Originally posted by: davezawadi
But Phantom9, they were dangerous (the statutory body says so) and there were a large number of fires. How is this not dangerous?
I think what has come out of this debate is quite surprising, Dave. We as electricians can only buy electrical equipment supplied in good faith by the electrical wholesalers. Each and every item has a BS or BS EN number that the product is manufactured to, as required for it to be used by BS7671. However, if it is discovered that the product does not comply, as the statutory body is saying, it is the manufacturers fault and it is non-compliant in respect of combustibility. I agree with you on that point. However, you have also recognised that the item itself is not dangerous when said about finding loose terminations and having to tighten them all. It is not the fuse board itself that causes the danger but shoddy workmanship. Shoddy workmanship leads to high resistance terminations. High resistance terminations cause heat and heat if the temperature reaches critical levels causes fire.
The big problem highlighted in this thread is, what exactly is the issue? Is it that some fuse boards are now known to be non-compliant and should never have been supplied? Or is it that plastic fuse boards are deemed inappropriate per se? Or is it that increasing numbers of fires in fuse boards are making the issue more prominent, so much so that a knee jerk reaction is to introduce a clumsy Regulation in an attempt to improve on things?
The daft part is we have a manufacturing problem being transferred in to an installation requirement that has split the electrical industry in to different camps. Some are adamant that when the Reg comes in to force on 1 Jan 2016 all plastic fuse boards are then deemed immediately dangerous and EICR will flag up C1s. Some see it the same way but perhaps a C2 is more appropriate as the danger is potential rather than immediate. Others see this as no more than a C3 because existing plastic fuse boards won't comply with the new Reg but going forward things will be improved. Yet another camp see that some may not have been manufactured properly to existing standards and that a recall is necessary. Had the fuse boards been made properly in the first place then the new Reg would have been more straightforward to accept as an improvement on what is there but instead the mention of metal in Note 1 as deeming to comply with non-combustible has muddled everything up so we don't exactly know where we stand. Its a real mess.