There seem to be many unintended consequences generated by the Amd 2 DPC. I wonder why it is US who sees them and not JPEL/64? Is it the lack of experience of JPEL/64 or is it something else?
I suspect that 'the system' works thus - the R&D boyos at the various manufacturers are pressed by the sales teams to dream up with new ways of releiveing us of our cash. "Right folks, we've won the all-RCD thing, the metal consumer units, the fire clips, the SPDs (oh what a whizz that one was), so now we are looking for new product innovation, over to you, but there are hard targets to be met..........."
A hand shoots up - "How about AFDDs as the next cash cow?" The sales guy's eyes light up with delight, "But we know they don't actually work don't we? So how can we push this one through?"
"Ah don't worry, the guys who sit on the committees will wave it through no problem, so long as we oil the wheels enough times.........."
There seems to be a tacit assumption that AFDDs do as marked on the tin. If one looks on youtube and tries a few videos, is this assumption valid? I am looking for evidence that they are effective in reducing domestic fires, does anyone anywhere have any? My and several friends' attempts to test them have been in many ways less than satisfactory, and we tend to suffer with "not quite the right kind of arc fault" syndrome. We have also had severe difficulties establishing arcs between copper conductors, and a few slight sparks are not really enough to light even a cigarette paper. Just how far will 230V jump to start an arc? So far I think it is less than a tenth of a millimetre, and to get any heat at all is difficult because it instantly extinguishes unless one of the conductors moves away. Air really is an excellent insulator!
With this fire reduction information I would find it easier to reccomend fitting AFDDs to customers, but NONE of the manufacturers will give it to one, which is seriously bad marketing, unless there is no evidence in which case surely the product is not of saleable quality. I also still do not understand why a single AFDD may not be fitted in the tails. As far as I can see, and from the specification document BS EN62606, the entire circuit current does not need to be the arc source, so why not in the tails, although a higher current device has no specification. In fact it seems that fitting multiple devices is planned into the EN, which I think odd.
