AFDD

Albert Law said:

Is it proven on enhancing electrical safety and is it worthwhile on the additional cost involved ?

To the best of my knowledge, the UK does not record fire safety statistics for electrical installations to an appropriately granular level to assess this properly.

Hi Gkenyon!  

Thank you so much for your kind response.

In Hong Kong, we are preparing to use AFDD on a wider scale but we find it difficult to justify the very high cost involved.

I would suggest that some universities in the UK or other countries will carry out research on the justification of application of AFDD in collaboration with the major manufacturers of AFDD.

Albert Law said:

I would suggest that some universities in the UK or other countries will carry out research on the justification of application of AFDD in collaboration with the major manufacturers of AFDD.

If there is a driver to do so? I have not come across any, but I guess an internet search would reveal any prior or in progress research if you are looking for that?

USA was first to implement, so if there is any data, it would be there.

Its not what you want to read I suspect but a few years ago now a chap from CIBSE did some independent experiments and analysis It seems that his paper has now escaped onto the internet, so I link to it here  Arc Fault Devices Are they worth it?

His conclusion was as above that there  is not really a lot of evidence. Actually the conclusions are more than equivocal about the claimed 'advantages', and sort of suggests that at best they only detect a very limited range of dangerous situations, (".. verification tests are quite artificial, and there appears a disconnect between  BS EN 62606’s verification procedure and real faults..") and comments that in terms of fire safety we'd probably do better replacing PVC with XPLE cable... Apart from that it is a pretty ringing endorsement. Ha !

Mike.

Ideally, a randomised controlled trial is required. So take a new development and randomly assign 50% of dwellings to get AFDD and 50% not.

Then observe. Given the rarity of electrical fires, even with a whole new town, it might take a long time.

If anything less than a randomised controlled trial is performed, it is going to be difficult to exclude obviously biassing factors. So, installations with AFDDs will be newer than those without, the owners/occupants may be more risk averse and use other means to reduce the risk, and so on.

Ideally, a randomised controlled trial is required. So take a new development and randomly assign 50% of dwellings to get AFDD and 50% not.

Then observe. Given the rarity of electrical fires, even with a whole new town, it might take a long time.

If anything less than a randomised controlled trial is performed, it is going to be difficult to exclude obviously biassing factors. So, installations with AFDDs will be newer than those without, the owners/occupants may be more risk averse and use other means to reduce the risk, and so on.