Fire in the hole! [RE-wrenches]

[jberdner at sma-america.com]

Dear Fire Guys:

While additional fire protection is hard to argue against, I thought people
might like to know that this is one of the things UL Listing is supposed to
get you.  If the equipment is UL Listed then you are not supposed to be
required to add any special measures for fire protection.

One of the tests UL does when they list a piece of equipment is to mount it
on a unfinished pine board (plywood).
Then they deliberately cause a failure to see if the board gets scorched.

During normal operation at max ratings they take temperature measurements on
the mounting boards.
The limits are set to protect a pine board, during long term continuous
operation at max rating.

They also wrap the product in tissue paper and see if the Normal or Abnormal
tests create any brown or burn marks.
Tissue paper browns very easily so it is a pretty tough test.

Best regards,

John Berdner

-----Original Message-----
From: William Miller [mailto:wrmiller at slonet.org]
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 11:57 AM
To: jay peltz
Subject: Fire in the hole! [RE-wrenches]


Pals:

I have been following this thread on fire hazards.  I too mount my
equipment to a plywood back board (after I have applied several coats of a
very durable epoxy or polyurethane paint, for aesthetic reasons).  I also
mount transformers, load centers, J-boxes, switch, light and receptacle
boxes, transfer switches, charge controllers, etc. to wood surfaces.

Now if I was really paranoid about fire, I'd mount all of the above to some
kind of masonry or metal surface, but I think this might be a bit
excessive.  Fire hazards do come from all of the above mentioned items.
Most of our equipment is manufactured in metal enclosures and I always
thought this was the first and only necessary line of defense for fire
prevention (this is of course in addition to the usual precautions of a
careful design, tight connections, etc.).

I do plan on never putting the manual on top of an inverter again, and I
will instruct my clients likewise.

William Miller

__________________________________________________________________
William Miller
SLO Communications: Communications and Power Systems Consulting
Chief Engineer, KCBX: NPR and PRI for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara
PO Box 50, Santa Margarita, CA 93453
Voice :805-438-5600		Fax: 805-438-4607	VMail: 805-546-4875
email: wrmiller at slonet.org
License No. C-10-773985
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- - - - - - -
To send a message:
 RE-wrenches at topica.com

The archive of previous messages: 
 http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette:
 http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

To unsubscribe send a message to: 
 RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

To check out the other RE-Wrench participants:
 www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine: 
 www.homepower.com

For info contact list moderator by email:
 michael.welch at homepower.com

____________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  -- Learn More. Surf Less. 
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose.
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01