Are you feeling light tingles when you touch shower knobs or other metallic plumbing fixtures? According to the electrical safety standards, your bathroom’s electrical system should be well-grounded to avoid electric shocks, so you should be concerned by any tingling from shower knobs and sink faucets. The best you can do in this case is to contact a Colorado electrician to help.
How Does A Shower Head Work?
Turning your knob to the right automatically directs the trim to pull water from the storage, which goes into the pipes. Cold water flows through the pipes into the heater, and once the water is hot, excess cold and hot water mix in the valve, releasing the water off the shower head.
Why You Are Getting Tingles From Your Shower Knobs
Grounding is when excess electrical current is directed to the ground through a metal plate fixed on the ground to protect any building and its occupants from excessively high voltage. The problem in your case can occur when your house has poor grounding, and a hot water pipe is electrified due to faults in the house’s wiring. Once you feel the tingles or get shocked by a tap or a shower knob in the house, you should avoid the area and immediately call a professional Arvada electrician.
What Causes Electric Shocks with Shower Knobs?
Electric shock is a serious safety concern that needs immediate addressing to stop further safety issues. As much as it is recommended to have a residential electrician from the Denver metro area fix the problem, it is good to know the possible causes. These include:
- Electrical Storms
Showering under a shower head when it’s raining is not recommended. During a thunderstorm, lightning can strike electrical wires and other conducting materials, which can cause a surge of electricity to flow in your house’s plumbing system. With the electrical surge, the water in the plumbing system can easily get electrified, thus potentially`electrocuting anyone in contact with shower knobs, faucets, and other metal plumbing fixtures around the house.
To ensure electrical safety for every occupant in the house, keeping off all faucets during a storm until the rain stops is the best idea.
- Improperly Grounded Appliances
Using improperly grounded appliances such as hair dryers or electric shavers often causes electricity to flow into your plumbing system. This means anyone touching a plumbing metal fixture within the system can get electrocuted. You can only avoid this if professional electricians from Denver regularly inspect your house.
- Stray Voltages
This occurs when electrical currents leak into the ground with underground cables or other electrical equipment. When either of these gets into contact with plumbing pipes, it increases the chances of electrocution when someone touches a shower knob, faucet, or other metallic plumbing fixture. The stray voltages are often a result of different factors, including faulty wiring, which creates a path for electricity to flow through the shower knob or faucet.
- Poor installation of plumbing fixtures
If installed improperly, plumbing pipes can make contact with electrical wiring and other electrical appliances that cause current to flow to the pipes. This, too, leads to electrocution upon touching the faucet. Note that the intensity of the current flowing through the pipes will determine the degree of electrocution.
What to Do Incase of an Electric Shock at Home
Electrocution can be quite fatal if not managed in time. So, when one is electrocuted, here are the right things to do while waiting for professional help:
Turn Off The Power
The first and most important step is to turn off the power at the mains to prevent more current from flowing to the circuit and causing further damage. Remember, you should not assist the electrocuted person until the main power source is turned off to prevent you from getting electrocuted too.
Check for a Pulse
Electrical shocks can be quite intense. First, you must ensure the electrocuted person is breathing and has a noticeable pulse. If the person is not breathing, you’ll note it through their lack of a pulse. You should, therefore, help resuscitate the victim until medical help arrives.
Move the victim
If the electrocuted victim is still close to the cause of electrocution, you need to help move them away from the electrical source. You must, however, ensure you only touch the person after all electrical mains are switched off. Otherwise, you, too, will be at risk of electrocution. It’s also important to note that you should not touch their skin or clothes directly when moving them. Instead, use a non-conductive material such as a wooden object to push them away from the source of electrocution.
Call An Electrician
Once the victim is in safe hands that would manage their injuries, call a residential or a local electrician that will inspect the house for the appropriate fix. You may sometimes have to cater for any necessary repairs unless you have your house insured. However, if you are still covered by the electrical company that did your first installation in the house, you can have them make the necessary repairs at little to no cost.
Electrical Safety Facts to Remember About Your Bathroom
- Avoid using hair dryers and other electrical radiating appliances in the bathroom or other water sources. This is because condensation can get through to the appliances and be a potential cause for electrical shocks along the water line.
- Avoid handling electrical appliances with wet hands. Before touching your equipment, dry your hands with a towel to prevent your electricals from coming into contact with water and causing electrocution. Do not be ignorant of any appliance. Even the smallest, like flat irons and electric shavers, can cause electrocution.
- Central heating has become the best and safest way to warm your room. However, if you have an electric beater, keep it away from your bathroom, kitchen, or toilet to avoid electrocution in water.
- Do not attempt your electrical repairs if you are not qualified to do so. Instead, call professional electricians in the Denver metro area to help with any electrical repairs.
Importance Of Understanding The Reasons For Electrical Shocks In The Bathroom
The importance of electrical safety awareness at home cannot be understated. The main reasons for this include:
Identifying Potential Hazards
By frequently inspecting your house, you can identify any risks that could cause possible electrocution. It is important that you have a residential electrician do these surveys around the house, but if you can do it in person, it’s much better since you can note a problem before it escalates.
How To Reduce The Risks
Once you have identified the risks, you can prevent any possible cause of electrocution or teach your house occupants how to handle different issues. However, when it gets to wiring systems and electrical circuitry, you must let trained persons take over.
Conclusion
The bathroom is one area you cannot avoid. In most cases, it is often accessed by everyone in the house, therefore you must learn to keep the bathroom safe from all electrical problems. In this case, the best approach to avoid future problems is scheduling frequent inspections with residential Denver metro area electricians to keep the house safe for everyone.