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P.M.E. and Potato Peelers.

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About 2 years ago I was asked to undertake electrical work at a local chip shop/fast food outlet. I was concerned about large metal drummed wet potato peeling machines located on a wet floor in an old outbuilding and the P.M.E. earthing system. I could not devise a safe system in my mind where the large potato peeling machines positioned on a wet stone floor could be made safe with the P.M.E. earthing.


Anyway, unfortunately recently the place burned down and is now boarded up. The cause may not be electrical, but due to oil catching fire.


I have not done any work in the building at all.


Because the machines could not be effectively TT earthed I did not proceed with any work.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/norfolk-norfolk-fire-at-mundesley-business-7985784


Z.
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    davezawadi (David Stone):

    Z that is very unlikely. You accept much higher risks all the time. When you drive you accept a risk in the same terms of about 1 in 2000. Not driving or using the roads at all reduces this risk to a higher level to the electrical risk, that of being hit by a vehicle whilst walking. The only way to get zero risk from that particular accident is to stay in bed, where the risk is about 1500 in 60 million every day! There is a mad idea circulating in recent times that risk can be reduced to zero, (or perhaps zero Covid, but that's another story). This is impossible. Just living has many risks, some of which may be somewhat reduced with countermeasures, but they cannot ever be made zero. The only zero "risk to life" existence is to be dead! You need to get a grip on the magnitudes of various risks because otherwise, they will ruin your life completely and you will never enjoy anything. Using Electricity is extremely safe for everyone, but the risk cannot be made zero, although some highly deluded people seem to think it can. You will not even be safe from electricity if you live in a tent with no supply within 20 miles, the lightning will get you!


    Reply no.2.


    Imagine the old potato peeling machine room. An old brick built "outhouse" dating back to the early 1900s. The wet floor is made of bricks laid on the soil, the block paving of its day. The walls are whitewashed brick. The original use would have been for a coal or wood store.


    The potato peeling machines are metal bodied and stand on low tables. The room is damp and the floor is wet. There are metal pipes running along a wall, some water perhaps one is a gas pipe.


    The supply to the building is P.M.E.


    Imagine a person with wet trainers using the machines. This is not a high tech production facility, it is a rural chip shop operation.


    Imagine a person in contact with one metal machine with one hand whilst the other hand is on the wet floor as he tries to recover a lost potato that has escaped, or he is cleaning the machine. That is like being in contact with a metal caravan chassis and earth at the same time with each hand, which is a bad thing, so caravans have to be TT earthed.


    But I can't TT earth this installation.


    That was and still is my safety concern.


    Z.


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