FIRE!!

[skatingsparks]

Fire at my own place.

So I foolishly went on holiday and let go of the reins for 3 weeks....

Day one and my camera system (which has been working faultlessly for 6 years) fails.

There was lightning and one neighbour reported having his DEYE inverter fail (everything in place - AC surges, DC Surges, 16mm Earth spike from panel etc), other neighbour lost all there power supplies (gate, alarm, intercom, lap top, desk top all popped) and another neighbour lost all his routers and internet equipment.

3 days later I get a call from my neighbour and my house is on fire - which is nice to know when you are on holiday.

My house is done - to the letter.

I use it as a show house for clients for solar and for small home automation systems (sonoff and shelly etc)

When I bought the house I did the CoC for the owner. I basically disconnected everything (as it was VIR and I knew I would be rewiring front to back) and just installed a temp board with one socket.

I found at that point there was no incoming earth (TN-S earth system) and after 3 months of back and forth with the owner, the bank and the municipality I finally got someone witha brain to come out with a loop tester to say "You're right there is no incoming earth" at which point they bought out the boom arm and went up the pole and resolved the issue for me - both of us using our testers to confirm before and after readings. Before was around 6 ohms after was 0.8ohms.
Pictures were taken, I signed the CoC for a DB with one socket and it was sent to the bank.

2 years ago I installed my own solar (licensed electrician and Green card etc) and did a CoC for my insurance company - Earth reading was still good.

Right - back to the fire thing.

Now bear in mind the only thing that has changed on my istallation in 7 years is the addition of solar which tested out text book perfect.

3 days after the lightening stike my neighbour calls me whilst I'm enjoying a full English breakfast in London saying my board is on fire.

I managed to calm him down enough to switch off and put the fire out with an extinguisher I had at home - could have been a lot worse.

I got the only other electrician I trust to go around and make sure everything wqas isolated and safe. Firebrigade even inspected the roof to make sure nothing else was cooking.

Nothing is on in the house (as we were away) apart from power to the gate, and outside lights (fridges were off, TV etcwas off and all unplugged, geyser was off)

Anyway, I try and enjoy the rest of the holiday knowing there is no alarm, no cameras and no lights on my house.

I get back and arrange for the insurance assessor to come around. They had already sent some electrician round but I was not happy about anyone going around because then someone knows you are not there.

You know when you know you have done everything right - the install, if I say so myself, is a work of art. Loops into teh downlights all even, clipping eveny spaced, cover screws all line up the same way.

Like I said - I have used it to show case what we do to my clients.

I had the most in depth CoC ever with a reading for every point when I did the install with photos.

Found out that there was no incoming earth from Municipality. I did a video call with insurance companys technical guys - did a loop test whilst they watched to show no incoming earth again. I think the reading gave me a fault current of 19amps

Luckily I had used fire sealant where the trunking goes into the roof space so the fire was contained within the mains cupboard.

But it goes to show - even if you do the best you can you can still have issues through no fault of your own. You lose your fault protection due to there being no earth from municipality (which was there before)

I have been to 4 sites this year alone (3 of which I know there was a good earth there because I tested and signed the CoC's myself) and now there is no incoming earth.

On those 4 site I have had to deal municipality guys and not one knew what a loop tester was or when I showed the results of the test had the vaugest idea of what I was showing them.

I said to the assesor "how is surge arrestor going to work effectively if there is no earth? How is breaker going to operate within required times - if there is no earth?"

These kind of things are out of our hands and we rely on the, sorry but, uneducated, unskilled and not appropriately kitted up line workers.

On the plus side I am fully covered and I will putting it all back myself and my house will be getting repainted inside.

Just glad it was my house not a client.

Careful out there guys - it can happen. First time in 33 years as a sparks and it was own place.

[Dave A]

Most amazing thing. One moment the copper is there, the next thing it is gone.
Spontaneous copper evaporation.

Hopefully not too much damage.

[Tradie]

Sorry to hear about your house. I hope the insurance company comes to the party.

We were took a bad lightning hit recently, you just hear a cracking sound and all the lights go off , fortunately I prepared the report, had all the gear in place and they paid the full amount to replace everything.

Just the other day I had a DB on site catch on fire, due to some fool installing circuit breaker on the incoming neutral. It took literally 3 seconds and the smoke was pouring out the DB. (3 phase system)

I have also visited sites were the light fittings, socket outlets, PC boards in electronic devices, you name it has burnt .

Its not the earth your need to be concerned about, its the neutral being cut or stolen or the elevated voltage that creates the biggest problems.

I am yet to find lightning protection that prevents damage to an electrical installation from a direct or semi direct hit.

[Derlyn]

Who goes on holiday to London ?

Glad to hear the insurance thing worked for you.

Here in Slummies we have whole suburbs with no earth supplied.

[GCE]

Read the article this morning and been thinking on it .
Some interesting debate can come from your misfortunes

With the solar installed you would have installed earth spike or two due to alternative supply which should have kept your earth reading correct and protection functional.
It is something that we put in and test but don't think it was wet weather , decent water table and then we go into drought situation and that earth is suddenly not as good as it used to be .

Lets assume the earth spike did it's job and the surge arrestor was doing its job and keeping the voltage clamped but after 3 days of doing that it overheated and caught fire or set surround's on fire.
For point of this exercise and guess work , I am thinking that the neutral voltage was being clamped by the surge arrestor down to your earth spike and that surge arrestor was on incoming mains with a D/pole isolator or SPN.
If the main switch had been a D/pole circuit breaker it would have tripped with excessive current being drawn and which could have then prevented the rest of the damage

I have seen it happen on a 3 phase install that the neutral was floating from utility side and eventually it sent smoke signals and somebody was present and isolated supply - 3 pole , it continued arching but very little as the imbalance was now gone.

I have been leaning towards installing D/pole CB or 4 pole for that reason , not sure if my thought process is correct but it feels right and makes sense in my head - Not sure what anybody else thought process would be