Jay....take more than several million volts to give me the ability to catch longtails.....especially when you're driving the boat ;D ;D ;D

Fishin Dan......lycra isn't my choice of outdoor wear generally, but if means catching fish, well I'll try anything (once)

Navi....I don't have enough hair to worry about the wife's hairdyer ;D

The Old Legend..........clearing the dishwasher is about the only thing I do around the house (although not anymore)

[gawby]

We got blacked out at about 6pm last night and the power has just come back on now at 2pm today. 20 hrs without power. >:(
Its been a drag no ausfish and no xbox to play. The deckie didnt want to play either. :'(
Alls better now at wonglepong. ;D
Graeme

[PinHead]

Hi Vic1,

Are all of your electrical connections OK after that? #By that I mean is your PC (if you have one), phone and other stuff like a VCR all right?

We've had them blow in the past. #A few years ago, we lost a 700 litre freezer due to fusion after an electrical storm. #Best freezer I've ever had. #You could lie down in it.

PS: Why were you putting dishes into the dishwasher? #I pay wife a lot of money to do that for me.

Regards,

TOL

DDidn't you get the freezer repaired under your contents insurance?

[shaman]

When i was a young bloke our house or thereabouts got hit by lightning and the hotplates on our electric stove powered up with the surge. before that happened my mum was panicking about the storm and my old dad jokingly said "don't worry until you can smell burning". Well mum used to leave the tea pot sitting on a wooden coaster thingie on the stove and it caught alight and so did the teatowels hanging on the dryer above the stove. all of a sudden we could smell the smoke and raced in to put it out. bit of smoke damage but that was all thank heavens. Never forget it . Nature's a powerful thing aint it.

[Derek_Bullock]

Wow

Just saw on the news down here the size of the hail you got. That was some storm.


Derek

[theoldlegend]

Hi Pinhead,

Yes, we tried to, but it was so old, we could have got it fixed up, but we were told that there could be other things that could have gone wrong with it. eg: new gas etc, old compressor, old pipes etc, couldn't handle it etc, blah, blah blah.

It used to sound like a chain saw, so we got rid of it. The insurance company had no problems. At the end of the day, we did orl rite.

Cheers TOL

[redspeckle]

From Fishinmishin
Could have hit the ground around the water mains. I've had a freind that has been shocked in the shower for the same reason .
Yep I had that happen to me recently when the neutral wire became dissconnceted from the house
I havn't had much [smiley=sleeping.gif] this week with the storms in the area Birkdale been a lighting show
Mitch

[PinHead]

From Fishinmishin
Could have hit the ground around the water mains. I've had a freind that has been shocked in the shower for the same reason .
Yep I had that happen to me recently when the neutral wire became dissconnceted from the house
I havn't had much #[smiley=sleeping.gif] this week with the storms in the area #Birkdale been a lighting show
Mitch
#



How did you get a shock in the shower when your neutral disconnected. That would make anything that was turned on, live, but not operate. Unless the neutral was touching something nothing could have happened and even if it did it should have tripped the breaker. If that did happen I would be seriously looking at the entire wiring in the house.

[Steven78]

We use the MEN system here multiple earth Neutral. I herd of people getting killed because one day when doing the wiper snippering cutting the earth wire thus living up the water pipe when there was an earth fault with the local transformer or toaster in the house.
The Neutral wire is bonded to the earth stake and water pipe in the meter box. The circuit breaker would have only trip if it reached its rating. If you had earth leakage RCD device this monitors the difference between Active and Neutral if there is the same amount of current on both Active and Neutral this is the normal situation. If there was more current on the Active wire then Neutral wire or visa versa the RCD would trip as the difference would be getting an earth return through faulty cabling or someone getting a shock.

RCD for tinnes are a very good idea because this would guarantee that there would be no corrosion caused by faulty wiring on the boat as the RCD would trip if the Hull became an earth or live.

[shaman]

Lotta sparkies out there, love the tech talk.
I have trouble changing a fuse ;D ;D ;D

[PinHead]

Steven.... I hope most people these days do not have their main earth connected to the water pipe as most water pipes are now poly and not copper. I believe it is mandatory to be earthed to a earth stake as per the relevent AS. Interesting stuff the old electricity...it does some fun things at times.

[Navi]

I agree the earth stake is driven deep in to the gound off your meter box which sould take care of the risk....


cheers Chris 8-)

[Steven78]

The copper pipe in the house for Hot water e.g should be still earthed and bounded to the main earth stake.
As per Regs AS3000 BLha Blha.
To many beers #:-/

[snappa]

donn't touch it myself....
when their are storms ... in sit in the shed on a rubber tyre drinking diet coke...

it helps..

[snappa]

;D

and

taking to "the one who must be obeyed" on the mobile phone.... :P

[Dug]

It be God's warning, men should never load dishwashers or do any washing up!

It is against the laws of nature!

just don't tell Margo I said this OK ;)

[Steven78]

Women get married in white for one reason !!!!!!!!!! and thats to match the dish washer

Ha Snappa.

Just kidding

When the power goes out you must drink the beer before it gets warm #;D

[Figjamm]

so if we were driving our car and power lines come down in front of you you back up and don't get out ??? would the rubber tye's prevent us from getting a shock???



Hi Chris,

The Bureau Of Meteorology says - Be wary of downed power lines that may be touching your car. You should be safe in the car but may receive a shock if you step outside.

Integral Energy says - Do not drive across fallen power lines. If power lines have fallen across or have become entangled in your vehicle, unless in immediate danger, remain inside your vehicle and call for help.
In immediate danger (the wires are 'crackling' or moving), open your door and jump well clear. Keeping your hands off the vehicle and your feet together, continue jumping with your feet together until at least 10 metres away from the vehicle and the conductor.

So you're right.... back up and don't get out!!

--
Bev

[PinHead]

donn't touch it myself....
when their are storms ... in sit in the shed on a rubber #tyre drinking diet coke...

it helps..



LOL..I don't touch it myself either..I leave that to electricians...know any good ones ?????