On 9/19/2013 8:37 AM, Manfred Mornhinweg wrote:
the near electrocution you describe was due to several concurrent
problems: The short circuit due to a poor solder job, lack of a ground
fault interrupter, and poor grounding of the equipment.
And that is PRECISELY why safety regulations are written as they are.
I'm a member of the Audio Engineering Society Standards Committee,
member of several working groups, and vice-chair of the WG on EMC. Most
of those who participate are from NA and EU. These working groups
consist of MANY very smart and experienced engineers, and the
deliberations that produce our standards involve working through a lot
of "what if" situations.
Likewise, I worked for more than 15 years as a consultant designing
sound systems for public buildings, as part of an architectural design
team typically consisting of engineers from a dozen or more disciplines.
We also worked through a lot of "what if" conditions, and each of us had
the experience of having one of our own ideas shot down for very good
reasons we hadn't thought of.
The world tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear facility is an excellent
example of the failure of that sort of process -- electrical power was
critical to cooling the reactors, there were multiple generators and
backup generators, but all were at lower levels that flooded, so they
all failed, and all the reactors turned into disasters.
Most people I know consider human life safety vastly more important than
building power amplifiers in a manner that makes them a bit cheaper or
more efficient. There are very good reasons for these safety standards
and codes. Only a fool would ignore them.
73, Jim K9YC
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