parryhandy

Well today one of my daughters informed me that she received an electric shock from the railings on top of the outside wall, on the side of our (rented)house!! Anyway whilst questioning the wife about this and her saying "Chinese lady say because of rain, ok now"    the other daughter has grabbed a different section of the railings and has indeed received an electric shock clamping her hand to the rail.After prising her off and getting the odd job man out with his voltmeter the said railings were indeed 220v.

Now according to the odd job man the problem came from a neighbours old outside light which somehow has caused the railings on top of our wall to become live. Anyway he (the neighbour) has cut the cable beneath the switch and the rails are no longer live.

Can someone explain/guess how this has happened ?

here are some pics to help

 DSC06844.JPG   1.5MB   9 downloads    the old switch                    

  

 DSC06845.JPG   940.02K   10 downloads   the hole near the wall where the old fitting was

 DSC06846.JPG   1.99MB   8 downloads   the wall and railings from neighbors side, just above the fitting hole

 DSC06847.JPG   1.91MB   4 downloads   same from our side

How did this make our railings live and can I be sure that we are now safe ?

One good thing is my daughters now fully understand the power of electricity.