[VACList] Re: VACList Digest V3 #274 - 12 volt shock?

[<waymark1@xxxxxxxx>]

Yes, 12 volts can shock a person, not only a small child. 12 V or as much as 
16-18 V is used on the tracks of model trains. Toy trains (like 3 rail Lionel) 
may have as much as 24 V at no load. I have been "tingled" many times by leaning 
on the rails with the thin skin of my forearm.

12 volts can even kill if the electrodes penetrate the skin and the power supply 
has low internal resistance (like a storage battery). Dry skin has somewhere in 
the neighborhood of 50,000 ohms resistance but damp skin is much lower. The 
internal body resistance is only a few ohms as we are made largely of salt water, 
a good conductor.

Though 12 V is much less hazardous to us than 110/120 and 220/240 V, electricity 
is nothing to trifle with. Only a few milliamps running through the heart is 
dangerous.

If the landline power supply has reverse polarity, what is supposed to be the 
neutral (white) wire in your trailer's 110/120 V wiring is hot, which can be 
very dangerous as it is connected to the chassis and body of your trailer, as is 
the ground wire from the grounding prong hole of your trailer's receptacles.

You most likely have a 120 V problem. The 12 V wiring is not grounded to a 
landline power supply like the 110/120 V wiring (no separate ground wire and 
socket). It should be, though, grounded to the frame of your trailer.

I have an old 1958 GE refrigerator at the house. Once I was "tingled" by it, so 
I unplugged it, turned the original nonpolarized plug around and plugged it back 
in. No more "tingle."
Al Grayson