Nowadays there are non contact voltage testers. Looks like a plastic pen and usually beeps/flashes etc when close to a live circuit. There are fairly cheap ones that work just as well as any A brand. Saved my bacon more then once when you thought stuff was off/disconnected and somehow it was creatively wired. Hot grounds, anyone?
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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And then you electrocuted yourself again cause you weren't sure about the first time?
The "-cute" in electrocute implies that it killed you, unfortunately, you were probably still badly shocked. 
Who says I didn't die?
It's just tiring, as having been socked myself, it doesn't convey the impact of how deadly or severe it was. And there is always, without fail, someone who throws in an 'actually' comment to derail the topic when your telling the story.
I've used the term "almost electrocuted" and still get corrected. It's insufferable at times, especially when (in my case) I really was at death's door.
Spread your memes if you wish, but remember your audience. It's just a meme isn't a pass.
Words evolve, it’s meaning has been the same has shocked for a couple decades now. Supposed to be severely injured at least, but again, words evolve still.
Don’t get in the way of progress by being pedantic and stubborn, it only makes you look foolish for not accepting change.
to kill or severely injure by electric shock
More like devolve. I agree it's acceptable now but I'm not happy about it.
I am just trying to meme, not read a dictionary 😎
Then why correct someone lmfao.
Want to dish? But not take? Lame.
It feels like you're taking it personally, it reminds me of the meme, I posted the meme, it isn't that complicated.
The meme doesn’t work, because your correction is wholly incorrect.
Just because you don’t like being wrong doesn’t mean I’m taking it personal. The fuck?
Are you getting mad?
No? All you’re doing is making yourself look dumber with these responses.
Peace, I’m out.
It seems like you're mad.
I'm with you.
Granted, many people have been using it to mean "shocked", I find that use to be problematic.
Were you shocked when you discovered it was still working?
They sell multimeters in stores around the world!
yea, but then my mouth wouldn't taste like pennies after
I read pennies as penises at first.
The pennies go on the fuse slot, not your mouth.
Upgrade the thin wire to a thick copper nail and you’re good to go!
But... Then what will I use to keep me from biting my tongue off while I'm getting electrocuted. hmm?
Answer me that, oh he who is so wise with electricity!
I found out that the annex to a house that my sister once rented was connected to the neighbors house net by the same method.
Oh damn, did you die?
Do different humans react to electrical shocks differently? I've had the "shit shocked out of me" 115V many times and it's always felt like...
"Oh a little tingle. Neat. Well I hear your heart can explode so maybe I won't do that again"
It really depends on the amperage coming over the circuit. Volts times amps is watts, usually limited by breaker. If you're part of the circuit and there's a large resistor in front causing the device to only draw a few milliamp then yeah, minor tingle. If you're directly on the main with a say 20A breaker then it'll be heck of a shock / arc when the circuit is shorted.
Sounds familiar... my previous house had old storage heaters at some point in the past. Before I bought it, central heating had been installed and the old storage heaters removed.
I found they had installed a secondary consumer unit for the storage heaters, and so had that disconnected fully. But they'd left all of the old boxes on the walls with old cabling in trunking when the house was rewired before proper standards banned running it all down the walls.
So when I did the bathroom, I had to remove one of these old disconnected boxes and patch some tiling. So I got the box off, went to cut the wires with my wire cutters... and thank fuck I was using insulated ones... Because... BANG!!! sparks and a very shocked (not literally) expression on my face.
For some reason... this box was still wired into the main consumer unit. I pulled the fuse to it completely as it was only for that and nothing else. And was having a new consumer unit fitted anyway as the house was going to be sold and I wanted it all sorted.
Then the electrician fitting the new consumer unit... found that the entire ground for the whole of the houses electrics... had been disconnected at some point in the past.
I'd lived there for over 12yrs and could have been killed at any point.
I'm assuming you're in the UK, where they have consumer units, which we call "breaker boxes" or "main panels" in the USA.
Then the electrician fitting the new consumer unit... found that the entire ground for the whole of the houses electrics... had been disconnected at some point in the past.
This is one thing I wish we would improve in USA electrical work, which is to test the whole installation even if only one part of the house wiring has been worked on. In the USA, the typical workflow for a new sub panel would be for the electrician to pull a permit, do initial "rough in" work, have the municipal inspector come review, do the full work, and then inspector would come to review and sign-off the final work.
But as far as I'm aware, there's no requirement to assess the minimum safety of the entire house, in case there were gremlins in the existing wiring, of the type that would be illegal no matter the time they were installed. No tests for ground/earth resistance. No tests for swapped line/neutral. Quite frankly, no electrical tests at all, and everything is more about inspecting the physical wiring.
That said, inspector will check that all bedrooms have smoke alarms. So at least there's that...
I'm not an electrician, but all 'new' electrical work here in the UK requires a certified electrician carries out and signs of on the work. They can inspect and test existing electrics, but only to say if it meets minimum standards or not and is safe to use.
On my current house, we converted a garage and utility room into a bedroom and ensuite for my mum. Even though there were some electrics (2 sockets and 3 lights), we effectively had it all redone from scratch, with the electrics for that entire job placed on it's own 'breaker'
I then had another bedroom and ensuite reworked, not really much in the way of new wiring... mostly just moving existing stuff around (sockets, switches and isolators for extractors), but still signed of and certified by an electrician.
Redoing existing electrics is fine, so you can replace switches and sockets, light fittings and so forth without any issues.