Question About a Fan That Causes Shocks

I think you should find an electrician , and fast ! It sounds as though your fan is not earthed (which it should be unless it is double insulated). Occasionally buildings are wrongly wired with neutral-switching. This will not prevent a device working , but can lead to some shocking results .

As the colleague said, your fan is not earthed, and your wall plug comes out with 1 phase and 1 neutral wire. What happens one way is that the phase is routed to your fan housing, and the housing discharges through you to the building when touched. The other way, the neutral is being connected to the housing, and the current returns to the wall instead of you.

If you have some looseness in the wall connector, you'll get shocked either way.

Action item: fix your fan.

All of these young bucks won't remember, but back in the day it wasn't uncommon to get shocked by metal appliances. What's happening is that one side of the plug is connected to the metal frame on the assumption that it will be connected to the electrical neutral. When it is, no shock. When you flip the plug, the hot wire is connected to the frame, so you get a shock. This is a poor design, but not that uncommon in older equipment.

You might open the fan and see if the connection to the frame is inadvertent - a loose wire or degraded insulator - and fix it. Another approach would be to replace the two prong plug with a three prong plug that can only be inserted one way - if you have three prong sockets in your house.

Calling in an electrician is a good idea, just in case. Bad electrical wiring could burn your house down.

"When you flip the plug..." is not possible on many countries' wiring systems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_1363 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BS_546 can't do this.

PWSlack

In the US, we only had two prongs of the same size until the mid 70's??? I think or was it later then that??? Until the change, plugs could and did go either way. After the change, the plugs now have one side bigger then the other and the socked changed to have one slot wider then the other. At that time they added a third 'hole' for a ground (earth) wire. Anyway, may household appliances are still around that have the older two prone of the same size plug. I agree with the comments above, I've see appliances wired with the neutral to the frame...

There is no information about the location of the problem in the post. One cannot assume the poster uses any of the plugs as described.

If the poster is not confident at her/his ability to solve the problem, then consulting a qualified electrician locally would appear to be the safest solution.

One can assume that the plug is reversible, and that the shock comes from the metal housing, since these are both implicit in the post.

Spot on. The user seems to lack the basic knowledge , and has not binned his appliance despite being shocked . It looks as though his sockets are only phase and neutral. His entire building may be fatally wired (as per my neutral switching point)

This applies no matter what country you live in.

First step..... Get rid of the fan!!!!!!! It is not properly or safetly wired.

Second check your plugs wiring. If you live in the U.S. this will be very easy to do. Go to Home Depot, Lowes or just about anywere and purchase a $5.00 outlet/circuit tester. Follow the simple instructions for use and plug the thing into your outlets, if any of the lights show bad wiring CALL A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN to correct the problem.

If your home does not have the three pronged outlets installed I would strongly recommend having your home updated to todays standards.

If the shocks are coming intermittently then take your finger out of the blade. (sorry guys . . . couldn't resist). I crack myself up !

OK . . . everybody is right here about toss the fan and / or check house wiring especially if the house is a 1950 or earlier vintage.

Shouldn't you lick your finger first (I am sorry too.)

I would keep the fan as a nice suprise for "those" friends. Something about the 60 Hz shuffle.

Check wiring close, esp. if you got paper insul. Re-wire is probally best bet. If you are not sure, call an electrician.

And don't lick your finger

The white or green fan wire is electrically connected to the fan housing. Locate and insulate or isolate the point of the ground from the fan housing to prevent electrical shock.

When the plug is clocked with the hot wire inserted into the common neutral receptacle, the fan housing becomes energized and the fan hot wire functions as a common electrical return (ground). The fan housing green ground wire is not properly connected. If so, the circuit breaker in the supply would safely trip the circuit to the "off" position if the electrical plug were clocked and inserted improperly.

Meanwhile to prevent shock and enhance safety, always insert the electrical fan plug clocked in such manner that the red or black hot wire of the fan matches the hot wire (phase A or B) or the electrical recepticle.

