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The Arc Fault Detection Device… again.

whjohnson
Some humourous but valid observations on AFDDs, the state of the industry, the wiring regs and future amendment requirements.

He also attempts to build a AFFD tester which electrically tests rather than relying upon the mechanical action of the test button on the device itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ElFaKc_e8

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  • 0
    The presenter in this video claims that in the US, AFDDs have reduced numbers of domestic fires by nearly 20% - good enough reason to install them, is it not?

    Even if they prevented 100% of domestic fires they'd still be horrendously expensive for the benefits - at say 6 or 7 final circuits to protect per household at around £150 a throw that'd be around £1000 per home, or £20 BILLION for the country's 20 million households. If society had that sort of money to spare there'd be plenty of other safety improvements we could spend it on that would be far more effective. Of if you want to be clinical about it, see how many lives you'd need to save at UK's usual "value of a prevented fatality" (VPF) of about £1.8m.


    Then add in that they can't detect arcs on distribution circuits, or the higher power final circuits that account for probably the majority of burned out connections (showers etc) and may not work at all with arcs on small contact areas or between copper conductors or faults that are purely resistive heating, they don't look like a good economic case to me.


       - Andy.
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  • 0
    The presenter in this video claims that in the US, AFDDs have reduced numbers of domestic fires by nearly 20% - good enough reason to install them, is it not?

    Even if they prevented 100% of domestic fires they'd still be horrendously expensive for the benefits - at say 6 or 7 final circuits to protect per household at around £150 a throw that'd be around £1000 per home, or £20 BILLION for the country's 20 million households. If society had that sort of money to spare there'd be plenty of other safety improvements we could spend it on that would be far more effective. Of if you want to be clinical about it, see how many lives you'd need to save at UK's usual "value of a prevented fatality" (VPF) of about £1.8m.


    Then add in that they can't detect arcs on distribution circuits, or the higher power final circuits that account for probably the majority of burned out connections (showers etc) and may not work at all with arcs on small contact areas or between copper conductors or faults that are purely resistive heating, they don't look like a good economic case to me.


       - Andy.
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