"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

Don't have any RCDs here because the house was built in the very
early 70s by me. Didn’t get even a visible burn.

I think I would always get a whole-supply RCD fitted if the house didn't
have one. Even better is a separate RCD for each circuit so a failed light
fitting doesn't trip all the 3-pin plugs as well.

I don't think any of the shocks that I have had (various 240V mains, and one
of about 400 V from a transformer that powered a valve amplifier in a tape
recorder) gave me burns, just "dead" arms/fingers for a while afterwards.
All except one were without RCD protection.

The most recent one (a few weeks ago) was with RCD, and though it gave me a
bit of a jolt, there was no lasting effect. Just as well considering I think
it was arm to arm (across the heart) and my heart may be less tolerant after
I had a heart attack eight years ago. The circumstances were about as stupid
as you can imagine - I'm ashamed to say that I made the elementary mistake
of seeing that the light bulbs were off and thinking that that meant the
wall switch was off - forgetting that the bulbs are all Philips Hue which
are left permanently powered but the LEDs can be turned off. I'd been so
good about turning off both wall switch and lighting circuit MCB, apart from
that one time when I needed to make yet another change to the wiring between
one ceiling spotlight and another, and couldn't be arsed to go downstairs to
the circuit breaker and thought I'd rely on the wall switch.