Can you be electrocuted by a shower?

adrian92 wrote: »

No. You will not get a significant level of current from water. (pure) water is a poor conductor. However, if ones skin becomes wet from water then the natural (conductive) salts on ones skin become dissolved- making for a very good conductive path, in the event of one coming in contact with a live item.

Hope this makes sense.

The main reason wet skin conducts better is because the water forms a microscopic thin layer over a large area (large area compared to thickness or length). So if we take the water in cable terms, it might have a cross section area of 100mm square (skin contact area), but a length of only 0.1mm or far less (thickness of water between skin and live object). The shorter a conductor, the better it conducts, and the larger the CSA, the better it conducts. So the water is forming a large CSA with tiny length.

Dry skin is very high resistance even compared to fresh water.
The skin salts do of course add to it, which I think was mentioned earlier.

So even wet hands are not the very good conductive path in electrical terms, they are just a lot better than dry hands. The same way water is a far better conductor than porcelyn, but that does not make water a good conductor.