Fire Hazard on narrowboats

[Keeping Up]

Thanks for all your input, so let me pose the question.

Would you buy a boat with polystyrene insulation where as far as you can see the electric wiring cable is not protected with some sort of sheath?

 

Yes - but I'd offer a couple of thousand less than the asking price "to cover the cost of making it safe" and then I'd use my garden hose trick (without the worms) to fix the problems at zero cost.

[MoominPapa]

Thanks for all your input, so let me pose the question.

Would you buy a boat with polystyrene insulation where as far as you can see the electric wiring cable is not protected with some sort of sheath?

I did, and I don't loose sleep over it. I do wish the original builder had run cables in trunking, but that's because it would make it much easier to alter the wiring. Every place I've exposed where PVC cable is in contact with polystyrene, there has been minimal effect of the polystyrene and no discernable effect of the cable.

 

MP.

[nb Innisfree]

I think that all PVC cable insulation produced during the last 20 years has been improved to prevent reaction with polystyrene? Though I am not able to verify this.

[robbio c]

been an electrician for nearly 20yrs now and yes keep all cables away from polystyrene.over the years i have seen many cases of damaged insulation on cables .there is a chemical reaction between the pvc insulation on cables and the polystyrene .all cables should be in some sort of conduit.hope that helps.

[Alan de Enfield]

I was in the cable manufacturing business some 30 years ago and this 'problem' was very well known - particularly in the "domestic furniture" applications (Stereos, radiograms etc etc).

The solution was to use a 'special' blend of PVC which was called 'non-migratory'

 

The Polystyrene affects the PVC by making the polymers migrate away from any 'pressure' - so if a PVC cable was running thru' a record-player 'case' and was 'squashed' the PVC tried to 'migrate' away from the pressure point leaving the conductors uninsulated. Non- migratory PVC did not suffer from the problem and was safe to use with Polystyrene in direct contact.

 

RJASMITH - Poly-prop is probably more stable than PE (super glue will glue PE but not PP)