The IET are really taking the pxss now!

[Octopus]

This months PE, page 38 is a full page advert for a new guide they have produced – “Guide to Consumer Units”

So they write RUBBISH regs, that most of us think are knee jerk, and them they expect us to pay out more money on a new Guide they have written. They should be giving them to people who have forked out for the BYB IMHO.

Not impressed

 

[Bobster]

Not quite true. The principle of toxic smoke has been linked to injuries, as well as the fact that a number of fires have been shown
to have been linked to plastic CUs. My question still remains though; do we need to wait for a death before acting?

It's all to do with costing, I have to use a formula quite often at work to calculate cost of human life against large safety systems. It's surprising how little it's worth in business.

 

[UNG]

You need someone to die before we act? I thought the purpose of H&S was prevention. However, if you want deaths, how about 8 firefighters?

2005: 2 Firefighter deaths in Stevenage – the Coroner at the inquest stated that cabling and trunking contributed to their deaths and issued a ‘Rule 43’ report.2007: 4 Firefighter deaths in Warwickshire – the Coroner stated that the failure of the trunking was a factor.
2010: 2 Firefighter deaths in Southampton – the Coroner reiterated the Rule 43 report from the 2005 case in Stevenage.


Try reading this.

Protection against fire: the fire officer?s view - IET Electrical

Or this.

Electrical Products - Fired-up over consumer units

"Installing to 421.1.201 can save lives."

From what I can see in the LFB fire stats which was the impetus behind this reg were any lives lost due to a consumer unit fire as the stats don't appear to cross reference this fact this is just more disingenuous twaddle from the IET

I've posted it a bit larger so you can read it digest it and post facts relevant to the issue not facts related to another part of amendment 3 that of securing cables to prevent them falling should a fire occur

With regard to H&S I think you will find that it is impossible to prevent accidents and incidents occurring and you can only reduce the risk of them happening by proper risk assessment of all of the actions involved in the installation

In one of the links you have posted the real danger is highlighted but the regulators are loath to admit that the poor training and competence schemes which they condone is responsible for the poor installation methods that contribute to CU fires

The testing of a piece of plastic taken from a CU and wrapping a bare copper wire round it and heating it does not have any real world value IMO as unless there is a reg I've missed I still use insulated cabling and certainly do not wrap it round the plastic CU housing

Not quite true. The principle of toxic smoke has been linked to injuries, as well as the fact that a number of fires have been shown to have been linked to plastic CUs. My question still remains though; do we need to wait for a death before acting?

Again "Installing to 421.1.201 can save lives." this comment infers that deaths have occurred prior to this regulation but I can find no evidence that this has happened with CU fires. I agree that one death is one too many but we have yet to change the law to stop many accidents happening in other areas of life

 

[telectrix]

it's like road accidents.people are killed injured by badly driven cars. the IET approach would be to make all cars from sponge rubber, rather than educating the bad drivers that are the cause of accidents.

 

[davesparks]

Not quite true. The principle of toxic smoke has been linked to injuries, as well as the fact that a number of fires have been shown
to have been linked to plastic CUs. My question still remains though; do we need to wait for a death before acting?

The fact that fires occurred in plastic CUs doesn't necessarily mean that removing the plastic will prevent fire. However the number of those fires which appear to be electrium CUs (Crabtree, Wylex etc) which are known to have been subject to a product recall for mcbs catching fire is quite high.
Then of course they failed to mention the number of metal DBs which have started fires!

In reality we almost do need to wait for a death to occur, otherwise how do we know that something which has never caused a problem is a problem?

 

[Midwest]

.


Try reading this.

Protection against fire: the fire officer?s view - IET Electrical

Or this.

Electrical Products - Fired-up over consumer units

Shouldn't believe everything you read, need to find a trust worthy source........ :vanish:

 

[Midwest]

it's like road accidents.people are killed injured by badly driven cars. the IET approach would be to make all cars from sponge rubber, rather than educating the bad drivers that are the cause of accidents.

Banning, points on their licences, fines, mobile cameras, speed cameras, new offence of middle lane hogger, speed awareness courses etc. Still hasn't stopped bad driving. Airbags, crumple zones, pedestrian safety through vehicle design, wearing seatbelts etc. Still won't stop people dying in road accidents.

 

[YoungScud]

Banning, points on their licences, fines, mobile cameras, speed cameras, new offence of middle lane hogger, speed awareness courses etc. Still hasn't stopped bad driving. Airbags, crumple zones, pedestrian safety through vehicle design, wearing seatbelts etc. Still won't stop people dying in road accidents.

So we stop trying?

 

[Octopus]

Banning, points on their licences, fines, mobile cameras, speed cameras, new offence of middle lane hogger, speed awareness courses etc. Still hasn't stopped bad driving. Airbags, crumple zones, pedestrian safety through vehicle design, wearing seatbelts etc. Still won't stop people dying in road accidents.

A large percentage of road deaths, of drivers or passengers, are when they are not wearing their seatbelts!

I wear a seatbelt to protect myself, not because its law! Look around in any traffic jam and you will see how many people don't bother!

 

[Midwest]

So we stop trying?

Not at all, just thought it was a bad analogy.