New Fire Hazard and Environmental Burden Evaluations of Electrical Cable Installations Utilizing ISO 14040 Environmental Methodologies

摘要

Changing environmental interests and new fire safety performance concerns in the wire and cable industry (WCI) have generated studies into the fire hazard and eco-performance of various data and communication cabling system alternatives for computers and local area networks (LAN). To accurately assess the various alternatives, the installed electronic functionality and fire safety performance requirements of the various end-use product options must be equivalent. For high fire performance communication cables (HFP-cables), many existing local and national regulations differentiate between end product performance options and building fire protection needs. High fire-performance, high societal-value based PVC sheathed and perfluoropolymer (PFP) insulated (PVC/PFP) cables can be routed directly in concealed plenum spaces in buildings, while products that do not meet specific high fire performance criteria, such as low-smoke zero-halogen (LSZH/PE) cables or riser-rated cables (CMR or PVC/PE), often must be protected inside other structures that do meet these building fire standards, typically using steel conduit or trunking. However, some low fire performance LAN cables, even fire-protected inside steel conduits, failed to meet the minimum flame spread and smoke criteria that HFP-cables must meet in real-scale cable, fire tests at BRE/FRS and Underwriters Laboratories (when tested as a cable in steel conduit system). Life cycle analysis (LCA) via ISO 14040 methodology is used to evaluate the various cabling alternatives using an appropriate functional unit; a CAT 6 communication LAN cabling system in a typical office building, including cable, steel conduit, couplings and supports as required per building codes for the installation. Key environmental impact assessments for energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and human toxicity are all shown to favor the PVC/PFP systems once the steel conduit is included in the analysis to fire-protect the LSZH/PE or PVC/PE cables. The additional fire safety and installation advantages provided by the PVC/PFP cables more than offsets for the environmental burdens associated with the initial manufacture of just the cable, thereby providing superior overall fire safety, environmental performance, and economic benefits versus LSZH/PE and PVC/PE cables in steel conduits.