<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14083006#post14083006 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul B
You never felt a thing because "you" were not gounded and you have more resistance than the water. The breaker would have tripped if the heater was closer to the probe. Salt water acted as a load just like a light bulb because it has resistance.
I also would assume that your ground probe was defective but I can't tell from here.
But if you decided to get a glass of water from the sink while your hand was in there with the broken heater, you would have a different respect for electricity.
If the current does not have any place to go it doesen't go anywhere. There are only two places current can go. To the neutral (or white wire) or to the ground. The neutral and ground are connected together in your panel but if you are using a GFCI breaker the neutral wire goes into the breaker before it goes to the neutral bar. This is not important for you to know.
As an electrician we normally work on live circuits and I can touch any live contact as long as no part of me is touching anything that is grounded which is why you diden't get a shock with your hand in the tank. See all those birds and squirrels standing on those live wires? They are completely safe as long as they don't touch a grounded object while they are there. Generally grounded things are not put near live high voltage circuits or you would see a lot of exploding birds and squirrels.
And they would explode completely leaving only some fur or feathers.
Almost all lighting circuits in cities now is 277 volts and the machinery is 480. It is much cheaper to wire a building like that because you can put more than twice as many lights on a circuit with the same size wire and copper wire is very expensive now.
It costs about as much as purple tangs
