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At work we have a fuse box with a door that will not close due to a broken latch. The fuse box is located by a fire door in an office.
To hide the issue a plain plywood box has been used to completely cover the fuse box. I have raised a safety issue with this but there is disagreement on it's safety. Could somebody point me to any regulations that cover this?

Thanks in anticipation.
 
What is the actual issue? For example what's the worst that could happen?
Do you feel that the switchgear should be more secure? Should it be more accessible? Do you think the box should be made from a different material? Is it obstructing the fire escape? Are you worried about someone opening it up and fiddling with it? Do you feel the 'fuse box' needs more ventilation than an IP65 one?

Without seeing it (again, a picture would help) I'm not going to dismiss it as 'nothing', but in my experience of commercial maintenance there is always someone who goes around looking for things for someone else to do something about; it's not uncommon to receive an email with just a picture on it, then you have to figure out what the perceived problem is and come up with an acceptable solution. This can be quite inconvenient when you have more pressing issues to attend to, especially if you then get a follow-up email the next day asking if the nondescript picture has been "resolved", or just the same picture with several question marks.

Do you have some sort of idea of what you would like done about it? Do you feel the need to keep meddling hands out is greater than the need for an electrician to be able to easily access the equipment in the event of a fault even if the keyholder is out of the office? Could a new latch be fitted to the 'fuse box', thereby dispensing with the need for an enclosure? Perhaps a sign attached to the box outlining what it contains or warning of the perils contained within?
 
To extinguish a fire you need to remove one of the three sides of the fire triangle. These are heat, fuel and oxygen.
Smoke won’t remove the fuel or the heat and it’s pretty unlikely to remove all of the oxygen.
The heat of a fire will cause a draught through the enclosure (hot air rises) which feeds oxygen to the fire.

This is why I was asking if anyone has done actual tests on the metal CU's.
It is also why I questioned "Isn't there the possibility that the metal CU will produce enough smoke in the CU to extinguish the fire?" with regards to removing the oxygen.
I'd love to see a test. See what actually happens.
 
it's commercial though. a metal box is only required on domestics. the reasoning behind this is that idle layabouts who watch jeremy kyle should be protected, but workers can be left to burn thus making more jobs available for eastern europeans.
 
it's commercial though. a metal box is only required on domestics. the reasoning behind this is that idle layabouts who watch jeremy kyle should be protected, but workers can be left to burn thus making more jobs available for eastern europeans.
Morning Tel back to your best I see.:D
 

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