UK Electric shock from light switch

[Edhie421]

Hi everyone,

Not an electrician myself, but seeking knowledge, a second opinion and/or advice on the necessity to take action. Hope this is the right forum - please forgive me if not.

We had a big fright today. Post refurbishment work, we put a kettle on in the kitchen and didn't realise it had gotten some water into the base. Clearly that must have messed with it because the breaker tripped and every socket in the flat went without current. So far so good, fusebox working as intended, and kettle about to be replaced.

What's worrisome is what happened next. While we were trying to figure out what was up (didn't immediately get it was the kettle) my partner flicked a light switch on in an adjacent room, and got a big shock (not static, a proper painful, scary one).
The lights are on a different circuit breaker from the sockets, and it hadn't tripped, and didn't trip even when my partner was shocked.
The switch itself is metallic rather than plastic, and it's new (we've been in the flat for years but our previous switches were plastic.) We have several switches of that same make now.
Once the kettle was unplugged, everything went back to normal, and the switches now work properly.
That said, I'm very wary now. It was my understanding that a properly earthed switch, even a metallic one, shouldn't lead to that sort of incident.

Basically, my question is: shall we chalk it up to bad luck/defective kettle/bad practice having it too close to the sink, and try to forget about this?
Or is it more probable there is a wiring issue somewhere, and should I call a licensed electrician to have it checked?

 

[Edhie421]

varnish is for painting on wood or 'er indoors' claws.

Hahaha fair enough! I was thinking about this kind of varnish specifically: Insulating varnish but I get from what you're all saying that I'm much better off ensuring the earthing works as intended!

 

[telectrix]

@ OP. the purpose of earthing is basically to ensure that if a fault, live to earth, in an installation or equipment connected, that the relevant fuse/breaker disconnects the supply to whichever circuit is involved within a specific time of the fault appearing, measured in milliseconds, to prevent you coming into contact with any sort of exposed metal that would otherwise be made live due to the fault. . if said metal (switch/metal casings etc) is not earthed the fuse/breaker will not see the fault and will not operate. this is in the case of a very low or zero resisance (short circuit). RCDs work differently . witouh going into the technicalities of how they work, they basically sense a very small current leakage, typically 30mA ( 0.03A) as printed on the RCD. It is considered that 30mA is an insufficient current to be fatal, although you would probably still feel a shock. hope this clears it up a bit for you.

 

[Edhie421]

hope this clears it up a bit for you.

It does, thank you very much! I'm frankly delighted to absorb a bit of knowledge on the topic. I knew nothing at all about it 24h ago and I know... Well, next to nothing, but more than yesterday - and the household is closer to staying alive, so I count that as a win!

 

[Pretty Mouth]

Hmmm. Switch does not give shock. Fault on kettle causes breaker to trip. Switch now gives shock. Kettle disconnected. Switch no longer gives shock.

Something very dodgy is going on here! At a guess, I'd say 2 interconnected circuits, or perhaps a polarity problem?

 

[Faceso]

Hi everyone,

Not an electrician myself, but seeking knowledge, a second opinion and/or advice on the necessity to take action. Hope this is the right forum - please forgive me if not.

We had a big fright today. Post refurbishment work, we put a kettle on in the kitchen and didn't realise it had gotten some water into the base. Clearly that must have messed with it because the breaker tripped and every socket in the flat went without current. So far so good, fusebox working as intended, and kettle about to be replaced.

What's worrisome is what happened next. While we were trying to figure out what was up (didn't immediately get it was the kettle) my partner flicked a light switch on in an adjacent room, and got a big shock (not static, a proper painful, scary one).
The lights are on a different circuit breaker from the sockets, and it hadn't tripped, and didn't trip even when my partner was shocked.
The switch itself is metallic rather than plastic, and it's new (we've been in the flat for years but our previous switches were plastic.) We have several switches of that same make now.
Once the kettle was unplugged, everything went back to normal, and the switches now work properly.
That said, I'm very wary now. It was my understanding that a properly earthed switch, even a metallic one, shouldn't lead to that sort of incident.

Basically, my question is: shall we chalk it up to bad luck/defective kettle/bad practice having it too close to the sink, and try to forget about this?
Or is it more probable there is a wiring issue somewhere, and should I call a licensed electrician to have it checked?

Hi,
It's definitely a good idea to have an electrician check things out if you experienced a shock from flipping a light switch. It's possible that there is an issue with the wiring and it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Markyd]

although the other ones are connected to newly rewired rooms,

Do you have the cert for the work carried out

 

[DPG]

Thread is from July 2020.

 

[Midwest]

I think there was a shortage of ’electricians’ available to visit during COViD 1, indeed if they were allowed, if you follow my drift.