I suggested a fault that should be investigated back in post #4. Evidently I was not emphatic enough. That tingle could be a warning. Also, don't the outlets have a switch? The ones that I saw when I visited did have a switch. Quite handy, really.

Visited where ?
I don't see a reference to the country ?
If UK not all outlets had a switch.
People can interpret tingle and shock differently!
Also you do not need to be touching anything with the other hand to experienced a shock,

 

you do not need to be touching anything with the other hand to experienced a shock

In my life I've done something all of you would consider a stupid thing to do - that's work on an outlet or a light fixture without shutting the breaker off. I've stripped and handled the hot wire many times. Maybe even as many as over 100 times. Yeah, I've gotten shocked. The instances where I was shocked was when I contacted the live (hot) wire and either ground or neutral. There have been times when I shut off the light switch expecting this to make the circuit safe but still got shocked because of a practice of some time ago when they used interrupt circuit wiring where hot and neutral went into the fixture and the NEUTRAL was then wired to the switch. The switch opened the circuit but did not remove available power. I've never gotten shocked just touching one source. Not even in automotive ignition. Touching the body of the car and ignition is painful, but just touching the HV itself has never been a sensation where I felt a shock.

In ESD classes I've touched a plate that was charged deliberately to 3000 volts static. When you touched it you virtually could not feel the potential. If you paid real close attention you could actually detect that, yes, you were touching a charged plate. But you didn't feel it because the current was so low as to present no hazard to anyone. OSHA has since disallowed that sort of demonstration. An instructor could not be shocking his/her students. But other than static, I've never been shocked by just one wire. That's personal experience. That doesn't mean you Max have never experienced an electrical shock just contacting one wire. I'm talking home voltages. That precludes industrial power.

 

Try the Anode connection of a colour CRT tube!
Fortunately it starts to arc TO you before you actually make contact !!
In the UK with 230v residential, I have had a couple of doozies, but I learn!

 

A shock or a tingle from an appliance is an indication of leakage, no matter what the wiring of the supply is. Appliances are supposed to be isolated. So at that point a check for voltage between the appliance and a fairly solid ground can reveal what is happening.
Of course it could also be like at a cottage I once visited. An electric stove connected to a recently installed breaker panel. The stove was giving folks nasty shocks. So I was asked to ground it to the plumbing of the nearby sink, fed by a well. I got a GOOD SPARK when I touched the ground wire to the faucet. Every touch produced a solid spark.
The bottom line was that whenthe outlet was wired, (3 black wires) the installer exchanged one hot lead with the neutral. So the stove did not work right, and the body was about 100 volts off ground. Putting the neutral on the neutral terminal in the socket , where it should be, solved the problem. This is why neural wires should be white.

 

Visited where ?
I don't see a reference to the country ?
If UK not all outlets had a switch.
People can interpret tingle and shock differently!
Also you do not need to be touching anything with the other hand to experienced a shock,

It was in the UK, city of Birmingham. Two or three residences and the B&B where I stayed for two weeks. Back in about 1988, I think. I was servicing a large laboratory carburetor testing machine we had sold them a year earlier. Which I had no part in the design of, by the way.

 

I know UL, CE, IEC, and maybe others require double insulation for ungrounded portable appliances but just how universal is that requirement in most of the world? I don't think we had it in the US until ~1960 or so because I remember a Sears aluminum cased hand drill circa 1950s that we replaced when it got too hard to hold onto due to shocking. Went from a mild tingle to a pretty good zap depending on where you put your other hand. We didn't wait for it to get to the point of locking up the muscles and being unable to drop it.

 

All of those specifications have maximum leakage to earth specified. Medical, patient connected UL is the toughest. The reality is that everything leaks though you might not be able to feel it.

 

I know UL, CE, IEC, and maybe others require double insulation for ungrounded portable appliances but just how universal is that requirement in most of the world? I don't think we had it in the US until ~1960 or so because I remember a Sears aluminum cased hand drill circa 1950s that we replaced when it got too hard to hold onto due to shocking. Went from a mild tingle to a pretty good zap depending on where you put your other hand. We didn't wait for it to get to the point of locking up the muscles and being unable to drop it.

Quite possibly the drill could have been repaired. One strand of a wire out of place is all it takes.

 

My drill does the same thing. I just us a ground fault interrupter in series with the line and am careful to use clean rubber soled footware. No worries.

 

Back then there were no ground fault interrupters and I was only a kid so opening up that drill would not have been a smart idea for me. And dad was a ME, not an EE. For all I know, he may have tried to fix it and decided to go to Sears instead. Yeah, back then we still had Sears stores and no Walmart as yet!

 

The OP's sounds like the old style kettle, modern ones now are made of non-metallic material and also the electrical part does not come in contact with the kettle body at all.
Just the separate base has the electrical connection.
The old style with immersion heater were all metal.

