[Nottingham] 'elth 'n' safty gone Terry Gilliam Brazil bonkers?!

[Martin]

On 5 October 2011 10:51, Jason Irwin <jasonirwin73 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 05/10/11 09:35, Martin wrote:
>> Is not the onus and responsibility that the delegates have their own
>> equipment insured and tested as might be prudent?
>
> Would you trust random strangers (which is what we are as far as the pub
> is concerned) to plug random equipment into your infrastructure when you
> are not yourself an expert and thus unable to assess the safety/health
> of the equipment?

Nope.

But then that is where it all comes down to common sense and having to
live in a high tech society. Otherwise, we may as well go back to
wooden huts and get burned alive from an open fire hearth or a knocked
over candle...

Electricity can kill, but only if you are particularly stupid. The
infrastructure is *designed* to be robust and safe and fail-safe where
possible.

Consumer appliances are also designed to be safe and tested against
various bureaucratic regulations to be safe before being let loose on
the public.

The infrastructure itself should have properly rated circuit breakers
and RCDs to protect the infrastructure itself.

Hence, you've got safety by design at all ends there. You've then got
to be very creatively silly to get zapped.


... Which might be where the PAT requirement comes in...

I wonder if they only have the one RCD for the entire building and
they've had too many blackouts due to a wet kettle or whatever
appliance with condensation leaking a few electrons?...


This is perhaps where we need to move to RCDs on each electrical zone
to limit over-sensitive trips blacking out everything in a building...


> You could always ask the sparks.  If they are good, they'll view testing
> equipment that doesn't need it as a pain in the balls as well.  Although
> what happens when we want to use a new lappy or something?  And will
> they be charging?  As an aside, I would have thought it would all have

There's a large extra cost in time and disruption and money... Also a
big deterrent to bringing your own kit.


> been going back to RCDs at the fuse box, so there'd be protection from
> any over-load.

I wonder if leakage is more the problem giving too frequent
blackouts... All that residual current imbalance soon adds up to a few
mA.


> And if you think all this is crazy, do not even start me on the hassle
> of teaching martial arts to children!

This is all getting rather crazy. How soon before we make our own
Byzantine demise?


> Anyway, I have the answer.  Bring our own generator...

Rechargeable batteries?



More seriously, is this really a new 'insurance' requirement, or just
working around the inconvenience of over-sensitive RCDs?


Regardless, this is very new and looks utterly ridiculous. We'll next
be required to wear hi-viz clothing, safety glasses, and no bare flesh
to be exposed!

Cheers,
Martin