house help: If you do not have access to the mains power supply, and the earthing in your house is not proper, is there anything you can do to prevent shocks ? - Help.com

what do you mean that you have no access to the main power supply?

What makes you think your apartment is not properly grounded? How did you check it? Can you measure any potential between the common line and water pipe ground?

Ron

I do not have any idea of what you are saying, maybe consult some experts of friends who have knowledge about this field…

It’s more than likely that your building may have some minor electrical problems resulting from the main breaker being damaged or improperly grounded due to faulty lines or even worse, the foundation has cut into the underground lines. My only assistance I can give to you are 2 things:

(1) Call your local electricity company. They will send out a worker to inspect the building and it’s compliance with county or city codes, including the electrical hook-ups and main breaker system. If there is something wrong with them to the extent that the building must be shut down until the landlord fixes the problem, then you may be out of a home. Normally the case isn’t so.

(2) Wrap every cord you have plugged in permanently (or even semi-permanently) in electrical tape (comes in all different colors not just black at the home supply store). Wrap the plugged end of the cord from 1/2″ below the female end, all the way up and over completely covering any space between the socket and the plug. This will nearly stop all shocks and “zzzzzbt”s until the time you move and find a safer living situation or have the electric company take a look at your apartment.

This may just be an isolated incident.

If you are using an unpolarized plug (the blades can be plugged in either way), like in the USA, try taking it out and plugging it in the other way. That should reduce the shocking potential.

ronrumpf wrote:
What makes you think your apartment is not properly grounded? How did you check it? Can you measure any potential between the common line and water pipe ground?

Ron

Here in Michigan ron, a person can not use a water pipe to “ground”. Here in Michigan we have to use an “electrical grounding stake”. Supposedly it is to reduce the potential for electrocution. All house wiring in the USA has a “common neutral” and two hot lines. As much as people think the third wire is a ground, it is not, it is a “neutral” wire. “Ground” wire is just that a true “Earth ground”. There is a LED display tool that can tell a person can buy that will display if the wiring is done correctly. If it is done correct all three lights will light up. If not then the display will show which wire is wrong on the electrical plug-in the socket. Costs about $20.00 (USD). It can be bought at most hardware stores, Lowes, Home depots, Radio Shacks, pretty much all over

neku wrote:
There is a mains distribution board for the building complex and I do not have access to it for checking the earthing. I have complained many times, but it is not getting rectified.

Anonymous wrote:

ronrumpf wrote:
What makes you think your apartment is not properly grounded? How did you check it? Can you measure any potential between the common line and water pipe ground?Ron

Here in Michigan ron, a person can not use a water pipe to “ground”. Here in Michigan we have to use an “electrical grounding stake”. Supposedly it is to reduce the potential for electrocution. All house wiring in the USA has a “common neutral” and two hot lines. As much as people think the third wire is a ground, it is not, it is a “neutral” wire. “Ground” wire is just that a true “Earth ground”. There is a LED display tool that can tell a person can buy that will display if the wiring is done correctly. If it is done correct all three lights will light up. If not then the display will show which wire is wrong on the electrical plug-in the socket. Costs about $20.00 (USD). It can be bought at most hardware stores, Lowes, Home depots, Radio Shacks, pretty much all over

neku you should be able to do that from the sockets within your apartment. Also what I informed ron about a socket checking plug uses a LED to display whether a plug is wired right. I do not know where you live.

I fixed one apartment were I lived one time. Kept having a circuit breaker kicking out (blowing out), I only had one item on it, my TV. I had asked the management to get it repaired. They stalled, I eventually to management that I was (and I was for real) insured with rents insurance. That if my apartment burned down I would be covered and I would have to then it over to my insurance company and tell them about the potential electrical fire hazard (because the circuit breaker would get hot and kick out). Two weeks later the commercial electrician came in, I asked him if the wiring was Aluminum (this apartment complex was built in ‘62′ when they used Aluminum wiring). He told me no, until he got into the box, then he told me it was Aluminum wiring. So he re-tightened all of the connections. That fixed it. The reason they no longer use Aluminum for wiring is because the fire hazard. The Aluminum wire needs a different contact then copper wire, if they don’t have that special Aluminum contact, the wire suffers from the physical vibration and loosens up the contact.

Judging by your wording of “earthing” I suspect you are not in the US. For that I would contact your housing authority and find out what rights you have as a tenant in your complex on issues such as these. Like an above poster said, here in the states it is a criminally negligent offense to not have proper electrical wiring.

I would have to agree that the wiring you are dealing with is most likely aluminum, if you are getting shocks from just plugging in electronics or a vaccuum cleaner. This old wiring was subject to connections vibrating loose or wiring becoming brittle and cracking. With any type of loose connection or gap, or even a crack in the wire core itself, this may just sit idle if the outlet is not being used. But once you complete the circuit by plugging an item into that outlet, the electricity will bridge the gap of that loose connection or crackand will sometimes travel through the entire circuit looking to a way to ground out. Yourself being the closest thing to the ground, will be the target of the shock.

If you live in a housing complex it is up to the owners to fix this if they are not then call a professional explain all this to them and the owners will be charged with the call and any repairs

Well most circuits now a days are grounded do you have a third pin hole? you can also check for grounding without buying any special equipment just carefully unscrew the plug ( preferably with a rubber handled screwdriver) (and you can wear the rubber dish washing glove if you want to) pull it out a bit and look at the back of it there should be a red and black wire (in some outlets there are 2 sets of red and black) and one wire that is white, green, or plain copper wire that is you ground or (”earthing”) wire if you see that wire then your outlet is grounded. hope this is helpful be careful if you do this or do it when the power is turned off ( you should have a breaker or fuze box somewhere in your house.

simplest way to check any electrical outlet for proper wiring
is to buy a small plug-in tester. It will have three lights on it.
There will be a table on the side of the tester which tells you
every possible combination of wiring faults. You simply look at the lights
read the table and you have your answer. These are quite cheap
less than $10.

try having ground fault interrupter outlets installed one for each circuit in your apartment. if one trips you can just push a button on it and reset it. these are a must for outlets close to sinks and tubs.