Daisy Chaining electrical extension/multiboxes etc

[Boredguy]

Holy Necrobump!

[sparkeh]

Braiiiiins

[Alis_Klar]

I find duplicate posts more annoying than Necrobumping.... so there.....

[MatthewL]

I have been on some training tonight and as part of the training this topic came up.

 

As most people know a multi way, extension lead, what ever you want to call it is generally rated at 13 amp so you would only plug in what devices meet that i.e. you wouldn't plug in 2 kettles and 2 fan heaters as this is more than the load. There is no law specifically against these but you have a duty of care or certainly your onsite fire warden would as this is a risk to the organisation. If you come across such issue you need to put in writing not verbal and a SMS message will stand up in a court of law too, your concerns to the H&S Manager or someone who can do something about it, weather that be install more sockets or remove the risk, if they fail to comply the issue can then be taken to HSE or your local fire service (technical fire safety team), they can then be served notice and this goes with any other fire risk, so many days after if not fixed they can close you till its fixed as such.

 

Now heaven forbid there was a fire the fire investigation team (FIV) will investigate and can tell if extension leads have been used, you ring up your insurance to get a fix and they ask cause of fire, you tell them extension lead they won't touch you as you have breached safe working or things to that effect.

 

All employees must ensure the workplace is safe from fire as a duty of care and report any concerns to those responsible. If that is in writing and you can prove so they do not have a leg to stand on if anything did happen say for example a fire as the risk has been identified and they have done nothing about it.

 

At the end of the day extension leads should not be used for a fixed installation and adequate power should be provided. If classrooms are moved around often you can get power blocks that attach to desks that are individually fused and wired to mains dado type trunking with the correct connections but is semi modular, bit of a professional extension lead as such. Similar to these, it was something our estates and health & safety used to manage in the NHS rather than an IT issue but something worth looking into.

 

If you want to get into the nitty gritty its worth looking up the Regulatory Reform Act Fire Safety (think its 2005), it has points in regarding much of the above.

 

Any questions feel free to PM me but if anyone has done any fire warden training alot is covered in there if done properly.