Electric Shock Drowning Prevention and ELCIs Explained

[Steve DAntonio]

I recently posted an article on the subject of electric shock drowning. It's short and I believe a worthwhile read for all boat owners.

"In 2012 three cases of electrocution or electric shock drowning (more on that below) occurred over the Independence Day holiday. Tragically, they resulted in the deaths of four children, siblings Brayden and Alexandra Anderson 8 and 13 respectively, Noah Winstead, 10, and Nathan Lynam 11, and one adult, 26-year-old Jennifer Lankford. All of the events occurred on lakes, one in Tennessee and the two in Missouri. More recently, on April 20, 2017 three more cases occurred, in which 15-year old Carmen Johnson, 34-year-old Shelly Darling and 41-year-old Elizabeth Whipple were all killed while swimming in Alabama’s Lake Tuscaloosa. In June of this year..."

To read the remainder of this article visit Electric Shock Drowning and ELCIs Explained | Steve D'Antonio Marine Consulting

 

[rclarke246]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting.

While we're discussing water safety, this book left a serious impression on me:

Suddenly Overboard: True Stories of Sailors in Fatal Trouble, by Tom Lachhass

 

[Bruce B]

Fascinating article Steve.
Better "safe than sorry", I've always avoided going into the water at any dock without understanding why. Now I have an inkling of understanding...
Bruce

 

[Gabe n Em]

Huh. Interesting read for sure. I'll look into those ELCIs.

I know a lot of people clean their own boats. I'd be interested to hear of who here has "felt electricity coursing through their dental fillings". I've cleaned 20 or so boats, including our own, and swam around a LOT of docks and can't say I've encountered this phenomena. I guess im's usually in salt or brackish water...

I would think salt water would have more deaths than fresh. Anyone have any guesses as to why? theres a more direct path to ground?

 

[hfoster]

Great read Steve. Thanks you for posting it Mate.


Cheers.


H.

 

[psneeld]

Huh. Interesting read for sure. I'll look into those ELCIs.

I know a lot of people clean their own boats. I'd be interested to hear of who here has "felt electricity coursing through their dental fillings". I've cleaned 20 or so boats, including our own, and swam around a LOT of docks and can't say I've encountered this phenomena. I guess im's usually in salt or brackish water...

I would think salt water would have more deaths than fresh. Anyone have any guesses as to why? theres a more direct path to ground?

Exactly correct inbrespect to path to ground. Salt water is more conductive than the human body, therefore electricity goes straight to ground in the water.

In fresh water, the body is nore conductive than the water so the electricity takes the easier path through the body.

Not perfect, but it hapoens and thats the VERY basic explanation.

 

[what_barnacles]

So what about the case of the elci getting wired in after the galvanic isolator?

Does it still detect shore ground faults? Or does it need to?

 

[psneeld]

I think only the hot(s) and neutral get wired to the ELCI.

It trips if the difference in current going back out of the boat versus what is coming in is more than 30 miliamps...

The grounds shouldn't matter if I under stand it correctly. If you are bleeding energy into a ground before or after the isolator, it will trip either way.

 

[what_barnacles]

LOL, I guess I should have taken the time to look at how I wired mine. Yeesh.

 

[twistedtree]

Exactly correct inbrespect to path to ground. Salt water is more conductive than the human body, therefore electricity goes straight to ground in the water.

In fresh water, the body is nore conductive than the water so the electricity takes the easier path through the body.

Not perfect, but it hapoens and thats the VERY basic explanation.

Maybe a very basic explanation, but also very correct.

 

[foggysail]

Maybe a very basic explanation, but also very correct.

Yes

 

[Insequent]

I bought my boat in the PNW, at Edmonds. One day the marina called me and said that they had received a complaint from a guy further down the dock about rapidly depleting zinc anodes, so they tested power to all the boats on the dock. Mine was the problem.

So I engaged a local service provider, and he quickly established that it was a serious problem. With a bunch of electrical stuff operating I managed to draw 30A from the shore power pedestal. The active wire showed 30 A but he measured only 15 A on the neutral! There was 15 A returning via the water! Fortunately no incidents, at least while I owned the boat but the PO had kept the boat on Lake Union for a time. Perhaps the problem only arose late in his period of ownership when he added a second generator, and he had only been in saltwater since that time.

The issue was very difficult to solve. There was a jumper from neutral to earth on the Krauss & Naimar 'shorepower-gen1-gen2-off' switch that was only visible using a small mirror on an extendable stalk. I surmise that whoever installed the second genny, and the new Kraus & Naimar switch, basically did not know what they were doing!

I had the Port Townsend Shipwright's CoOp refit my boat, and part of that was adding in 230 VAC 50Hz inverter and circuits. They were the one's who solved the issue I described above as well. As part of the electrical work I purchased the Australia and New Zealand Standard applicable to boats and marinas. It specified ELCI in the shore supply. I also have an isolation transformer. Boat electrics should always be done right, by qualified and experienced professionals.

 

[The Other Gary]

We just had our docks tested by a master Electrician who is also a member of our club. We found 4 areas that were suspect where current was detected near our aluminum safety ladders and turned off the 4 nearest boats at each until we isolated the problem vessels. The floating shock alert sensor is easy to use and only $150 at home depot. A must have for any Club or Marina especially in fresh water.

 

[Seevee]

Steve,
Could the ELCI be installed on the dock pedestal, and would that work adequately?

 

[psneeld]

Docks are supposed to have them too.

But like most newer building codes..... it depends on where you sre when the upgrade must take place.

 

[Humancell]

The floating shock alert sensor is easy to use and only $150 at home depot. A must have for any Club or Marina especially in fresh water.

