Further info on Electric Shock Drowning...

I think American standards require power outlets in the bathroom, kitchen, and outdoors to be protected by a GFI device.

http://ecmweb.com/code-basics/nec-requirements-ground-fault-circuit-interrupters-gfci

In Canada... (the US is the same I am pretty sure), all receptacles within 1.5m of a sink (bathrooms, kitchen counter plugs and laundry room plugs) must be protected by a Class A GFI device.

A bathroom or a washroom must have a receptacle located within 1m of a sink. That receptacle, where practicable, shall be at least 1m from a shower stall or bath tub, and in no case may be within 500mm of the shower stall or bathtub.

All exterior receptacles within 2.5m of finished grade must be protected by a Class A GFI device, unless marked as being exclusively meant for a car block heater.

Power outlets in the bathroom? Perish the thought! Under BS7671, the only socket allowable in a bathroom is an electric shaver socket, which must be isolated from earth and must not take a regular plug; shaver plugs are a different pin configuration from a regular UK power plug.

In shower rooms, the regulations are more relaxed, though there are minimum distance criteria between any socket and the various water fittings and a requirement for circuits to be fed via a 30mA RCCD [GFCI on the west side of the Atlantic].

This BS7671 was generated by a guy who had a female room mate and who (the room mate) was drying her hair in the nude! No outlet in the bathroom for the drier, she had to get out of the bathroom, bend, plug the hair drier, and go back to the bath room, keeping the door open (for the drier cord).

I am ashamed to publish it under my name....

I thought it was published by the British Standards Institution, then, I'm funny that way.

Why are you ashamed? There is nothing wrong with the standard.

This article contains important information both for boat owners and owners of waterfront property. I wonder haw many privately owned docks, built before modern standards were in force, exist today, and how well any electrical installations have been maintained over the years.

GA

I am amazed how people and code requirements appear to only think that people get shocked in bathrooms and near sinks, a total fallacy, they get shocked EVERYWHERE!!!

That is why I have one on each of the 3 phases coming into my house. Its still not a requirement here.....

That should be done for ANY electrical installation.....but especially in private houses and private garages/workshops....

You would think that anyone/everyone here on CR4, with just a modicum of intelligence had it already installed!!! New house builds in the UK have had it as a requirement for many years, but do ALL houses in the UK have it today????

But I bet in reality less than 1 in 10 here on CR4 actually has put his money where his mouth is and installed such equipment!!!

I agree, almost totally, with your statement. I would hazard to guess though, that your estimation of hundreds of hazards like this out there, is probably orders of magnitude greater, in practice. ;-) I think of both sites, that pre-dated the standards, that have been grandfathered, as well as the bungling of weekend warriors, that have defeated these important safety devices. All of which I see, rather commonly, in my travels. Scary stuff.

Nice piece of literature which thankfully avoided the discussion of how much current is lethal. Most of the private marinas that I've been in are pretty diligent about the condition of their dockside systems, but many of the publicly run ones can be pretty scary, covers/gaskets/blanking plugs missing, cracked/missing insulation, improperly terminated connectors, etc. I would never recommend going into the water between a boat and the dock in any facility.

The protection of people from shock hazards involving 240 and 480V three phase equipment, in particular, submersible equipment,is one of the most vague areas of electrical codes, the main problem being nuisance trips, with the word "nuisance" being open for discussion.

Nuisance "trips" were all in my (limited) experience, an indication of something (sometimes TWO somethings in parallel) that were simply far less than 1 Meg Ohm to ground.....

In fact they were usually heating elements, that were porous.....kettles and water heaters......also, due to being on time switches and thermostats, which sometimes made fault finding slightly more difficult....

I have always lived in hard water areas, which may have a bearing on the matter of course....

AS 3000 makes the installation of ELCBs (GFI) mandatory for all circuits, EXCEPT, those prone to nuisance trips like HWS and fridges which have separate circuits. As mentioned above a nuisance trip is nothing more than a number of tolerable faults (normal operating phenomena) happening simultaneously.

My incoming mains goes through an ELCB and the branch GPO circuits all have their own that trip before the main does. I have NO circuits without GFI protection and have only had one or two nuisance trips in 20 years involving wet welders and ants chewing out insulation. You could argue whether or not these were nuisances.

