First of all, my mattress sits on the floor, there’s no boxspring or headboard, it’s just a mattress.
Secondly, for the last six years I’ve lived here, in my apartment, I’ve always had a fan on and running (this being Arizona, it’s usually very needed). The fan is a box fan and has always stood right near the bed, sometimes/most of the time even touching it a little.
It hasn’t always been the same box fan, mind you; I’ve had about three of them in six years.
About a month or so ago, I woke from a deep sleep and reached up to touch the fan’s switch for some reason or other. I remember as soon as I touched it it felt immediately as if an electric shock was passing into my body. It hurt, very badly. I let go and even though it was only a few half seconds, it felt like my arm was on fire. I leapt to my feat and my arm started going numb a bit, and tingling.
I thought that the fan had shocked me (naturally), so later that day, a neighbor and I got it shut off and we threw it away. Time for a new one.
I got a new one and all is fine, until about a week and a half later. This time, I’m lying in bed and SOMETHNG shocks me THROUGH the mattress. :dubious: It felt the exact same way as when I touched my fan…although not quite as strong (thankfully). It didn’t knock me to my feet nor did it continue after I pulled my hand away from the mattress.
Okay, fine…but just now: I’m lying in there and on my side and I put my hand down in one of the deep crevices of the mattress (that’s lowered a bit more from being layed on so much for so long) and OWWWW. I got shocked like NEVER before. It HURT. Badly. I jumped to my feet and my thumb was burning. It actually hurt. I’ve been shocked electrictricly before and it feels just like this.
What in the hell is shocking me on my own bed? Could it be the fan that’s touching the mattress? Sending little short shocks through it and it’s hitting the springs (in the mattress) and that’s what’s shocking me? That’s the only thing I can think of.
Is that possible? Could that happen? The outlet that the fan is plugged into is loose a little, but that never seemed to matter before. I certainly was never shocked plugging or unplugging something in.
All I know is, SOMETHING is giving me electric shocks, somehow, and I hope it stops.
Look for a lamp, clock or extension cord touching the bed and inspect them for breaks in the insulation. Does your bed touch a furnace duct? Something could have electrified the duct work. Something is conducting power to the bed frame. Do you have an electric blanket?
None of the above. There are no lamps or clocks in the room. No electric blanket. The heating duct is in the ceiling.
There is nothing plugged in, at all, save for the box fan…which the mattress is touching. It is only touching the fan, though, not the cord for it.
In fact, the only two things in the room are the mattress and the fan.
I’m not much for decoration.
The fan is brand new. Well, about a month old now, but still pretty new-ish.
Another possibility: Does the fan have a two-prong plug or a three-prong? If it’s a three-prong, then there’s a possibility that something’s wired wrong in the outlet it’s plugged into, resulting in the ground pin being electrified. An electrified ground pin would result in you getting a shock whenever you touched the fan case, even if you replaced the fan itself.
Is this a 110v-omg-you’re-gonna-die shock? or a static electricity shock? (I guess keep touching it and see if it stops :P) cuz the latter ones don’t need a source. You’re in arizona so the air must be dry. Dry air is when they get you. Buy a humidifier.
Ground the metal in the bed to the house ground and get rid of the static generating sheets. I lived in a really bad house once and eventually carried a resistor to touch to light switches before touching them. The living room rug was a super static generator.
It’s not at all like a static electricity shock. This is a full-blown, honest to God, electric shock…the type you get when you’re accidently touching the prongs of something you’re plugging in (which I’ve done before) or if you curiously stick your finger in a light socket (which I’ve done before–at a very young age).
I have the burn mark on my thumb to prove it. The burn mark that was put by the electric shock I got just about an hour ago…from my bed. So no, it’s not just static electricity. This hurt like hell and bolted me to my feet in an instant, cradling my hand in my other hand because it was going numb and wouldn’t stop hurting for awhile.
It was an electrical shock from something, and since the only thing in my room is the fan (that is plugged in), it’s got to be from that, I’d figure, so I just pulled my mattress away from the fan (so it’s no longer touching it).
I was just wondering if it’s possible for the fan to be shocking me via my bedsprings…that’s all, since that it what it seems to me to be the only thing it could be. :dubious:
The two slots could still be miswired. The wide slot should be neutral (white wire inside the outlet), and the narrow should be the hot (black wire). If you have a voltmeter, the narrow slot should have 120 Volts, and the neutral should be zero (it may have a few volts, but not 120).
Does your bed have metal legs? A nail in the floor could be making contact with a power cable under the floor and electrifying your bed.
Otherwise your fan case is electrified because of bad wiring somewhere. Unplug the fan and see if your bed shocks you. No shock and you know enough to not use that fan regardless if you can’t sleep.
My bed doesn’t have legs at all. : p It sits on the floor. It’s just a mattress on the floor.
Again, I’m not so sure it’s the fan as much as it’s the outlet. Because the last fan did this too (as I said above) and I bought this brand new one…and now it’s doing the same thing. :smack:
Also, the shocks don’t happen on a regular basis. The first one was about a month ago and the second was about two or three weeks ago. Then the one today…so I’ll just have to see how it is now with the bed pulled far away.
Thank you for all your answers, everyone. I’ve moved the mattress away from the fan, so it’s no longer touching. Hopefully there won’t be any more problems or unpleasant shocks.
Could that also cause it to give random shocks then? Because I touch the fan often and it doesn’t always give me a shock. I turn it on, off, sometimes I move it a bit…and never any shocks from touching it.
if the outlet was miswired (hot and neutral reversed) you could get a shock every time you touched the fan even when it was turned off. if that was the case even if you only touched the fan you would feel at least a tingle. if that wasn’t happening all the time then it might not be that.
A few years ago, I had this, periodically. It felt like an electric shock coming through the mattress, and the first few times it happened, I wigged out, checking everything electric near my bed.
Unplug every fucking thing in your room. Completely clear it out, if possible, of all electrical cords. Move your mattress to the other side of the room; ensure that the space is completely free and clear of any cords and any appliances whatsoever. Move your bed back to where it was, then begin with an elimination strategy. Plug in one of your appliances, taking care that the cord is completely clear of the bed. If that doesn’t cause the shock, after a night, then plug in another item. Keep up with this until you discover what the shock is being produced by; that is the culprit. If you make sure every cord is completely clear of your bed, the problem should cease.
