By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Fri, 2009-05-08 05:30
A YouTube video of the National Fire Protection Association
In the past on this blog, we have shown many pictures of unsafe electrical wiring in the slums of developing countries like Senegal or emerging economies like Brazil. This does not mean however that electrical safety ceased to be an issue in OECD countries. In the USA, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently launched a campaign to show the risk of an inappropriate electrical installation and to promote correct electrical wiring. The campaign includes a Home Wiring guide and a ten minute YouTube video. The video explains how electrical faults can lead to fatal fires and enumerates attention points to make a residential electrical installation safe:
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2009-02-23 08:10
A home owner in The Netherlands bought and moved into a house. After 3 months, he checked the electrical installation (he has an engineering background) and counts his blessings. The picture shows a connection box for a washing machine which was a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before the poor connection caused a fire, for example when the washing machine is running at night and residents are sleeping.
When seeing this picture, I immediately agreed within my own family not to run the washing machine or dryer when we're out of the house.
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By Benoit Dome / Published on Wed, 2008-06-04 13:08
Access to electricity illegally is often taken from the past legal distribution point that can be up to 1000m away from the first household constituting the so-called “non-technical” losses. The orange cable seen in this photo is the “final distribution” that is open to both the elements and to passing pedestrians, horse and carts and motor vehicles. Accidents caused by these illegal connections mostly go unreported because of the illegality of the electricity sourcing.
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Thu, 2007-11-22 20:44
Well, if you are left in a non-smoking room and want to smoke without risk of setting off the alarm, this is what you can, but should not, do!
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Fri, 2007-03-16 11:47
Mineral-insulated cables are sometimes even used for different reasons: Because their outer diameter is substantially smaller and their colour appears rather unobtrusive in some historically significant environments, they are often preferred where a visible mounting on the wall is inevitable. Can you see them?
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Wed, 2006-12-20 01:00
By far not. But first of all it needs to be pointed out that only very few fires are clearly attributed to current harmonics and overloaded (possibly downsized) neutrals. Unfortunately insurances hardly ever investigate the precise causes of electrical fires. If a cable or distribution panel goes on fire, this is booked in the statistics as an electrical fire and the damage paid for, and that’s it. But even far below the threshold of thermal overloading the effects mentioned under the question about the assumed advantages of a TN-C system start to become detrimental.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Mon, 2006-12-04 08:30
The economic cost of fires requires attention
The general cost of fire runs around 1% of GDP in most advanced countries, but has generally received much less attention than the cost of crime or of road accidents.
The World Fire Statistics Centre advocates strategies for reducing this cost. The centre is part of the Geneva Association for the Study of Insurance Economics. It publishes an Information Bulletin each month, highlighting a few key statistics from their Annual Report to the United Nations. The statistics show, among other things, the number of fire deaths in various countries as well as the cost of direct and indirect fire losses.
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Fri, 2004-12-31 01:00
Determination of cable cross sections under fire conditions
Manfred Kirschvink, Karl Audenaerde, Kabelwerk Eupen
Stefan Fassbinder, Deutsches Kupferinstitut
Cables for a safety installation should continue to function in case of a fire incident. This is not only a question of an appropriate insulation. For guaranteeing the integrity of the electrical circuit, a good calculation of the cross section is just as important. When heating a cable, its electrical resistance rises. For a proper functioning of electrical devices, the voltage drop should not exceed 10%. The attached paper shows how to make the necessary calculations. A factor k indicates which proportion of the cable is exposed to the fire. If the complete cable can be exposed, the cross section should be made no less than five times larger. In Belgium, the national electrical code includes this factor 5 – in contrary to most European and international standards.
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