It definitely was not supplied by the heater company. It was a high quality
UL approved cord. It's just that this cord carbonized and burst into flame
as the arc was existing. The flames did immediately extinguish when the arc
was stopped by unplugging the cord which is good.
But again, it was disturbing that the 15A breaker provided no protection.
Anyway, it was a good lesson for this "sleeping" guy. Now I take electrical
distribution inside my home much more seriously.
- Robert -
Robert A. Macy, PE [email protected]
408 286 3985 fx 408 297 9121
AJM International Electronics Consultants
619 North First St, San Jose, CA 95112
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Kwok <[email protected]>
To: Robert Macy <[email protected]>; [email protected]
<[email protected]>
List-Post: [email protected]
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2001 1:42 PM
Subject: Re: skinny power cords.
>
>Hi Robert,
>
>Recently, I bought several similar heaters for my home. I recall reading in
>the operation instructions, explicit safety warnings against using
extension
>cords with the heater. Was the extension cord supplied with the heater?
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Dan Kwok, P.Eng.
>Principal Engineer
>Electromagnetic Compatibility
>Intetron Consulting, Inc.
>Ph (604) 432-9874
>E-mail [email protected]
>Internet http://www.intetron.com
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Robert Macy" <[email protected]>
>To: "Roman, Dan" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
>Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 8:49 AM
>Subject: Re: skinny power cords.
>
>
>>
>> Just have to jump in here with personal experience:
>>
>> In our bedroom we have a deLonghi radiator heater which uses an extension
>> cord (high cost UL approved) heavy guage #12 wire to power it - when it's
>> used. This extension cord plugs into a "multi outlet" adapter, also
heavy
>> duty UL approved. At the time of the incident there was no power being
>used
>> from this outlet.
>>
>> I was in another room, my wife was sitting on the edge of the bed
watching
>a
>> news blurb on TV when she heard a funny sound, a scritch, scritch. She
>> called to me to come listen. Scritch, scritch, scritch got louder. As I
>> arrived, flames started lapping up the wall from the outlet while still
>> making arcing sounds. The flames were less than 6 inches from curtains.
I
>> reached into all this and unplugged the extension cord which luckily
>stopped
>> the fireworks display. Imagine, if we had not been there.
>>
>> Upon examination, it appeared that an arc had formed between the blades
of
>> the extension cord (remember no power at the time). That arc was not
>> sufficient to drop the 15A breaker to the outlet, yet was sufficient to
>> carbonize the UL approved material which further sustained the arc.
>>
>> I posted this to the newsgroup alt.home.repair where a fireman jumped in
>> describing how this exact mechanism is what starts most home fires!
Isn't
>> that an encouraging thought!
>>
>> Anyway, a little damn fuse in the plug would not have helped in this
>> circumstance, complete waste of time, much like the main breaker was.
>>
>> - Robert -
>>
>> Robert A. Macy, PE [email protected]
>> 408 286 3985 fx 408 297 9121
>> AJM International Electronics Consultants
>> 619 North First St, San Jose, CA 95112
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Roman, Dan <[email protected]>
>> To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
>> Date: Thursday, October 25, 2001 7:41 AM
>> Subject: RE: skinny power cords.
>>
>>
>> >
>> >I agreed completely with Scott. A 6 to 9 foot 18AWG cord will handle
well
>> >in excess of 20A for a short period of time without starting to smoke
>> (heck,
>> >it'll handle close to in excess of 60A for a very very short time
without
>> >bursting into flames--not that it was a good experience finding this
out).
>> >Point is, the cordage will handle a fault either indefinitely or long
>> enough
>> >for the branch circuit breaker to trip provided you are connected to a
15A
>> >or 20A branch circuit.
>> >
>> >Another data point, you routinely pass more current through the cord
when
>> >doing the earthing test and that uses more current than the cord is
rated.
>> >Leave the tester on for awhile and the cord does not really heat up
>either.
>> >
>> >What this list needs is a power cord manufacturer or agency safety
>engineer
>> >that does power cords to settle this once and for all!
>> >
>> >Dan
>> >
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >From: Scott Lacey [mailto:[email protected]]
>> >Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 7:43 PM
>> >To: Gary McInturff
>> >Cc: [email protected]
>> >Subject: RE: skinny power cords.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >Gary,
>> >I believe the answer is that the power cord rating of 6 or 10 amps is
the
>> >operating current, at which it will have minimum temperature rise. Under
>> >fault conditions it will experience a rather dramatic temperature rise
>that
>> >is still well below the melting temperature of the insulation. The
breaker
>> >or fuse should clear well before the cord is "cooked" to the point of
>> >failure.
>> >
>> >Scott Lacey
>> >
>>
-------------------------------------------
This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety
Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list.
Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/
To cancel your subscription, send mail to:
[email protected]
with the single line:
unsubscribe emc-pstc
For help, send mail to the list administrators:
Michael Garretson: [email protected]
Dave Heald [email protected]
For policy questions, send mail to:
Richard Nute: [email protected]
Jim Bacher: [email protected]
All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at:
No longer online until our new server is brought online and the old
messages are imported into the new server.
