On 3/13/2013 5:22 PM, David Kerzel wrote:
Has anyone googled "electrocutions at RV parks"?
OK, I just did. I found exactly one case, where an electrician was electrocuted after working on a water heater in an RV, when he plugged the power back in. Google found this same one incident, repeated over and over.
Are there others?
The NEMA plugs are over 100 years old and the higher power ones are not safe enough for public use in public locations.
There is no doubt we can do better. However, people plug things in millions of times a day, yet the number of electrocutions is amazingly low.
Note that the shock hazard from a 240vac outlet is no higher than from a 120vac outlet. Both still have 120vac to ground, and by far the most likely cause for electrocution is to have one hand or leg grounded, when the other hand touches some "live" wire at 120vac. You can't get a 240vac shock without simultaneously touching *both* "hot" wires with different hands.
The challenge is in how we decide what is "safe enough". The safety zealots would like everything totally safe; but this is an impossible standard to meet. Attempting to remove *all* risk leads to an impossibly expensive system. Indeed, those who want to STOP a new technology often use extreme safety measures as a way of pricing it off the market.
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