Fired-up over consumer units

摘要

A number of fire investigators throughout the UK have noticed a recent trend with an increasing number of fires involving plastic consumer units. In the last five years, the London Fire Brigade has investigated 107 fires (October 2006 to October 2011), and in the last 12 months it has identified a 100% increase in these incidents, with 45 investigations concluding that the fire originated within a plastic consumer unit. There are several types of fault that lead to the ignition of the plastic enclosure/casing. The most common is localised resistance heating at the connection of the neutral link (solid or flexible) terminal connection bar. These conductors are used to connect the main isolation switch and the neutral connection/terminal bar. Other areas where a neutral connection fault can occur are additional neutral conductor links to connect other components (such as the conductor linking the main neutral connection terminal bar to the Residual Current Device (RCD[s]).