Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Fire Prevention

If you go through my blog, you'll find out that I have all the house batteries and almost all power electronics installed in my garage (which is physically linked to my house).


The photo above is showing part of my setup. 
  • Burglar Alarm (12v sealed battery inside)
  • 4 x 12 MCB boxes. 240v AC House circuits.
  • 2KW SMA Inverter (Yellow Box)
  • House Power selector switch and meters with surge protectors inside
  • 12v Control Box with a xantrex charge controller c35. All Fused
  • 24v Control Box. All Fused
  • Battery and Inverter Switches
  • Off-Grid Inverter
  • 2 x 500W Grid-tie Inverters
  • 12v Car Battery Charger
  • Battery Box (12 x 2v Forklift Batteries + 2 x 6v Trojan Batteries)
All of the above can catch fire!
Everything is fully fused as it should be and all wires are properly sized to carry the estimated current, however this does not mean that accidents cannot occur... an electronic component malfunctions and the fuse does not blow or blows late after a copper wire catches fire.

To put my mind at rest I installed two fire extinguishers in the garage.
  1. 6kg Dry Powder extinguisher
  2. 5kg CO2 extinguisher
Both can be safely be used on electricity although I'll prefer the CO2. Having said that in large open spaces, the CO2 may not be enough to extinguish the fire and that's why complimenting with a dry powder extinguisher is a good idea.   




Above - 6kg Dry powder


Above - 5Kg CO2


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