Just had a strong jolt when I turned on a double socket when at the
same time I was touching a tap in the kitchen. The tap is a combined
hot and cold one. I tried the adjacent socket and another double
socket which is also close enough to the kitchen tap to touch both but
they were fine. I then tried the probem socket again and got the same
jolt. If it's relevant I was wearing a "croc" type shoe.

My electrical tester is broken so I had to rely on an electric screw
driver tester with a neon light. This lit up when in contact with the
socket switch, so assume its a fault with the socket switch.

However, what concerns me is how can you protect yourself from this as
the jolt was fairly strong for an adult, it could be more serious for
a child.

Also, does it indicate a fault with the electrics in the house? The
kitchen is on a separate old fashioned consumer unit with wired fuses
and no RCD protection, while the rest of the ground floor is wired via
a modern consumer unit with an RCD and MCBs. The electrics had been
tested 2 or 3 years ago and as far as I am aware the metal work is
properly bonded.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Geoff

On 7 Oct, 12:09, geoffr <geoffro...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> However, what concerns me is how can you protect yourself from this as
> the jolt was fairly strong for an adult, it could be more serious for
> a child.

Frequently fatal. This sort of shock (touching a good earth when
you're already at an elevated potential) is one of the few that kills
people in practice. Newsreader's daughter from a couple of years ago?
Many people put up with "that switch that always gives you a tingle"
for an incredibly long time, then get killed by it on the day they're
walking barefoot across the spilled water or similar.

You have at least two faults here, both serious enough to be "pull the
fuses and fix immediately".

Firstly your socket faceplate is live. Bad.

Secondly your socket faceplate isn't earthed, via a good low-impedance
earth path. Assuming that fault #1 arises in the nature of wear &
tear, then this should have been sufficient to send a fault current
back through that earth and pop the fuse, thus isolating(sic) the
circuit.

I'd regard #2 as serious here (#1 obviously is) because although poor
earths are endemic in old installations, it sounds here as if you have
a metal-fronted socket which I'd guess was more recent and really
should be earthed properly.