Wow ... what a great, small tool that is easy to carry with you for testing! Added to my list for when kids are wanting to swim!

 

[foggysail]

WOW!!! Where in the world is industry going with buzz words.

GFI-------ground fault interrupt.............which most everybody understands

ELCI------equipment leakage current interrupter

RCD------residual current device

RCBO----residual current breaker with overload protection



CRAZY!!!! All variations of a GFI. Wait awhile, somebody is sure to respond with something such as: "no sir, you don't understand. The benefits provided by the C$%B apply only to ....." Again---crazy

 

[Bruce B]

I'm not so sure it is so crazy.
Very few people understand ac power systems yet we all use it.
There was even a joke made about wiring in this thread (tongue in cheek???).
The reality is that this is no joking matter and people die from electrocution regularly.
I've seen things in ac boat wiring that made my hair stand on end!
No, I am ok with the safety devices on our boat.
Bruce

 

[fstbttms]

Virtually all electric shock drownings occur in freshwater. It is essentially unheard of in saltwater.

That said, I believe I speak for all hull cleaners when I say we appreciate your concern and attention to your onboard and shorepower electrical systems.

 

[BandB]

Docks are supposed to have them too.

But like most newer building codes..... it depends on where you sre when the upgrade must take place.

Yes, and the way many boats are getting cleaned up is that docks have them and the boat can't connect. You see this more and more in South Florida.

 

[Bigsfish]

A friend warned me not to swim in marinas because of electric shock. I certainly try not to swim in any marina. I have been in a marina where I lost my zincs in days which normally would last more than a year.

 

[rwidman]

WOW!!! Where in the world is industry going with buzz words.

GFI-------ground fault interrupt.............which most everybody understands

ELCI------equipment leakage current interrupter

RCD------residual current device

RCBO----residual current breaker with overload protection



CRAZY!!!! All variations of a GFI. Wait awhile, somebody is sure to respond with something such as: "no sir, you don't understand. The benefits provided by the C$%B apply only to ....." Again---crazy

There's also "GFCI" which stands for "Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter". Same as GFI.

 

[BandB]

A friend warned me not to swim in marinas because of electric shock. I certainly try not to swim in any marina. I have been in a marina where I lost my zincs in days which normally would last more than a year.

Well, there are many reasons not to swim in marinas and most marinas won't allow you to do so.

We've noticed a difference in life of anodes based on where we were.

 

[rwidman]

A friend warned me not to swim in marinas because of electric shock. I certainly try not to swim in any marina. I have been in a marina where I lost my zincs in days which normally would last more than a year.

Another good reason not to swim in marinas is the danger of getting hit by moving boats or causing boaters to have to make emergency maneuvers with the real possibility of damage to boats or docks.

We had that problem in our marina once with some guests and they had to get a good stern talking to. "Not nice" words were spoken.

 

[sdowney717]

I have a Square-D QO distribution panel, twin 30 amp with a split neutral buss, so it was easy to add 4 circuits to be AFCI-GFCI breakers or just GFCI.
So currently,
water heater is GFCI
AC heat pump is AFCI-GFCI (includes the AC water pump)
Microwave is AFCI-GFCI (on its own outlet)
All outlets are AFCI-GFCI

forward cabin heater non GFCI
aft cabin heater non GFCI
fridge non GFCI
leaves one breaker location unused.

I can hook up to a GFCI extension the entire boat from the pedestal, and no nuisance tripping. That is a good test to see if your AC system is tight.

Electric system handles my Onan gen set with no nuisance trips.
My 3000 watt inverter has a 20 amp GFCI outlet on it's output. I discovered Hubbell and Leviton work fine with MSW inverters, no buzzing.

30 ma ELCI is enough power to kill you, it is really only equipment protection, not personal protection GFCI set to 6 ma trip, better than nothing I suppose.

 

[seasalt007]

Here are 76 recent posts in this forum related to this topic.

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s4/big-marina-rewire-new-code-30314.html

 

[foggysail]

I'm not so sure it is so crazy.
Very few people understand ac power systems yet we all use it.
There was even a joke made about wiring in this thread (tongue in cheek???).
The reality is that this is no joking matter and people die from electrocution regularly.
I've seen things in ac boat wiring that made my hair stand on end!
No, I am ok with the safety devices on our boat.
Bruce

I believe you misunderstood my post. It had zero to do with safety and a lot to do with vernacular.

 

[GFC]

We had an ESD a couple of weeks ago where a 15 year old boy jumped in the water and didn't resurface. Two of the firemen who responded also got shocked but were not seriously injured. It took awhile to shut off power to an adjacent pump station before they could enter the water to search for the body.


That brought up a question during the course of many discussions about ESD:
Why don't fish, beavers, otters and water birds (geese and ducks) have ESD problems?

 

[Art]

We just had our docks tested by a master Electrician who is also a member of our club. We found 4 areas that were suspect where current was detected near our aluminum safety ladders and turned off the 4 nearest boats at each until we isolated the problem vessels. The floating shock alert sensor is easy to use and only $150 at home depot. A must have for any Club or Marina especially in fresh water.

I looked into the video on this... showing its use in a pool. Seems you'd need to walk all areas of the dock to learn if there was elect current any place in the water?? Not very efficient if that is so.

My question...[regarding fresh water]: If you reach off finger dock to rinse hands in water... and there were electrical current in water... would it shock you to death?

 

[BandB]

I looked into the video on this... showing its use in a pool. Seems you'd need to walk all areas of the dock to learn if there was elect current any place in the water?? Not very efficient if that is so.

My question...[regarding fresh water]: If you reach off finger dock to rinse hands in water... and there were electrical current in water... would it shock you to death?

Shock you, perhaps. To death, no.