metal halide accident...
- Thread starter Pico1
- Start date
Wee-Reef Master
New member
Geez Jordan,
I won't try to top that! Glad you're relativley OK and hope you recover soon!
I won't try to top that! Glad you're relativley OK and hope you recover soon!
Pico1
New member
Thanks again everyone!
Doug: You know me pretty well!
Mike: They thought it was funny that I was more worried about the bulbs than my burns leaving the house. I guess only a reefer can apprecaite that.
Steve: That looks bad man! Were you able to let go right away? Good thing you weren't working on a roof or something when that happened. I can't imagine working for PG&E and having to work with electricty on top of a telephone pole.
John: Thanks man!
Justin: Thanks! I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. Nothing is scarier than losing ALL control of your entire body!
Sherie: I was thinking the same thing when I saw that!
Xia: Thanks! Hair's fine. I'm getting some rubber gloves.
Ed: I got to use that today at the grocery store. They were like "OMG!" Their face was priceless!
hahnmeister: I would be dead if it was 20,000 Volts. 250W MH=120V=~1/4 lightning strike. I'd pay money to see a cop running around with a tazer the size and weight of my ballast!
racrumrine: Thanks! I saw the thread you posted. It's amazing how similar our threads are.
GreshamH: Thanks but what does my right hand have to do with it? Although my friend did mention I could say I can't write my final exams next week.
I have to write a "blue book" paper on a topic chosen the day of the final. 
Wee-Reef Master: Thanks!
Doug: You know me pretty well!
Mike: They thought it was funny that I was more worried about the bulbs than my burns leaving the house. I guess only a reefer can apprecaite that.
Steve: That looks bad man! Were you able to let go right away? Good thing you weren't working on a roof or something when that happened. I can't imagine working for PG&E and having to work with electricty on top of a telephone pole.
John: Thanks man!
Justin:
Thanks! I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. Nothing is scarier than losing ALL control of your entire body!Sherie: I was thinking the same thing when I saw that!
Xia: Thanks! Hair's fine. I'm getting some rubber gloves.
Ed: I got to use that today at the grocery store. They were like "OMG!" Their face was priceless!
hahnmeister: I would be dead if it was 20,000 Volts. 250W MH=120V=~1/4 lightning strike. I'd pay money to see a cop running around with a tazer the size and weight of my ballast!
racrumrine: Thanks! I saw the thread you posted. It's amazing how similar our threads are.
GreshamH: Thanks but what does my right hand have to do with it? Although my friend did mention I could say I can't write my final exams next week.
I have to write a "blue book" paper on a topic chosen the day of the final. Wee-Reef Master: Thanks!
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Volts dont kill you, amps do. You can easily withstand 20,000 volts... heck, you can withstand much more. It just tends to hurt. You know those spheres at the funpark that cause people's hair to stand on end? Thats voltage, but with very little/no amps.
120v is what the ballast takes in, but its the ballast's job to transform that. Its the amps*volts which equals the wattage... and a 250watt ballast usually takes in somewhere between 270 and 320 watts. That wattage is converted so that during startup, the voltage is very high, since the higher the voltage, the greater distance/higher resistance the electricity can arc across. So while the ballast may have put 20,000 volts through you, its doing so with .0125 amps... enough to cook you a little, but not enough to kill you.
http://www.taser.com/pages/pr/qa.html#4
"High voltage, in itself, is not dangerous. One can receive a 25,000-volt shock of static electricity from a doorknob on a dry day without harm. The physiological effect of electrical shock is determined by: the current, its duration, and the power source that produces the shock. The typical household current of 110 volts is dangerous because it can pump many amperes of current throughout the body indefinitely. By contrast, the ADVANCED TASER power supply consists of 8 AA alkaline 1.5-Volt batteries capable of supplying 26 Watts of electrical power for a few seconds."
You may also want to read #5 and #6 on that page...
What Im trying to say is that while you may have been cooked a little, you may have not been in any real danger at all... just had the living daylights tasered out of you for 30 seconds straight.
120v is what the ballast takes in, but its the ballast's job to transform that. Its the amps*volts which equals the wattage... and a 250watt ballast usually takes in somewhere between 270 and 320 watts. That wattage is converted so that during startup, the voltage is very high, since the higher the voltage, the greater distance/higher resistance the electricity can arc across. So while the ballast may have put 20,000 volts through you, its doing so with .0125 amps... enough to cook you a little, but not enough to kill you.
http://www.taser.com/pages/pr/qa.html#4
"High voltage, in itself, is not dangerous. One can receive a 25,000-volt shock of static electricity from a doorknob on a dry day without harm. The physiological effect of electrical shock is determined by: the current, its duration, and the power source that produces the shock. The typical household current of 110 volts is dangerous because it can pump many amperes of current throughout the body indefinitely. By contrast, the ADVANCED TASER power supply consists of 8 AA alkaline 1.5-Volt batteries capable of supplying 26 Watts of electrical power for a few seconds."
