Re: Why deliberately shorting equipment to blow breakers might be a bad idea . . .

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Robert Green wrote:
> I can't recall whether it was here in CHA or in alt.home.repair (hence the
> crosspost) but I am certain I read messages from people who short outlets or
> wiring with a screwdriver (instead of using a meter or a fox and hound toner
> set) to find the controlling circuit breaker for that branch.  The article
> below points out the possible downside of that approach:
>
> Missouri: Inquiry Ties Wiring to Fatal Group Home Fire
>
>  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/us/20brfs-Fire.html
>
> By LIBBY SANDER
> Published: December 20, 2006
> Hours before a fire killed 10 people in a group home for the mentally ill
> and disabled on Nov. 27 in Anderson, a maintenance worker trying to repair a
> furnace short-circuited wiring in the attic, where fire investigators said
> they believed that the fire started. The worker told investigators that he
> did not know which circuit breaker operated the furnace and that he
> deliberately tripped the system, according to a report from the Missouri
> Fire Safety Division. The wiring may have become overloaded, the report
> staid. The fire marshal said the home did not have sprinklers. The report
> was obtained by The Associated Press under an open-records law.
>
>
> --
> Bobby G.

If everything is "to code", aside from the personal hazard to the one
doing the shorting, this practice should be completely safe.

But the consequences of something being amiss (not to code, poorly done
wiring, etc) and causing a fire, with damage or worse, is too high a
consequence to pay for a little convenience.

Its a classic "low risk of occurrence, high cost of occurrence"
scenario.

Dave