Hazards Of Electricity

While electricity becomes part and parcel of our lives,care should be taken to save ourselves from its hazardous effect.Voltage of 50 V and current of 50 mA can be fatal.Major danger of electricity are electric shock and fire.Here we discuss some faults in electrical circuits that may cause electricity hazards.

Insulation Damage:-
All electrical wires are well insulated with some plastic cover for the safety purpose.But when the electrical current exceed the rated current carrying capacity of the conductor,it can produce excess current that can damage insulation due to overheating of cables.This reason into a short circuit which can severely damage electrical device or persons.

A short circuit occurs when a current with very small resistance is formed.The low resistance cause the current to be very large.When large appliances are connected in parallel,each addition appliance placed in the circuit reduce the equivalent resistance in the circuit and increases the current through the wires.This addition current might produce enough thermal energy to melt the wiring's insulator which cause a short circuit,or even starts a fire.

Short circuit can also occurs when the live wire and the neutral wires come in direct contact.

In order to avoid such situations,the wires carrying electricity should never be naked.Rather they should be covered with good insulator.Such an insulator covered wire is called cable.Constant friction may also remove the insulation from the wire whereas too much moisture also damages the insulation.In such a situation,it is advisable to use cable with two layer of insulation.

Damp Conditions:-
Dry skin has a resistance of 100,00 ohms or more! But under damp condition (wet environment) resistance of human skin is reduced drastically to few hundred ohms.Therefore,never operate any electrical appliance with wet hands.Also keep the switches,plugs,sockets and wires dry.