I wasnt sure which base was best to put this on....

A VERY LONG PAGE but well worth reading if your into fixing,etc..........

http://web.archive.org/web/200104271...ch_safety.html

Thank you for posting this. We ALL know this stuff, but it still don't hurt to review it every so often.

The article is a British entry. I guess, they are more safety minded then we are.
When I first started repairing radios, I used to buy Carbon-tet for cleaning tuners and control pots. You could buy it at any drug store. No one really knew how nasty, the stuff is. :thumbsdn:

I suppose that with all mains electricity being 240 volts in the UK you would get twice the shock than at 120 volts that is used in USA. I know that some USA things run on 240 volts using a split phase = 120v-0-120v, so if you get a shock from any mains wire to earth/ground the maximum shock is 120 volts. However in UK if you get a shock from any mains wire to earth/ground it's 240 volts. All electric sockets & lamp-holders carry 240 volts. All appliance plugs have at least a 13 amp fuse in them, low power appliances(radio's, TV's, cable box's, table lamps) have lower amperage fuses e.g. 3 amp..

A very nice summary. Thanks for posting it.

The part about mercury acting as a "getter" and being the reason for the silvering on the inside of tube bulbs is dead wrong, though. The getter deposits are barium based.

The National Electrical Code, NEC dictates that no voltage in a home or small business is more than 120 volts to ground/earth. All of the newer 3 phase installations, when required are 120/208 volt Y systems. :thmbsp:

Quite welcome mate,always good to read up. EVEN IF YOUR QUITE SURE :)

That sounds much safer than our 240 volts to earth/ground. My house has a '30 mili-amp earth/ground leakage cutout' for the whole house, slightest earth/ground leakage & 'click' the electric goes off. I had one of those George Forman health grills & that was always tripping the electric, one day it blew up completely so was binned..

In the US, we don't have a GFCI, that is for the entire house. Most of the time, it's located in the kitchen or bath receptacle. :thmbsp:

I get the impression that the Brits are more safety conscious about technology in general, maybe having 240V electric power is one of the reasons. I read somewhere that if you have a gas appliance, you have to get it inspected once a year or your gas gets shut-off also.

Thanks for sharing.

The UL should rewrite the rules that all AC items should have a fuse inline including CFL,LED lighting,Wall warts ,Kitchen Appliances and the list can go on.

I'm tired seeing these fuseless crap devices killing people with fires .

It would not hurt on the DC devices too with the powerful batteries.

In the UK it's recommended to get gas appliances inspected annually but nothing happens if you don't. If you are a landlord and rent out accommodation then you must get gas appliances inspected annually by a Registered Gas Installer and supply a copy of the certificate to your tenant. But again nothing will happen unless the tenant complains to the authorities. Then you can face criminal penalities.

Most of the items cited, have had overtemp and overcurrent protection for several years, per U/L standards.
Most electrical fires are caused by misapplication of the items and most are items over ten years old.

Answering my own entry: I pulled a few dumb stunts myself!
I have two fibre-optic Christmas trees, one has an AC motor driven color wheel and the other one doesn't. I grabbed the wrong, lower current wall-wart and used it on a higher current tree. Within a half hour the thermo-fuse did it's job, open primary. I found another at a thrift, for a buck. :thmbsp:

You can find Beryllium oxide in home use tranzistor radios or that used only in big power stuff?

Does anyone here know of a case of someone working on electronics repair getting electrocuted? I can't recall ever hearing of one, but of course that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

TV trucks with antenna booms, on the other hand, have killed operators, and the incidence does not seem to have been reduced over the years. When we sent out our TV reception test truck, I made sure all personnel, whatever their role in the operation, read and signed a list of safety practices. Some of the most important:

1) No one may raise the mast unassisted. There must be at least one more person spotting power lines and obstructions.
2) If thunder is heard or lightning is seen, the mast may not be raised until at least 30 minutes after activity has stopped.
3) Anyone on the crew who feels the operation is potentially unsafe can force a stop and cannot be over-ridden by anyone else of any level of authority.
We would much rather lose data than people.

AFAIK it's only used in high power RF transistors and tubes. Unless you're a radio amateur the only device in that class you might find in a home is the magnetron in a microwave oven. I don't think that these contain beryllium oxide. There will be a very clear warning label on the device if it does.

I've had the odd nasty shock from electronics kit but only one that might have been lethal. I was troubleshooting a 'scope and measuring the EHT on the CRT cathode. About -1.2kV DC. The insulation of the probe wasn't good enough and I got a belt. It hurt. A lot. Mainly due to violent muscle contraction, my arm ached for a couple of days. Fortunately I was also thrown clear by the muscle spasm. That EHT was derived from a mains transformer so there would have been plenty of current available to kill me.

By contrast when 25kV EHT from a Barco monitor jumped out and bit me it was like a bad insect sting. More current available than on a domestic TV but still nowhere near enough to be dangerous. The only real hazard was mechanical. I might have jumped back and hit my head on something.

RCA referred to their post war design TV's as having a "reduced hazard" high voltage supply, which is a low current HV source, using a flyback instead of a high voltage mains transformer.
The main item, that I have a lot of respect for is the power supply in a microwave oven. The transformer in those puts out over 1000 volts at around an amp. Enough to be fatal. :sigh:

Yup its always good to review....

Its a very good site!!!!