Forced to take a Smartmeter but will be worse off for it

Swipe

That's what smoke alarms are for.

[Deleted User]

Swipe said:

That's what smoke alarms are for.

Smoke alarms are for when the solids are about to hit the fan, and something has gone very wrong. Better not to get that far and test your ability to get out a smoke filled house 2am from a deep sleep.

Wonder how many people test their alarms often. Wonder how many have alarms.

Wales is getting sprinklers on new builds and conversions.

Swipe

half_empty said:

Swipe said:

That's what smoke alarms are for.

Smoke alarms are for when the solids are about to hit the fan, and something has gone very wrong. Better not to get that far and test your ability to get out a smoke filled house 2am from a deep sleep.

Wonder how many people test their alarms often. Wonder how many have alarms.

Wales is getting sprinklers on new builds and conversions.

Mine get tested every time I make some toast

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I wonder how many additional houses will burn down when everyone's running their washing machines and tumble driers while they're asleep?

I'd guess zero. I'm not aware of any link between time-of-day and white goods fires.

Boxman said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I wonder how many additional houses will burn down when everyone's running their washing machines and tumble driers while they're asleep?

We did this for the 10 years we were on economy 7 and to the best of my knowledge it did not happen to us.

https://www.notts-fire.gov.uk/nfrs-news/Pages/Firefighters-urge-residents-to-not-leave-tumble-dryers-on-overnight.aspx

and

wittynamegoeshere said:

Hmmm... should I rely on the advice of random strangers on the interweb, or should I listen to the likes of these people?...

https://www.northwalesfire.gov.wales/news/2018/11/tumble-dryer-dos-and-don-ts/

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, in either of those articles to suggest that running washing machines or tumble dryers overnight will cause additional house fires.

If you're going to wash and dry 100 loads of laundry a year, that's 100 (very low) chances of a fire. It makes no difference to the chance of a fire whether it's daytime or night-time.

Statistics for you (mostly from here):

• In 2019-2020 there were 35000 dwelling fires. Given that there are 28M dwellings, that's a 1-in-800 annual rate, 0.125%.
  
• 3145 of those fires were due to "other electrical goods". That's a 0.011% rate.
• In that 2018 article - which was with those faulty Whirlpool dryers still in widespread use - tumble dryer fires in Wales totalled 57% of 158, ie. 90 fires. Compared to Wales's 1627 fires per year, that's 5.5% of fires. So the annual rate of tumble dryer fires is (0.125% x  5.5%) roughly 70 per million households.

And my dryer isn't one of those faulty Whirlpool ones. I'm comfortable with that level of risk.

Gerry1

QrizB said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I wonder how many additional houses will burn down when everyone's running their washing machines and tumble driers while they're asleep?

I'd guess zero. I'm not aware of any link between time-of-day and white goods fires.

Sadly, many people are only too well aware of what happened just before 01:00, and the smoke alarm worked...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I wonder how many additional houses will burn down when everyone's running their washing machines and tumble driers while they're asleep?

I'd guess zero. I'm not aware of any link between time-of-day and white goods fires.

Sadly, many people are only too well aware of what happened just before 01:00, and the smoke alarm worked...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289

Do you have evidence that the Grenfell fire was related to a tumble dryer running overnight? And that it would not have caught fire if it had been running at 8pm or 8am?

If not, there's still nothing to suggest any link between time-of-day and white goods fires.

Swipe

QrizB said:

Gerry1 said:

QrizB said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

I wonder how many additional houses will burn down when everyone's running their washing machines and tumble driers while they're asleep?

I'd guess zero. I'm not aware of any link between time-of-day and white goods fires.

Sadly, many people are only too well aware of what happened just before 01:00, and the smoke alarm worked...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289

Do you have evidence that the Grenfell fire was related to a tumble dryer running overnight? And that it would not have caught fire if it had been running at 8pm or 8am?

If not, there's still nothing to suggest any link between time-of-day and white goods fires.

It was a Hotpoint fridge freezer. Best turn those off overnight just in case. :P

[Deleted User]

Nothing to do with increasing during night hours, all to do with keeping your chances of getting out in case it goes south. My tumble dryer was in the recall. Took it apart and the manager that signed off that design needed locking up. Whole thing was a Roman candle looking for a light and the light was an exposed heater element. I binned it before it became a big story.

Astria

half_empty said:

Swipe said:

That's what smoke alarms are for.

Smoke alarms are for when the solids are about to hit the fan, and something has gone very wrong. Better not to get that far and test your ability to get out a smoke filled house 2am from a deep sleep.

Wonder how many people test their alarms often. Wonder how many have alarms.

Wales is getting sprinklers on new builds and conversions.

I'm typically wide awake until 3 - 4am so typically I can be doing the washing at midnight no problem. Have 3 smoke alarms which are tested monthly and the batteries changed every year whether the device has said they are low or not. They are kept and used for other devices not thrown away.

QrizB

wittynamegoeshere said:

Usually smoke alarms are not fitted in kitchens, utility rooms and garages due to false alarms, the rooms where tumble dryers are often fitted.

I have a combined smoke and CO alarm in my kitchen. It's the only room of the house where I intentionally have naked flames on a regular basis so I reckon it's the most likely place for a fire to start.