mbrooke
Batteries Included
- Location
- United States
- Occupation
- Technician
What causes this? Can an energized staple or J-box in a wood frame building cause the wood around it to carbonize?
pt lumber?
Pyrophoric carbonization can also be cause by light bulbs placed too close to lumber causing the continual drying of the material. this lowers the ignition point of the lumber to tinder type qualities. Older homes may have chimneys that do not have proper clearance to framing members. The continued drying of the framing lowers the ignition point to where a chimney fire could easily be started without direct flame involvement. Fire investigators love to try to determine this one at the scene.
You would have to have enough current flow to heat the wood to have pyrophoric carbonization. I don't think it occurs unless you have raised the temperature to 200?F or greater.What causes this? Can an energized staple or J-box in a wood frame building cause the wood around it to carbonize?
You would have to have enough current flow to heat the wood to have pyrophoric carbonization. I don't think it occurs unless you have raised the temperature to 200?F or greater.
I doubt that even wet wood would be conductive enough for the current flow to create enough heat to cause this.
The best part of this is arc fault breakers won't detect or stop this from happening.
Leaving said for the moment the question of whether AFCIs save lives (and whether the GFCI component of AFCIs that have them) save lives, there is no way that the AFCI component which would detect the low current micro arcs associated with pyrophoric carbonization.Here's a dollar, go get a clue and bring me back the change :roll:
AFCIs save lives.
macmikeman is usually correct and awesome at just about everything, except boogie boarding.Leaving said for the moment the question of whether AFCIs save lives (and whether the GFCI component of AFCIs that have them) save lives, there is no way that the AFCI component which would detect the low current micro arcs associated with pyrophoric carbonization.
But a pure GFCI might!
macmikeman is correct.
Leaving said for the moment the question of whether AFCIs save lives (and whether the GFCI component of AFCIs that have them) save lives, there is no way that the AFCI component which would detect the low current micro arcs associated with pyrophoric carbonization.
But a pure GFCI might!
macmikeman is correct.
Here's a dollar, go get a clue and bring me back the change :roll:
AFCIs save lives.
Leaving said for the moment the question of whether AFCIs save lives (and whether the GFCI component of AFCIs that have them) save lives, there is no way that the AFCI component which would detect the low current micro arcs associated with pyrophoric carbonization.
But a pure GFCI might!
macmikeman is correct.
Mr. Kirchoff's rules apply even to a one load series circuit, you just don't need to use them for analysis.That pyrophoric carbonization has been witnessed w/o power in a dwelling by fire forensic engineers elevates the phenomenon past the old staple theory.
But this is less than the magic it appears, if one considers our (American) grounding system proliferating to the point where Mr Kirchoff's rules come into the equation
~RJ~