if you were in a flood in an electric car would you fry?

[RDMcG]

Just curious. Electrics and hybrids are the coming thing,so if you had your fully charged Tesla and were suddenly flooded would there be a big bang and your hair would suddenly stand up as you were nuked???

[andyp74199]

No.

[SubaruSteve]

[kambites]

I'd like to see you fry yourself from a 12v battery, anyway (and no, boiling a lead acid accumulator doesn't count).

[Ed Fender]

kambites said:

I'd like to see you fry yourself from a 12v battery

Bit harsh.

[cptsideways]

The Lexus Toyota hybids run at 450 odd volts from memory

[GarryA]

We had some railway points running on these,

http://www.enersysreservepower.com/cyc_b.asp

Some think like 30 = 136v @ 5Ah, when the room flooded in the big storms we had in July 07 they went bang big style.

[DanGPR]

Electricity takes the path of least resistance, and seeing as you're sitting in a massive faraday cage, that isn't going to be through your body, which has a massivlely high resistance (anywhere between 100 and 1000 ohms).

[98elise]

No

Sitting in a car you are not connected to earth (nor is your car normally). You could only get a shock if you were in contact with both terminals. For the water to do this it would need to have two paths two you without contacting each other. (like two big watery, but seperate cables).

What is likely to happen is the water will short the battery enough to blow fuses/kill it.

[Zad]

The total voltage from all the batteries may well be hundreds of volts, but individually they will only be 12v or so. I don't know, but I imagine they would be isolatable individually. Either way, the current path would not primarily be through/near you.

[lonny]

I've always wondered about this when a house gets flooded. I guess the fuses pop very quickly but you'd think someone would get zapped occasionally.

[Alfanatic]

Flood or not, cooking your breakfast in the car is a bad idea.

[agent006]

It would have to be an extremely sudden flood if you didn't have time to get out and walk a suitable distance away from your electric car.

[sliced bread]

agent006 said:

It would have to be an extremely sudden flood if you didn't have time to get out and walk a suitable distance away from your electric car.

Driving into a river?

[kambites]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Why? Your alternator only puts out about 14v, that's barely enough to feel. Anyone who's ever worked on car has probably managed to earth the battery through themselves and not even noticed.

You'd know if you grabbed hold of an HT lead though, that feels very odd.

[GadgeS3C]

It's the current that kills you not the voltage. Less than an Amp can be enough. Don't recommend any experiments to prove it though!

Keeping the voltage down helps but wouldn't want to take a bath with a Prius, or a drive for that matter

Information from the internet source of all accurate knowledge...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_shock

Edited by GadgeS3C on Saturday 29th January 16:09

Edited by GadgeS3C on Saturday 29th January 16:12

[kambites]

Of course it's the current that kills you, but how is the current going to be significant with only 14v across something with as high an impedance as the human body?

[Vidal Baboon]

kambites said:

You'd know if you grabbed hold of an HT lead though, that feels very odd.

Managed to get a nice shock from a HT lead the other day- made me feel odd, yes. Mainly because I banged my head on the bonnet

[sad61t]

kambites said:

Of course it's the current that kills you, but how is the current going to be significant with only 14v across something with as high an impedance as the human body?

The impedance is mostly the dry skin; which is why wet hands and electricity are so dangerous in the kitchen. I think they dampen the contacts on the electric chair (for improved conductivity into the body). Even low voltages can tingle given wet contacts (try licking a PP3 9V battery).

Way back a medical instrumentation lecturer said that they had to take extra precautions in ICU because the needles & sensors gave an easy route into the body and it only takes a few milliamps to stop the heart.

In a drive through incident (but my sat nav said the car could drive on water) a fuse would blow long before the cabin safety is compromised; while impact sensors are used to isolate the battery pack in the event of a more serious impact.

A more likely scenario is someone doing car DIY and not realising that the drive power is several hundred volts, not twelve volts. Electricity is like a cat, looks cute and then bites suddenly when you get close.

[Hugo a Gogo]

kambites said:

Of course it's the current that kills you, but how is the current going to be significant with only 14v across something with as high an impedance as the human body?

what if you were wet?

such as in a flooded car?