Did the fire brigade say this to me just to frighten me

SerialRenter

Dan-Dan wrote: »

whats the differences , technically between extension bars and the triple plugs?

The difference being that the triple plug has to take the weight of any weighty plugs attached to directly onto the prongs of its own plug. As such you'll often see them loosely in the socket at a bit of an angle.

This could lead to sparking or arcing, or simply a inferior connection, which due to the resistivity of a smaller conductor would cause heating and hence a fire hazard.

Extensions often have their own fuse's too for additional protection, where as a triple plug may not.

Dan-Dan

cheers, i dont use them myself these days , you dont really see them as much around either

sonastin

It is a genuine risk as these things really can cause fires. The probability of it actually causing a fire is usually very low, and is also influenced by things like the quality of the plugs/cables/items you are plugging in, the quality of the wiring in the house, if there are any issues with wrong fuses, potential shorting routes, etc.

While you might be plugging shiny new high quality appliances into fully insulated properly fused wiring circuits and therefore at minimal risk of a fire, the fire brigade are trying to instill good habits into you so that if you end up in a position where you live in a dodgy bedsit with carppy appliances, you'll be used to removing plugs and won't forget and find the place burning down around your ears.

I think the advice is really to be practical about these things - sky box, fridge, anything with a clock that would need resetting every time you switched on - all are probably OK to leave plugged in. TV, games console, PC - lets face, it... life will be easier to leave them plugged in. Chargers, hair dryers, straighteners - do you really need to take that risk? what harm is there in pulling the plug out?

115K

I had to do a fire safety course and I was told that you should unplug everything at night, not that I do.:o

Years ago my cousin was using my hairdryer and it caught on fire.:eek:

lincroft1710

And in the olden days when you went away on holiday, you turned both the gas and electricity off at the mains.

Prothet_of_Doom

If you are really worried could you fit fused sockets ? http://www.screwfix.com/p/bg-nexus-13a-2g-rcd-switched-socket/91095#

http://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-heavy-duty-13a-4g-rewireable-fused-socket-with-neon-white/90230

Mattygroves2

I know one family where a fairly substantial fire was caused by a switched off but plugged in hair dryer. Likewise a set of offices was gutted by a fire caused by a phone charger being left plugged in and switched on although I think that one was caused by the heat setting papers alight.

We always fully unplug the hair dryer now and all chargers.

hazyjo

Mattygroves2 wrote: »

We always fully unplug the hair dryer now and all chargers.

Jeez, hadn't thought about that. Got two chargers plugged in at home and one at work:eek:

But then what happens when a phone's actually charging, would that then be as much a risk, or is when they're not in use? I suppose if it's going to catch fire, it'll do it whether it's charging a phone or not? Am I totally barking up the wrong tree? I often sleep with my phone charging in next to my bed...

Jx

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

My MIL died in a house fire caused by a TV on standby, according to the coroner. Now that was a faulty TV rather than a socket overload, but the principles can be similar

If the fire officer raised concerns, there are probably obvious tirggers. My experience is that many houses have circuits that were designed before we had such a volume of appliances, and hence people could be overloading them.

Get a sparks out if it's giving you cause for concern

SerialRenter

hazyjo wrote: »

Jeez, hadn't thought about that. Got two chargers plugged in at home and one at work:eek:

But then what happens when a phone's actually charging, would that then be as much a risk, or is when they're not in use? I suppose if it's going to catch fire, it'll do it whether it's charging a phone or not? Am I totally barking up the wrong tree? I often sleep with my phone charging in next to my bed...

Jx

That's what you shouldn't buy cheap chargers from china
The quality can be truly shocking. I believe there was something in the news about knock off iPhone chargers recently.

Good quality chargers you get from the manufacturer shouldn't be a worry, They're CE marked and should be safe.

Same thing goes for items like hair dryers really, to be on the safe side you can turn it off at the plug or unplug it if you wish. But at the end of the day, if its faulty and was always going to set on fire you'll just be delaying the inevitable until you're holding the device in your hands.

As for the RCD sockets, note that an RCD will only trip on a ground fault. It wont trip in overload conditions or phase to neutral short circuits.

Hopefully everyone here already has RCD's in their consumer box, life saving devices