IMPROPER WIRING CAUSE OF FIRES (PAGE 30)

Improper wiring of houses and the failure of landlords to replace worn out cables that were installed more than three decades ago account for the many fire outbreaks in market places and other residential facilities in various urban centers, resulting in enormous losses, experts have said.
The experts are of the view that a house or any building that drew electricity via cables should have its wiring system changed after every 20 to 25 years.
They explained that electrical cables in themselves did not expire but the coat or the rubber cover around the cable wears out over the years, exposing the bare wires which results in sparks that lead to the fire outbreaks.
That aside, some landlords fail to use the right cables required to ensure safety.
The experts gave the examples where a house requires 2.5 mm cables for wiring but the landlord uses 1.5mm cables as well as the wrong earth wires. According to the experts when that happened there was excess load on the cables , resulting in huge cost to the Electricity Company of Ghana.
When contacted the Regional Public Relation Officer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr Adjei Larbi, said generally there were many houses in the system that had bad wiring systems.
’If households fail to bury the earth-wire the load that enters the premises of the customer is not used, and it goes waste, and in the end ECG and the country loses.”
“But with a good wiring system and good earth-wire, the unused loads go back to the substation and there is no loss to the company,” the PRO added.
He said with the introduction of the new prepayment meters, the load that enters the premises of the customer, who failed to do the right thing, bore the cost of the excess load that goes waste.
The PRO said if the right things were done it would not only help prevent the losses in the system but would also help conserve energy, ensuring that cost was not shifted to the supplier.
He said it was wrong for people to just recruit wayside contractors and trust their lifetime investment into their hands.
“We have the right contractors certified by the ECG to undertake wiring as well as advice prospective landlords on the best way of wiring and not those who would let their selfish interests override the interest of their clients’’.