Electrical Safety

Common Dangers

• Mixing electricity and water • Long trailing cables • Damaged cables or plugs • Children and animals • Overloaded sockets • Covers off appliances (e.g. PCs) • Poking things in sockets • Cables or appliances near hot objects

Plugs

Plugs should be wired correctly, i.e

• The right wire to the right pin • No bare wires • Wires just long enough to reach pins • Cable grip over the thick outer cable • Correct fuse

Plugs

• The wire in plugs is made from copper as it is an excellent conductor and is very flexible • Each copper wire is insulated with a flexible plastic coating • The three wires are insulated again in a thicker wire for extra safety • The case is made from a tough plastic to insulate and survive minor knocks

Electrical Safety - Fuses

• A fuse contains a thin wire which melts if the current goes above a certain value (the fuse rating), this isolates the appliance and prevents damage occurring • It is important to select the correct fuse – the value of the fuse should be just above the normal operating value of the appliance – e.g a 10A kettle needs a 13A fuse

Electrical Safety – Earth Wire

• Metal cased appliances need to be Earthed • E.g in a toaster, if the live wire somehow comes into contact with the metal case, anyone touching the case will get an electric shock • By Earthing the appliance, should the live wire touch the case, the electricity will flow away to the Earth

Electrical Safety – Earth Wire

• It is only metal appliances which need Earthing • If the appliance has a plastic cover it is called “double insulated” and does not need an Earth wire as electricity can not flow though the plastic case • Double insulated appliances will have this symbol on:

Electrical Safety - Other

• The Earth pin is longer than the other two as it opens covers to the live and neutral sockets – this helps prevents shocks if people put metal objects into the sockets