You may also want to read #5 and #6 on that page...
What Im trying to say is that while you may have been cooked a little, you may have not been in any real danger at all... just had the living daylights tasered out of you for 30 seconds straight.
kevin95695
Member of the Registry
Who's taking care of your reef...???
Justin74
New member
Hey Hanmeister: I know you mean well( I think?) as to put any overly concern to ease, but just the same we are not all made of the same calibur. Suppose our good friend and member had a weak heart, or other related issues. Ya, then it could've been lethal. Or other reefers out there. Unlike Pico there not all strapping young lads, many are overwieght, middle aged, high cholesterol, yaddi yaddi yadda. Which could result in poor outcomes for those that may not read and take heed.
I just got finished reading about a man who died from 57 sec worth of taser, which is 10X more than normal, so what does that make Pico's 30 sec only 5X?
Point is, his doctor sounded a lil more concerned and sombre, I think I would take that to heart moreso than someone telling me "well, it shouldnt really kill you..." No offense, but you know what I mean?
-Justin
I just got finished reading about a man who died from 57 sec worth of taser, which is 10X more than normal, so what does that make Pico's 30 sec only 5X?
Point is, his doctor sounded a lil more concerned and sombre, I think I would take that to heart moreso than someone telling me "well, it shouldnt really kill you..." No offense, but you know what I mean?
-Justin
clevername
New member
im sorry but i cant stop laughing out loud. I was thinking the same thing, but didnt have the balls to say it.
HEHEHEHEHEHE; Thats a TRUE reefer
Glad your OK, i have 5 GFCI outlets collecting dust next to my tank. It been there for about 3 months and now you have encourage/scared the **** out of me to install them tonight!
Thanks, you may have save me!
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9470088#post9470088 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pico1
GreshamH: Thanks but what does my right hand have to do with it? Although my friend did mention I could say I can't write my final exams next week.
All the electricians I know, say they only use their right hand to hold to do "live" or "hot" work. The left side of the body is where the heart is and from what I've been told, If you gert zapped thru your left hand, it has more effect on the heart.
At any rate, I am not trying to degrade what happenned to you. IMO is was serious and I am really glad you are OK.
I gotta ask, did you get that gnarly taste of burnt aluminum? When ever I get zapped (not too often) I get that taste.
Underwaterparadise
New member
HOLY ****** glad to hear you are OK!
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Tasers do go through your body... the voltage at least. Its the very essence of electrical potential. If all that a taser did was go through where the two contact points are, then you wouldnt be able to bring down a whole person by simply tasering them in the butt 2cm apart. Voltage is distributed evenly across a whole area/body. Its the amps that take the shortest path (or the one of least resistance). If you study/look up ohm's law with resistors, you will see how this comes into play with distribution of charge across parallel resistors. Voltage across an entire node is constant... in this case, the node is a body. Amps however, take the path of least resistance.
As for 'we are all built different, so who knows'... well... .0125 amps is about 1/100th of the amps needed to 'possibly' kill someone even. I think tasers put out more than that. Assuming Jordan doesnt have a pacemaker or a weak heart, he would easily be able to withstand that combination of voltage/current. Right, there is always that freak possibility that he could have gone into defib like those few hit with tasers that have reactions, but in general, its about 1/1000th the current of the actual wall socket... so his chances of getting killed from grounding a halide while its starting are pretty low. He just gets a joy buzzer shock from hell.
Of course, I could be wrong... I would have to talk with PaulErik to make sure about that starting voltage number. With a pulse start ballast, the voltage may be high, but the caps might also store enough current so when it pulses the amps would jump up for the firing sequence... depends on the ballasts. But something tells me that since his bulbs werent firing, he just has cheaper M58 ballasts... which is a good thing. An M80 might have fried him for sure with its higher starting current. Looking at the burns on his arm, I would think that there must have been some current, and the places where he burned are where his skin either came in contact with clothing or other objects around him (grounds)... and the amps cooked a little... voltage doesnt cook like that.
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hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Here, I just found this... sorry to pull the thread off topic a little, and I am glad Jordan didnt earn himself a Darwin Award, but if the ballast was at .0125 amps... it wouldnt do much...
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/JackHsu.shtml
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/JackHsu.shtml
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
huh? Im over myself. I dont see how that has anything to do with this subject though. If thats a personal comment or critical remark aimed at me, be aware that it is a violation of the UA and we can let a moderator help you get over me.
If you want to point out how tasers, voltage, and amps work, be my guest. You are a science geek/student, so you should know about ohm's law and distribution of charges.
If you want to point out how tasers, voltage, and amps work, be my guest. You are a science geek/student, so you should know about ohm's law and distribution of charges.
