What happened here.

[La Poste]

A backpacking student was electrocuted when he touched a live socket as he sheltered from a storm on a beautiful Thai island.
Charlie Thomas, from Sale in Greater Manchester, was killed instantly when he put his hand on the wet power outlet set in a tiled pavement outside a department store on Phuket.

British backpacker electrocuted and killed in Thailand after touching live power socket while sheltering from storm | Mail Online

The article says it was an electrical socket, reading this I wonder what the voltage was at the socket, surely more than 230 Volts, I mean he must have just leaned on it with one hand.

What do you think?

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[Estimator]

The article says it was an electrical socket, reading this I wonder what the voltage was at the socket, surely more than 230 Volts, I mean he must have just leaned on it with one hand.

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I lived in thailand for a few years and did a few foreigners there, the voltage is 240V well kind of everything is fed via overhead lines with pole mounted transformers every so often, so if you're "lucky" you get around 250V.

Most places don't have earthed sockets, just the 2P ones, although there was a rumour going round a few years ago that you had to put 3P&E ones in before you would get a supply. This was kind of generally ignored though, you either bought the inspector a bottle of whisky to look the other way and just connect the supply. 3P&E being present does not however mean that an earth wire gets put in, you don't get a MET as they're TT supplies or something similar and not many Thais seem to bother with earth rods.

On getting a shock, I was putting a light up for a mate in his bar and I got right belt from the wooden frame holding the roof up, it was a palm leaf roof and it had rained for a week so with all the tape joints that were around, not really surprising...

 

[Geordie Spark]

A backpacking student was electrocuted when he touched a live socket as he sheltered from a storm on a beautiful Thai island.
Charlie Thomas, from Sale in Greater Manchester, was killed instantly when he put his hand on the wet power outlet set in a tiled pavement outside a department store on Phuket.

British backpacker electrocuted and killed in Thailand after touching live power socket while sheltering from storm | Mail Online

The article says it was an electrical socket, reading this I wonder what the voltage was at the socket, surely more than 230 Volts, I mean he must have just leaned on it with one hand.

What do you think?

​

Who cares?

It wasn't in the UK - the land of Part Pee and I had nowt to do with it. (Part Pee or the installation)

 

[StuSpiers]

I lived in Thailand for 2 years.

This is very common but I do actually remember this one.

Broken socket in pavement outside department/shopping centre - water Fountain nearby (so hence water on pavement).

Bloke would have almost certainly been wearing flip flops.

Couple all this with a 240V 50Hz system (same as us) with absolutely no regulation = Death very common from electrocution for the unwary.

Basicly if you go to Thailand and see a cable/electrical fitting that is flapping around FFS DO NOT go near! - It will be live and it will kill you.

 

[Dave 85]

Remember, It's not the Voltage that kills you, it's the current flowing through your heart.
Humans, water & electricity - not a good combination.
Google 'fatal current' for further reading.

Personally I think I'd rather have 20amps at 9volts than 20 amps at 11KV

Saying 'It's not the Voltage that kills you, it's the current flowing through your heart'
is a bit like saying
'Its not the speed of the car that kills you its the weight of the car driving into your legs'

 

[Silly Sausage]

Check out Live Working geezers who work on energised xyzKV lines.
They're at huge potentials, but because they are not part of a circuit, no current flow. Hence they can go back to work the next day.

edit...

I'd like to see you dance with 20 Amps cruising through your body, at any voltage.
Assuming you hadn't vapourised in the meantime

 

[Engineer54]

How about don't go to Thailand. That said, in our apartment in Florida there were sockets about 200mm above hand basins

Yes, but that socket was what they call a GFI (RCD) protected socket and the voltage would have been 115V and the tripping value 5/6mA max!!

 

[Rockingit]

I had a massive barny with a genny supply company in India a few years back... they gave me my (ropey) supply from a genset they left on the actual pavement outside, and the supply tails were bare lugs on untightened bolts just sticking out from the body - left open with no cover or anything at all. 415v readily available and waist height to walk into on a busy pavement. Their eventual answer to my demands for insulation?......a carrier bag. Life is cheap on an awful lot of Planet Earth.

 

[Engineer54]

I had a massive barny with a genny supply company in India a few years back... they gave me my (ropey) supply from a genset they left on the actual pavement outside, and the supply tails were bare lugs on untightened bolts just sticking out from the body - left open with no cover or anything at all. 415v readily available and waist height to walk into on a busy pavement. Their eventual answer to my demands for insulation?......a carrier bag. Life is cheap on an awful lot of Planet Earth.

Bet it wasn't long, before there were at least half a dozen connections to those exposed terminations going in all directions!! lol!! :blush5::001_9898:

 

[Rockingit]

Probably!! But I was inside by that time, someone elses problem.

 

[trev]

Yes, but that socket was what they call a GFI (RCD) protected socket and the voltage would have been 115V and the tripping value 5/6mA max!!

Yeah I know the voltage is lower than here but I didn't realise that they'd have an RCD with an operating current that low.
Every day's a schoolday. Cheers mate

 

[La Poste]

And I'm guessing they have an earth circuit in the US which they don't seem to have in Thailand.

Well they might have an earth circuit in new modern developments but certainly not out in the sticks.

I just wonder if their transformers are earthed you know through the star point at least that way you could build your own TT system.

Does anyone know if their supply transformers are earthed in Thailand?