 

Even then, for thermal insulation purposes, the handles on kettles are usually non-metallic.

 

<Off Topic>
So I took a vacation from work. A third shift supervisor in the department decided we should have GFIC outlets in a basement area. No one had electrical experience so he had control rod technicians replace the standard 20 amp industrial outlets (120 VAC 60 Hz) with 15 amp household GFIC outlets. They would plug in an industrial motor floor buffer which had normal leakage. Gee the GFIC would trip what a surprise. The buffer was a perfectly safe 3 wire grounded buffer. We also had three electrical engineering types in the department but somehow anything facilities related became a Ron thing. One of the happiest days of my career was when we got to hire a real industrial engineer in the department. While I really enjoyed my career I was happy to retire.
<Resume Topic>

Ron

 

Try the Anode connection of a colour CRT tube!
Fortunately it starts to arc TO you before you actually make contact !!
In the UK with 230v residential, I have had a couple of doozies, but I learn!

Took a CRT Discharge directly to the chin. Felt like a prize fighter hit me. But then again we're talking household voltages not CRT voltages. And largely the reason why you can take a shock from an ultra high potential is because the two different potentials - the CRT and the human - want to equalize.

Funny though, we haven't heard from the TS since post #1. We're just arguing amongst ourselves. I don't think we're being heard. Not by the TS anyway. Maybe she (Lucy) got her answer long time ago and is now done with this.

As for getting shocked by 240 (230) I've never had that (dis)-pleasure.

Unwatched.

 

<Off Topic>
So I took a vacation from work. A third shift supervisor in the department decided we should have GFIC outlets in a basement area. No one had electrical experience so he had control rod technicians replace the standard 20 amp industrial outlets (120 VAC 60 Hz) with 15 amp household GFIC outlets. They would plug in an industrial motor floor buffer which had normal leakage. Gee the GFIC would trip what a surprise. The buffer was a perfectly safe 3 wire grounded buffer. We also had three electrical engineering types in the department but somehow anything facilities related became a Ron thing. One of the happiest days of my career was when we got to hire a real industrial engineer in the department. While I really enjoyed my career I was happy to retire.
<Resume Topic>

Ron

The difference in skill sets of an actual engineer is impressive, especially if the person has been hands-on for a few years. And there is the difference between an educated individual who does engineering for a job, and a person who IS an engineer 24/7/365. Those ones seem to keep learning all kinds of skills.

 

As Rafiki tells Simba in The Lion King, It's in the past. Why worry.

 

Good morning so tried using my electric kettle this morning and I held the side of the cover and on covering it I Felt a Zap on my hand from the cover and I'm 6 weeks pregnant can't reach my mid wife I'm trying not to panic right now

If possible make sure your kitchen and bathroom(s) have GFCI outlets. "Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt". This type of outlet detects the difference between the hot wire current and the neutral wire current, they should be equal and opposite of each other. If the GFCI detects a difference it could be coming from a human touching the hot wire when well grounded providing an alternate path to earth ground instead of the intended neutral wire. In that case the GFCI outlet will trip off protecting yourself or anyone else from shock/electrocution. A certified electrician can assist you in making sure you have such outlets and showing you how to test them. I think they are required now in the US for all new homes per building codes especially in bathrooms and kitchens where the possibility of electrocution is much higher.

 

Good morning so tried using my electric kettle this morning and I held the side of the cover and on covering it I Felt a Zap on my hand from the cover and I'm 6 weeks pregnant can't reach my mid wife I'm trying not to panic right now

In addition to GFCI outlets you may want to purchase one of these outlet testers, from Home Depot or Lowes, they don't cost much, but will tell you if there is an issue with any given outlet in your home and what the problem is:



Also, I would recommend (especially for kitchens and bathrooms) to always use an electrical cord that has three prongs (With the ground wire). The two prong devices are not as safe (I am not sure why they even still allow them). Also never use an extension cord that does not have the ground lug on it, this removes the safety ground. More expensive extension cords will always be three prong and are much safer.

 

And there is the difference between an educated individual who does engineering for a job, and a person who IS an engineer 24/7/365. Those ones seem to keep learning all kinds of skills.

So you are saying there is a difference?

 

<Off Topic>
So I took a vacation from work. A third shift supervisor in the department decided we should have GFIC outlets in a basement area. No one had electrical experience so he had control rod technicians replace the standard 20 amp industrial outlets (120 VAC 60 Hz) with 15 amp household GFIC outlets. They would plug in an industrial motor floor buffer which had normal leakage. Gee the GFIC would trip what a surprise. The buffer was a perfectly safe 3 wire grounded buffer. We also had three electrical engineering types in the department but somehow anything facilities related became a Ron thing. One of the happiest days of my career was when we got to hire a real industrial engineer in the department. While I really enjoyed my career I was happy to retire.
<Resume Topic>

Ron

Hi Ron,

There are so many mistakes these days i wonder how anything works at all sometimes.