Electricity hassles

Well, I've spent nearly all day with Energex (local electricity company) technicians here (well, OK, the were only here for about 3 hours all up, but it felt like all day!) going around trying to find out why the water in my sink, and the sink itself, is giving me tingles when I'm trying to wash up. All I have been able to discover is that yes, there is voltage there, but that they have no idea why. Apparently it isn't dangerous, and is in what they consider to be acceptable safety levels, but it is certainly affecting my ability to get my washing up done! It's only 2 or 3 volts, but apparently I'm very sensitive to it. Doesn't help that I have a cut on my finger, so that every time I put it in the water, it stings. Ugh. Anyway, they're coming back tomorrow to check the plugs on the power pole or something in case it is that. Hopefully it is. If not, I'll be out tomorrow to buy myself some rubber gloves for washing up!

On the plus side, I've learnt lots about electricity and how it works. I was trying to measure the current with a multimeter we bought, and wondering why it wasn't registering any voltage, when it was definitely there, I could feel it. Turns out that grounding it against the shed wall was useless, because there was current flowing through that too! Grounding it to the cement floor, or better yet, the dirt outside, gave a far more satisfactory result, and was in line with the readings they were getting. They had a very nifty little multimeter of course, which had a long line connected to a stake that they could stick in the ground outside, then walk around inside to test where they liked.

While they were back late tonight checking again because of our paranoia (we discovered in our measuring that there was low level voltage going through our gas cylinders), we ended up with hundreds of mozzies inside! So we spent a good half hour hunting them down throughout the house. Luckily, we sleep under mosquito nets, so we should still have a good night's sleep.