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Old 04-16-2010, 01:00 PM   #24
RickB
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City: Fort Lauderdale
Vessel Model: CHB 48 Zodiac YL 4.2
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,804
Electricity in water / diver drownings

Quote:
C lectric wrote:If you have an inverter or a generator running you could have the same problem. A fault in the grounding in the boat could cause a similar situation.
Not really the same as there is no path between the boat and the world for a person to provide a better conductor.

If a boat is floating along at anchor or just floating and the safety ground on a microwave (for example) becomes disconnected and the same meteor strike that cut the ground wire also nicked the insulation on the hot wire and forced it against the housing, the next person to lean on the microwave might get zapped if he or she was touching something else that still had a ground connection to the source but none of that power would leave the boat to put a swimmer at risk.

If the ground wasn't broken but the meteor strike connected the hot wire with the housing, the current flow would be great enough to pop the protective fuse or breaker, assuming the system used a grounded neutral.

The difference between that scenario and the electrified water hazard is that there is no return path through the water since the source is in the hull itself, it is not referenced to earth as is utility power.


-- Edited by RickB on Friday 16th of April 2010 02:04:00 PM
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