On Monday, October 28, 2013 9:00:11 AM UTC-4, Nate Nagel wrote:
On 10/28/2013 08:17 AM, wrote:

On Sunday, October 27, 2013 5:22:03 PM UTC-4, Nate Nagel wrote:

On 10/27/2013 02:47 PM, Fred wrote:



"Robert Green" wrote in message



...



"Doug Miller" wrote in message



...



"Fred" wrote in :







How can I be getting shocked off my faucet? This happens only in my



bathroom & laundry tub downstairs. It's not all the time, but it's a



good



enough zap to make you jump.







You have at least two problems: a fault in your electrical system



somewhere is energizing that



pipe, and the pipe itself is not properly grounded.







Get a qualified electrician out to look at this ASAP: this could be



fatal.







It's probably a good idea to first determine whether this is a static



electricity shock or an actual 110VAC buzz. I'm betting on the former



because water pipes are *usually* grounded so it's hard to energize them



to



the point of getting a shock unless you're touching something that's an



even



better ground. If walking on a carpet has given your body a static



electric



charge then it could be easily dumped to ground when you touch a faucet



or



some other metal part of the plumbing.







Fred, is your basement carpeted? Are we talking a sudden spark and a zap



or



is there a constant tingling when you touch the faucet? Do you have



plastic



water pipes or copper? Does this happen all the time or just when the



humidity is very low? Do you have an electric water heater or gas unit?







--



Bobby G.







No carpet in basement. There's a constant tingling, and the pipes are



copper. This happens all the time, in fact, I just got shocked off the



kitchen faucet, which is a first! The water heater is gas. The problem



appears to be getting worse.











If you're getting "buzzed" you need to be very careful around your



piping and get it checked out ASAP. You've got at least two problems,



one, the water piping system is (surprisingly) not properly grounded,



two, it's getting AC voltage applied to it from somewhere. If it were



properly grounded, the breaker would have tripped for the voltage source.





The breaker would only trip if:



A - It's a GFCI breaker

or

B - The fault current flowing exceeded the breaker rating.





True, but if the piping were grounded then B) would be true, *except* in

the instance where it is a neutral wire in an appliance that is

connected to the water piping system not a hot, in which case unplugging

the appliance would "fix" the problem (and it'd be easy to guess which

appliance it is, as the issue would only show up when the appliance was

being used.)


You're making the big assumption that a hot that is somehow
connecting to the piping system is in fact a dead short. That
would trip a regular breaker by exceeding the current. But
more typical is that it's not a dead short from a hot, but
some partial short, ie some leakage current getting onto it.
If it was a direct connection from hot the OP would likely be
on his ass or dead.