NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns.

NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns.
	Post Reply		Forum

Posted by: tompjeka ^®

10/13/2004, 15:56:05

Author Profile Mail author Edit

Hello,

When it rains, our company has had water leaks inside of our building where water has been coming down like rain on some NEMA 1 enclosures, "Breaker Boxes".

What are the dangers? Electrocution, Fires, etc.???

Could a fire result if this problem is left unfixed???

I thought that someone could be electrocuted or that a fire may result if this problem was not resolved.

I am on the Safety Committee at our workplace and was told that this was not a safety concern since the breaker would go out when rain made contact with the breaker box and this is not an issue. I disagree. What is your view on this?

ANY AND ALL COMMENTS WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

Thanks,

Modified by Administrator at Wed, Oct 13, 2004, 17:30:03

Post Reply | Recommend | Alert

Rate

View All

| Next |

Replies to this message

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns. Disagree

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns. -- tompjeka Post Reply Top of thread Forum

Posted by: mmallon ^®

11/09/2004, 09:13:17

Author Profile Mail author Edit

I suggest you refer to the National Electric Code. Your company is in MAJOR Violation of the NEC.

Fix the leaks..

Post Reply | Recommend | Alert Rate Where am I? Original Top of thread

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns.

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns. -- tompjeka Post Reply Top of thread Forum

Posted by: eddyhtmok ^®

11/04/2004, 20:55:17

Author Profile Mail author Edit

Tompjeka,

You may tackle this problem by two steps.(1) Check out the reason for why so much water come into the enclosure beacause something must be wrong for this water leakage from the building construction. (2) Check out the Ingress-Protection Index(IP index) of the enclosure you are using as this information would tell you the degree of water protection of the enclosure that can apply. (say IP 67 -- Total dust post entry into enclosure and can be soaked into water under 50M., pls correct me if my memory wrong.)

Then Apply with with the right IP box that match with building construction environment.

Hopes this can help.

Eddy

Post Reply | Recommend | Alert Rate Where am I? Original Top of thread | |

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns.

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns. -- tompjeka Post Reply Top of thread Forum

Posted by: jraef ^®

11/03/2004, 14:15:07

Author Profile Mail author Edit

Absolutely a serious safety concern!
There is significant risk of fire, electrocution, equipment damage etc. etc. etc.. It is completely false to assume "... this was not a safety concern since the breaker would go out when rain made contact...". The amount of current necessary to cause a normal breaker to trip would kill anyone inadvertantly connected to that circuit several times over before it cleared the fault. Anyone who doesn't believe that should drop a toaster into the bathtub with themselves for a little "Darwinian" experiment!
In addition even if wet circuit breakers did not kill someone, you are exposing those breakers and bus bars to exteme corrosion conditions for which they were NEVER designed to encounter. Corrosion in electrical equipment causes circuit resistance, which causes heat, which eventually causes fire. Even if corrosion hasn't built up to the point of increasing resistance enough to cause a fire yet, it most likely will interfere with proper operation of the breaker trip mechanisms and they may not open at all. As it is now, you MUST replace ALL of the breaker boxes and their contents immediately, and fix whatever problem is allowing water to enter. To ignore this is to risk EVERYTHING!
If you need help convincing your superiors of this, use this argument. If an insurance investigators finds out after a fire that you or anyone else knew this condition existed and did nothing about it, they could (and likely would) deny coverage!

Post Reply | Recommend | Alert Rate Where am I? Original Top of thread | |

Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns.
Re: NEMA 1 Enclosures, Safety Concerns. -- tompjeka	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum