Electrical related accidents claim many lives every year. Around a thousand electrical-related injuries were reported to the Health and Safety Eexcutive body last year. People were getting injured or killed due to poorly installed electrical systems which subsequently became live or caused a fire. People in industry and construction were getting injured or killed due to working too close buried cables or too near overhead cables. Others were getting killed by their domestic 230v supply.
So how to avoid us becoming part of this unenviable statistic? Well its basic common sense really. There is no place for bravado and machismo in this game. That stuff gets you killed. That means no working in the rain with high powered tools; no fiddling around with electrical sockets and appliances with wet hands; no DIY on circuits and systems you are unfamiliar with. These things seem very simple, and are, but you'd be surprised how many people don't follow them and suffer as a result. Also make sure that the fuses you put into appliances are the correct value for that appliance. Also make sure that your electrical systems at home are fully up-to-date and tested yearly by an electrician. Yes its £200 odd, but you know for sure that you've done all you can to keep your family from unnecessary danger.
Also, make sure that you test your RCD (in your consumer unit) every three months. This is very easy to find. Open your consumer unit (the big box with lots of switches in it...some of which trip occasionally) and look for a big blue button press this while the main switch is on and the bank of switches that this RCD controls should trip. That's it!
Why is this important? Well funnily enough, people often think that your fuse will protect you in your fuse box or your fuse in the appliance will. Nothing could be further from the truth. These fuses are there to protect the appliance from overloading, not to stop you getting a shock. You see these three amp and 13 amp fuses...do you know how much current it takes to kill someone? 0.5 milliamps. That's half of a thousandth of an amp. Not very much at all. So if your fuses don't protect you what does? Well basically, if there is a short circuit then the earth will take all the fault current and the RCD will trip out that faulty circuit. This means that in 0.4 seconds (how long an RCD takes to react) the potentially very dangerous electricity will be cut off and you'll be safe. Of course if you are unlucky enough to be in contact during those 0.4 seconds then good luck, it was nice knowing you.
For more information about electrical safety and to arrange for a qualified electrician to come out and give presentations to your company please visit www.electrocontracts.com and fill in the form.
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