electrocution by car battery

[[email protected]]

Hi...

Just a question running through my mind. I know that a 12volt car
battery can't electrocute you.

What if i pass it through a step up dc converter to let say 110v for
the or 240v . Would the car battery now electrocute me if i were to
touch the neg and pos since the power supplied by the battery is almost
equivalent to the power supplied by the house electrical power source?

 

[Nog]

Hi...

Just a question running through my mind. I know that a 12volt car
battery can't electrocute you.

What if i pass it through a step up dc converter to let say 110v for
the or 240v . Would the car battery now electrocute me if i were to
touch the neg and pos since the power supplied by the battery is almost
equivalent to the power supplied by the house electrical power source?

110 and 240 is 110 and 240. It can stop your heart or make you stab your
self in the eye with a screwdriver.
Don't think a 12 volt battery can't hurt you. The current can fry your ass.
Think about your wedding ring turning white hot..

 

[vic]

Hi...

Just a question running through my mind. I know that a 12volt car
battery can't electrocute you.

What if i pass it through a step up dc converter to let say 110v for
the or 240v . Would the car battery now electrocute me if i were to
touch the neg and pos since the power supplied by the battery is almost
equivalent to the power supplied by the house electrical power source?

Yes it could hurt you, the difference is that you must touch both
terminals at once since there is no ground path.

 

[PeteS]

Fibrillation (which is what kills you) is perfectly possible with a 12V
battery in the 'right' conditions.

What it takes is 100mA through the heart (an acquaintance of mine got
killed this way doing a charging check on the 28VDC system in a
helicopter many years ago)

As your effective skin resistance varies, it will depend on your
effective resistance being about 80-100 ohms, and the current going
from one set of fingers to the other (so the current path is through
the heart area).

Cheers

PeteS

 

[Rich Grise]

Hi...

Just a question running through my mind. I know that a 12volt car
battery can't electrocute you.

What if i pass it through a step up dc converter to let say 110v for
the or 240v . Would the car battery now electrocute me if i were to
touch the neg and pos since the power supplied by the battery is almost
equivalent to the power supplied by the house electrical power source?

The way your question is phrased, the answer is no. The 12V from the
battery won't hurt you any more if it's supplying a load than if it's
not (this not counting open wounds (neglibile body resistance), hot
wrenches (you can weld with a 12V battery, under the right conditions),
and that sort of thing, which is a different question). But the 12V is
still 12V.

But the 110 or 240 definitely will at least give you a painful jolt,
and can very easily burn you or kill you.

Hope This Helps!
Rich

 

[Art]

Fill out your organ donor card and give it a try. Let us know what your
symptomatic diagnostics verify to be true?

 

[R. Steve Walz]

Hi...

Just a question running through my mind. I know that a 12volt car
battery can't electrocute you.

What if i pass it through a step up dc converter to let say 110v for
the or 240v . Would the car battery now electrocute me if i were to
touch the neg and pos since the power supplied by the battery is almost
equivalent to the power supplied by the house electrical power source?

 

[Tom Biasi]

Hi...

Just a question running through my mind. I know that a 12volt car
battery can't electrocute you.

What if i pass it through a step up dc converter to let say 110v for
the or 240v . Would the car battery now electrocute me if i were to
touch the neg and pos since the power supplied by the battery is almost
equivalent to the power supplied by the house electrical power source?

Power is the rate of doing work. It doesn't just jump out of a battery.

Study some about power.
Measure your body resistance and make calculations of current flow with 12
volts as a source.
Find a chart that shows the effects of current flow through the body.

Respect the potential energy in that battery.
Work safely,
Tom

 

[Bob]

Power is the rate of doing work. It doesn't just jump out of a battery.

Study some about power.
Measure your body resistance and make calculations of current flow with 12
volts as a source.
Find a chart that shows the effects of current flow through the body.

Respect the potential energy in that battery.
Work safely,
Tom

DO NOT MAKE RESISTANCE MEASUREMENTS OF YOUR BODY WITH 12V !!!

As someone else pointed out, it only takes about 100mA through your heart to
kill you -- and maybe less.

Normally, the skin resistance is very high. If you're sweaty the it's less.
If you're under the epidermis then WATCH OUT. Don't take a chance unless you
really know what you're doing.

Bob

 

[R. Steve Walz]

DO NOT MAKE RESISTANCE MEASUREMENTS OF YOUR BODY WITH 12V !!!

As someone else pointed out, it only takes about 100mA through your heart to
kill you -- and maybe less.

Normally, the skin resistance is very high. If you're sweaty the it's less.
If you're under the epidermis then WATCH OUT. Don't take a chance unless you
really know what you're doing.

