Yesterday when I took a shower, I got a pretty bad jolt of electricity in my arm when I was done showering, and was about to switch off the water faucet.
I immediately jumped out of the shower, grabbed a flashlight and shut off the main fuse. Grabbed a piece of insulated pliers, and managed to close the faucet without another shock.
The day after, I got a hold of the landlord to tell him about this issue. I borrowed a multimeter from him to check the faucet again today. I connected the ground cable of the multimeter to a ground pin in an outlet, and probed the faucet: And sure enough, it's live! However, the voltage is not constant. It seems to oscillate between 100mV and 82V, in a sort of random phase-pattern.
Next, I tried to disconnect the fuse for the water heater and probed again. It's still live and nothing different. So I then tried to disconnect the fuse for the bathroom as well: And it's still live! (I didn't try with main fuse off, sorry, The landlord had to run and I had to return the multimeter before I could finish)
So here is my question:
What could this be? Is there a bad ground connection somewhere, or a leak somewhere to a neutral connection in the pipes? Why is there still voltage on it despite the fuse being shut off?
I live in Norway, So the mains voltage is around 230-240V @50Hz. The house is roughly 30 years old, and the electricity and plumbing system appears to be well maintained.
I am somewhat familiar with electricity and how it works, however, I am no professional. So I won't try to diagnose this issue too deeply unless the clues I give here tell some of you something that could be obvious and potentially easy to fix.
I was shocked so badly I had to go to the emergency room an hour later because I still felt pain in my arm. I was released roughly an hour later, with no diagnosis. My arm is fine today.
I am showering at my mother's house until the problem is rectified.
Update:
The landlord just called me and informed me that an electrician will come tomorrow to look at this problem. I will post an answer with the update on what caused this as soon as I know.
Best Answer
I forgot to update this after the electrician visited and I'm terribly sorry, so here is what happened:
The fault was caused by a neighbor two houses down the street. He had wired a ground and a neutral wire together in an outlet that he installed himself. Causing voltage to leak over the ground wire.
It is illegal to wire outlets yourself in Norway if you're not a certified electrician (and probably a lot of other places as well). The electrician said I was lucky to escape without any injury or complications. The person who did that wiring was clearly not an electrician, and was fined accordingly.
Apparently I wasn't the only person who had noticed the problem. Another neighbor in the neighborhood had also complained.