There has been a discussion elsewhere about just how conductive household water really is, and whether "pure" tap water will trip a GFI easily if a hot wire contacts it.
One experimenter came up with some very low currents through a cup of water, so I thought I'd try an experiment myself. The piped water in this part of eastern England is very hard and rich in minerals.
Don't try this at home, kids!
Here's my "lab" setup:
Small measuring jug, 8 fl. oz. of cold water. Two conductors stripped and immersed in the water to a depth of 2" and about 3" apart. Power applied: 240V @ 50Hz.
Initial current was measured as 450mA, but started to rise slowly. I never knew water had a negative temperature/resistance coefficient before!
The current reached 1A after 4 mins., and at 6-1/2 mins. the water was starting to boil at a current of 1.2A.
Maybe I should start worrying about the purity of our water!
Final stage of experiment:
We all know that salt water is a better conductor than plain water, right? I never realized just how much more until last night.
Starting with 8 fl. oz. of cold fresh water again, I added a level teaspoon of salt and stirred.
Threw the switch and got quite a surprise: A massive 14.7 amps! Within 10 seconds there was steam from the water around the electrodes and the current had risen to 17A.
The experiment was forcibly abandoned as this point due to a blown fuse in the plug....