Bob

 

[[email protected]]

what i meant was after stepping up the battery to a very high voltage
such as 110 or 240 volt... would it kill you if you touch the terminal
at the point after stepping it up? cuz from my guess it should right?
because the voltage is now high enough to penetrate the skin and the
current is also quite big.

 

[Tom Biasi]

what i meant was after stepping up the battery to a very high voltage
such as 110 or 240 volt... would it kill you if you touch the terminal
at the point after stepping it up? cuz from my guess it should right?
because the voltage is now high enough to penetrate the skin and the
current is also quite big.

Maybe you meant that but that's not what you wrote.

 

[Peter Bennett]

what i meant was after stepping up the battery to a very high voltage
such as 110 or 240 volt... would it kill you if you touch the terminal
at the point after stepping it up? cuz from my guess it should right?
because the voltage is now high enough to penetrate the skin and the
current is also quite big.

120 or 240 V will be equally hazardous whether it comes directly from
the power company, or from an inverter powered from your car battery.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

 

[Bill Bowden]

would it kill you if you touch the terminal

at the point after stepping it up?
cuz from my guess it should right?

120 or 240 is not very high. You would get shocked, but probably
wouldn't die.

An electric chair that kills people operates on 2000 volts and can be
powered from a 12 volt car battery.

-Bill

 

[DaveC]

what i meant was after stepping up the battery to a very high voltage
such as 110 or 240 volt... would it kill you if you touch the terminal
at the point after stepping it up? cuz from my guess it should right?
because the voltage is now high enough to penetrate the skin and the
current is also quite big.

If the voltage you're grabbing onto is 110 or 240, yes, you could stop your
heart.

It doesn't matter, as someone already pointed out, if it's in an electrical
outlet in your home, or in an inverter in your car; 110 (or 240) is still the
same lethal potential.

Be careful.
--
Please, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't
ask a question here if I hadn't done that already.

DaveC
[email protected]
This is an invalid return address
Please reply in the news group

 

[DaveC]

120 or 240 is not very high. You would get shocked, but probably
wouldn't die.

What news source are you reading? People are electrocuted every year from
those "not very high" voltages.
--
Please, no "Go Google this" replies. I wouldn't
ask a question here if I hadn't done that already.

DaveC
[email protected]
This is an invalid return address
Please reply in the news group

 

[Bill Bowden]

120 or 240 is not very high. You would get shocked, but probably

What news source are you reading? People are electrocuted
every year from those "not very high" voltages.

I'm not reading a news source, just stating experience.
I've been shocked many times from line voltages with
no ill effects. Once, I was shocked by 10KV from
an aviation radar system, and it threw me across the room,
but I got up and went back to work.

120VAC is low voltage. Why do you think it's used instead
of 880 or higher, which would be much more efficient?

-Bill

 

[[email protected]]

i thought it's the current that kills not the voltage. the voltage is
just to get past the skin resistance to your heart. I read somewhere if
the current at about 0.030 amp would even stop your heart.

 

[Don Klipstein]

Fibrillation (which is what kills you) is perfectly possible with a 12V
battery in the 'right' conditions.

What it takes is 100mA through the heart (an acquaintance of mine got
killed this way doing a charging check on the 28VDC system in a
helicopter many years ago)

Most references say fibrillation is generally a problem at 100 mA to an
amp, with one or two saying this starts at 50 mA.

I do not believe the risk of fibrillation drops to zero when the current
decreases to 99 or 49 mA. I have heard of someone getting killed by a 30
mA neon sign transformer.

As for 12 volts being enough to push enough current through you to cause
electrocution? Not impossible, but very rare - requiring broken skin
or large skin contact area with wet skin.

I think a greater hazard is shorts causing those burning hot wedding
rings, also burning wires causing fires, and burning wires or sparks (and
flying droplets of molten metal from sparks) igniting explosive gases that
lead acid batteries sometimes produce.

Other hazards to watch out for: Ignition voltage - usually not lethal,
but I don't feel certain. Also shocks could jolt you into dropping a
wrench onto a +12V point and a ground point, or getting
fingers/hands/clothing caught in moving fans or belts.

- Don Klipstein ([email protected])

 

[Don Klipstein]

I'm not reading a news source, just stating experience.
I've been shocked many times from line voltages with
no ill effects. Once, I was shocked by 10KV from
an aviation radar system, and it threw me across the room,
but I got up and went back to work.

120VAC is low voltage. Why do you think it's used instead
of 880 or higher, which would be much more efficient?

One problem with 120V is its perceived safety. People get more
careless, and as a result despite a small percentage of shocks from that
voltage being fatal, that voltage has a high body count.

US Navy warships have most of their power circuits being 440V, and most
of their electrocution deaths from the 110V that also exists there.

- Don Klipstein ([email protected])