Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 7 replies
  • Subscribers 33 subscribers
  • Views 1169 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion is locked.
You cannot post a reply to this discussion. If you have a question start a new discussion

AFDDs and bated breath

lyledunn

The IET/CEF webinar on BS7671A2 a few days ago was a good entertaining, production which was easily digested. At one stage Darren turns to Mark and suggests that we are waiting with bated breath as to whether Mark in consultation with colleagues from ESF will prescribe a code two or three to the absence of AFDDs in an installation. Their decision will then be published in a new Best Practice Guide for periodic inspection and testing. 
I trust that the Guide will keep to domestic installations. Straying into areas where BS7671 mandates AFDDs will cause serious issues with the statutory requirements attendant with those installations. The absence of such devices in these circumstances is best left to professional fire risk assessment rather than some arbitrary declaration that does not have knowledge of the individual premises or the control measures that are in place. 

  • I saw the CEF road show earlier in the year and the two of them were batting off each other like a comedy duo.

    Very entertaining.

    AFDD's solve a problem that doesn't exist. Real lack of scientific assessment and poor engineering judgment.

    Having said that the designs for AFDDs look very clever.

  • Whilst driving on the motorway pondering life, work and the universe, listening to an electrical podcast as you do, I was wondering how long it will take the local council HMO licensing officer to comment on the subject of AFDDs. 

  • The local council and fire brigade required the replacement of rewirable fuse boards or that they were enclosed in a fire resistant enclosure in HMOs and hotels long before the IET picked up the baton and introduced requirements for non-combustible enclosures.

  • Who advises local Councils on the implementation of changes such as this, are they instructed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities or whatever they are called this week?

    I know Charlotte Lee at NAPIT used to be involved with lobbying on such matters at Government level through the Electrical Round Table as well as being the members forum moderator keeping ex members of this forum in check. Joy

    However the Electrical Round Table seems to have gone quiet since before Covid, I don’t know what they are up to these days

    www.electricalsafetyroundtable.co.uk/

  • in reply to Sparkingchip

    I wonder how they are going to reconcile the increased loading on the grid if these things are mandated across the board.

    Imagine a installation such as offices, a hotel or HMO with multiple dist boards, never mind the 28 million homes, each with at least a 10 way CU.

    How much power does a AFDD consume?

    www.youtube.com/watch

    They can make it a whichever 'C' code they like, but it won't mean that a previous installation assessed and considered 'safe' will have further moneis spent on AFDD upgrades. Indeed, we can look forward to much belt tightening in the forthcoming couple of years. The lack of a AFDD won't get people to open their wallets, not at a hundred quid a chuck for some dubious unproven benefit.

  • Interesting question, along with the consumer paying perhaps £25 a year or more for a board full of AFDDs? I was speaking to a wind company yesterday, they are currently being paid £425 /MWhr. Basically the electricity market doesn't work, During Covid they lost a ton of money as they had to pay the market .

    Nnow it has gone the other way! Did the consumer get really cheap power during lockdown? Now they are expected to pay a fortune for power which only ratchets one way! At this price I could make money with diesel generation at the MW level, or even more by using jet fuel. This is mad and the Greens still cannot explain why we should pay so much, their energy is supposed to be cheap to the consumer. An electric car charge with no tax or duty now costs as much per mile as petrol, you couldn't make it up! I know, raise the duty on petrol to make the market work! Idiots.

  • in reply to David Stone

    VAT is chargeable on electricity for charging cars.  Those who can charge at home are lucky, as they pay only 5% VAT.  Plug into a commercial rapid charger, and it's 20% VAT.

Join us to get the best from IET EngX.

Joining EngX lets you personalise your experience so you stay up to date on the topics that interest you, plus you’ll be able to make connections who are looking to collaborate, exchange ideas and more.

Join us Not now

Community Rules & Guidelines