The other day I was talking to my brother who has started a new job as an electrician's helper. He told me "I learned a new thing: rubber soled boots isolate you from the ground so technically you could touch a live wire and the current wouldn't have anywhere to go, so you wouldn't get shocked." I replied with something that I've always "known" to be true, since I can remember: "that is a dangerous misconception. Actually your boot soles are the dielectric layer of a capacitor. Your body is one plate, and the ground is another. AC can flow through a capacitor. You can still get a potentially lethal shock while wearing rubber soles."
I don't know where I heard that, but I've always believed it. We revisited the conversation today and he said he looked it up and couldn't verify my claims. So I went to look it up for him, and I can't find any confirmation of what I said. I'm reading things that say as long as you're wearing the appropriately rated electrical workboots with no holes, you should not get shocked. As well, they talk about lineman's rubber gloves.
I know lineman's gloves work. That should be the same principle. If I can work on high voltage (barefoot) with lineman's gloves then I should be able to work on the same circuit without lineman's gloves, but wearing rubber soles instead, right?
I've worn thick rubber soled boots my whole working career and accidentally brushed live circuits several times. 120v, 240v, 480, all of them shocked me despite the boots. I've been shocked in the past month, by 120v; the boots I'm wearing have rubber soles 3/4" thick.
So what's the deal? Did I make up this capacitor theory and convince myself of it? Is it real? If it's not real then why do I get shocked despite my boots? If it is real, then where can I find documentation of it and why is the internet so quick to contradict me?
I don't know where I heard that, but I've always believed it. We revisited the conversation today and he said he looked it up and couldn't verify my claims. So I went to look it up for him, and I can't find any confirmation of what I said. I'm reading things that say as long as you're wearing the appropriately rated electrical workboots with no holes, you should not get shocked. As well, they talk about lineman's rubber gloves.
I know lineman's gloves work. That should be the same principle. If I can work on high voltage (barefoot) with lineman's gloves then I should be able to work on the same circuit without lineman's gloves, but wearing rubber soles instead, right?
I've worn thick rubber soled boots my whole working career and accidentally brushed live circuits several times. 120v, 240v, 480, all of them shocked me despite the boots. I've been shocked in the past month, by 120v; the boots I'm wearing have rubber soles 3/4" thick.
So what's the deal? Did I make up this capacitor theory and convince myself of it? Is it real? If it's not real then why do I get shocked despite my boots? If it is real, then where can I find documentation of it and why is the internet so quick to contradict me?