To enhance safety Install a three wire plug with a green wire attached to the fan housing on one end and the green wire attached to the receptacle ground. Problem is, the green ground may not be functional on the receptacle. The three prong wire plug can not be inadvertantly rotated and inserted improperly.

The Windings-End which gives Shock; when connected to LIVE LINE of power has leakage to body of fan.

You can test it with a Multimeter [keeping for the highest Range for Ω position. Check between both points of Fan-Plug 1 by 1 & Body, The End shows less Ωs [k/MΩ] is the problem end. In test you may have to change range for more resolution.

You appear to have a 2 prong power plug and an older style power outlet that allows you reverse the plug connection. Since your fan has one of those power leads attached to the frame you have a potentially fatal situation, specially If children get involved.

1. Change your power outlet plug to a grounded 3 prong polarised type.

2. Attach a polarised power plug to your fan and or check for faulty wiring of the fan.

I agree with other postings, it was quite common to finf older appliances with one side of the power plug wired to the frame of the appliance.

I discovered this by accident one day in the kitchen. I had a deep fryer and a toaster plugged into the same socket. Both appliances were the older 2 prong unpolarised type of appliance with exposed metal frames. I tore off a sheet of aluminum foil and set it down on the counter. In the process the foil happened to touch the frame of both appliances at the same time and burned up in a flash that left me in disbelief as to what had happened. I went and got my Volt/Ohmeter and measured 120 VAC between the frames of both appliances, then ohmed out the power plugs discovering that both appliances had one side of the power plug attached to the frame. It could have been fatal had I placed my hands on both appliances at the same time as the current would have crossed through my chest and stopped my heart. I believe there are still some appliances with one power lead wired to the frames and even if you have a polarised power plug , If the power outlet is wired wrong you can end up with a LIVE frame. A cheap power circuit checker might save your life. I have found many miswired power plugs in the 3 houses I've lived in so far.

Anecdotes have their place here ;

When I was about 10 , the light bulb in my bedroom blew. The glass part of it broke as I tried to remove it . With the switch in the off position I put my fingers in the socket to remove the remains. If the house had been correctly wired it would have been no problem . The switch was on the neutral cable (which makes no apparent difference) , but that left the phase cable still live -'ouch' . Luckily because it was above my head I lived (electrocution causes mussels to contract , the fall resulting from shock broke the contact). Since then I have only been zapped once and lived because of size/contact area etc (a child would have died). Lessons .

Don't mess unless you understand.

Regard any circuit as live/potentially fatal.

Have due regard to the safety of others.

Never trust an unknown electricity source.

electrocution causes mussels to contract

This is why I always fire up Old Sparky when I make my Moules a la Mariniere.

Belive me , I puckered like a ducks ****. Brit -speak misses out the 'a la ' bit but you're lips smack all the same. "viv la divranz"

Akhill:

WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED???

There is alot of good advice here, but much of it is relevant ONLY to the US.

I would recommend disconnecting it from the wall... taking it apart... looking for frayed wires... and taping any bare wires with electrical tape. Particularly any place that could come in contact with the case of the fan.

If you do not feel comfortable doing this, I would throw the fan in the garbage and get a new one.

Sincerely

Bill

Putting your finger in light socket to feel if there was power was the natural thing to do when i was young.

But I cannot get myself to do it now.

DONT TRY THISW AT HOME

One could risk it at 120VAC and probably get away with it.

At 240VAC it is a practice that is not recommended. Been there. Done it. Secondhand T-shirt now for sale on eBay...

PW

Is that T shirt the one with all the electrical burns on it? I thought of getting it, but then people might think I was an electrician.

Bill

It was 220Volt,

It only passes through the tip of your finger and we had wooden floors.

Check whether the fan switch was connectec in phase or neutral. If it is connected in neutral then please connect in phase wire and check.

ok.Now I Understand the reason behind it .Once thanks for all