Stun Gun Vs 220v Mains Electricity

Those fearless Ukrainians are at it again! This time around they’re giving wall outlets some high voltage stun gun shocks and observing the results, as [Kreosan] decided to see what would happen when you use a stun gun on mains electrical sockets. Surprisingly, they are still alive and well, and creating more videos. .

Shocking a light switch blew up some light bulbs, while shocking an extension cord with a TV plugged in blew the TV up. It seems these guys never run out of appliances to fry, or totally insane experiments to try out that no one else would really have the stomach for.

Although their experiments are on the extreme side of things they do know what they are doing, as they are electrical professionals, So maybe sit this one out unless you too really know what you are doing and understand the risks. The video is below the break for your enjoyment.

We have featured some of their equally scary hacks in the past, like mains voltage EL wire and wirelessly charging your phone from high voltage overhead power lines.

20 thoughts on “Stun Gun Vs 220v Mains Electricity

  1. At first i thought it may be a hoax, but i think it makes sense. It seems to do the same thing as a photo flash circuit; you have a capacitor charged to 330V with enough current for a flash, but not enough voltage for an arc, a separate circuit starts the arc, which causes the current to be dumped making the bright flash. I think the same thing happens here, 240V isn’t enough for an arc at the distances found in appliances and plugs… until the stun gun makes an arc acting as a bridge causing the short. Dangerous, but impressive.

    1. +1 – This is basically how TIG welders work too. The welding voltage is too low to form an arc over the ~5mm electrode gap, so they dump a high voltage through a coupling transformer, which basically appears in series with the welding voltage. The high voltage impulse ionizes a low impedance channel through the shielding gas, which the lower voltage can then discharge across and it then self-sustains

        1. It could of course also all be done with CGI. Don’t underestimate the talent of some youtubers in regards to using video editing software, since sometimes you come across fake stuff that’s really astoundingly well done, better than many professionals in the TV and movie industry

  2. Ukraine like most of Europe now has 230V not 220V Wikipedia tells me.
    But seeing many countries originally had 220V but switched over to a unified 230V, and many people are completely unaware that their country did since you don’t have to change anything, you often see people misquoting their own mains voltage.

    1. 230 is rather a suggestion than reality. out on the countryside its around 235, in dense populated cities rather around 225V. and many old appliances built for 220 still work well. its not that much of a difference at all. the critical thing in AC networks is frequency, not the actual voltage. dont use to calibrate voltmeters ^^

    2. They didn’t actually change the voltage at all, which would surely have meant re-winding generators and gigantic transformers. They just opened the spec a bit. Mains voltage is rarely bang-on it’s nominal, there’s an allowed range.

      The idea was to bring the UK’s 240V (and anywhere else that might use 240V) and Europe’s 220V together. All they did, was change it to 230V on paper, with allowable limits that included both other voltages. The overall limits, the very lowest allowable for 220V, and the highest for 240V, were brought in a bit, but grids are better balanced now than they were when the standards were set way back.

      So it’s “230V” in quote marks. Nothing physically changed. Actually a nice hack, unifying a continent’s mains system without having to move a single wire.

      1. In my experience mains is actually pretty ‘bang on’.
        But I guess some regions like Ukraine might have less maintained and precise systems.The country is in very poor economical shape after all, basically at the level of what used to be called a 3rd world country.

        But yeah, the whole reason why they can safely switch from 220 to 230 in various countries is that there is a built in allowed margin, although when the switch is done it does mean some devices might have a reduced lifespan as a result I am told.

        As for those generators issues, the power is always generated at much higher voltage for long range transport, by a limited amount of power plants, so if you can just increase the output close to half a percent or so the step down transformers would all automatically also have a small percentage increase all over the country leaving you with about 230 I expect right?

        1. > In my experience mains is actually pretty ‘bang on’.

          Wow, things must be different there. Here in North Central Indiana, USA, nothing between 108 and 122 surprises me. I’ve seen it outside of those limits, but only rarely in the last 40 years or so.

          1. Hate to say it but US power has a reputation of being a bit flaky.
            With brownouts and blackouts and long outages and those weird pole-mounted transformers and their issues and whatnot.
            And I don’t measure my mains everyday of course, but any time I did it was on the nose, but maybe it’s a coincidence or a regional thing too.

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