As for GPOs in bathrooms AS 3000 and all others I'm sure, have exclusion areas specifically identified that stipulate distances from basins and so on in wet rooms.

You can't work on a building site (in Oz) with power tools unless they are protected by an ELCB and it is the contractors responsibility to have one.

Here's an Ozzy one..

Now, I don't live in Oz anymore but the habits stick, and I haven't killed anyone or burnt anything down, so I keep those habits,...my personal habits are another issue. Point being is that all new electrical switchboard enclosures (load centres) have 2 neutral links insulated from the enclosure in addition to the earth link. Not knowing which neutral to connect where by most folk keeps rice on the table.

Then there's the electrician ( who should know better, not me another very experienced highly trained senior dude, ELCBs are still new to some electricians even in the west, odd) ) takes the neutral from two different ELCBs and ends up with a lost neutral and 3 phases still hot with the voltages on the other circuit shot up to buggery (with accompanying smoke reeking of money) without that reference when a bloody light is turned on somewhere else....

ELCBs are great, some knowledge is required to make them work properly. Fortunately if they are mal-installed they normally remain in permanent nuisance state till remedied.

Crikey, I bunged on for a bit there. Sorry.

There are two thresholds, one for people and one for equipment. Nuisance trips for equipment can indicate a deadly condition for people. To give an example, 60 kW submersible 480v pumps in a metal tank on a movie set, along with divers. Protection of the divers is possible and expensive, but not written into codes, other than not permitting divers and operation of the pumps simultaneously. It becomes a "special case" and an AHJD issue.

The Canadian code, by the way, does address the situation you describe.

Any submersible pump in a body of water, I would consider the tank you mention to be a "body of water", must be protected by a GFI device rated to trip at no more than 10ma of leakage current and have a response time of no longer than 2.7 seconds.

As well, any pump in a body of water that is energized by a source with a voltage higher than 150 volts to ground, may only be done by special permission and must be maintained by trained electrical workers. This ensure that the AHJ is aware of such an installation and as such, can ensure it is done properly and is safe to be used.

Those thresholds for current and time are above the limits for personnel protection according to the NEC. The Canadian code accepts portable submersible pumps as equipment for use in (801) hazardous locations, but with the stipulations you mention. CSA requires HiPot testing for every unit sold into Canada.

I'm almost too ashamed to admit living with a nuisance trip issue for too many years in my house. I have two exterior 120VAC outlets that tripped the panel mounted GFI circuit breaker. After several years I finally took the time to open up the outlets and found the box filled with cobwebs. With the outlet box open I finally got smart and replaced the outlets with new receptacles. Problem solved!

Out of curiosity, I took apart one of the outlets and discovered that it was also filled with cobwebs. No wonder the GFI breaker kept tripping. It was trying to tell me something. I'm sorry it took me so many years and wasted trips to the basement panelboard resetting the breaker to figure it out.

I guess it serves me right for being a dumb mechanical engineer!

GFIs are good that way. They even trip if the neutral is decked.

Cobwebs? How are the spiders entering? Ants are my big headache here. PVC must taste good, rats love it too.

Lovely story, thanks for sharing.

But you are not dumb, I have met people that would bad mouth such breakers (met some in the UK years ago!),and put dozens of people off them completely.

Also, they would just replace it with one just current orientated, and then would proudly say "Problem solved"!

NOW THAT IS TRULY DUMB, you were just a bit lazy like most of us here....sorry!!

We have an old saying here which I will translate:-

"Those who do not have a brain, need to use their feet far more often!"

Ah, but I did use my feet a lot resetting a breaker, when the receptacle was to blame. I finally learned how to save a bunch of steps!

"I guess it serves me right for being a dumb mechanical engineer!"

That's ok. We electrical engineers forgive you for your transgression. lol

NEMA gives horsepower ratings to outlets and plugs with the intention of limiting inductive loads, where the plug is the sole means of disconnection/connection, yet the GFI outlets are not HP rated for when the tripping action opens a motor loaded circuit. It is good practice to test these outlets routinely, especially in marine environments.