Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
01-11-2016, 00:53
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#1
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cf.mega poster
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Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
A family say that their Sky/Openreach socket caught fire!
Openreach say that this is not possible.
They gave him a temporary mobile internet connection, put in a power surge protector and offered him £120, but say that it must be due to his electric wiring being faulty
Are dangerous power surges possible or common with telephone lines (with their low voltage)?
Can they actually catch fire?
BBC1 Wales would like anybody who has experienced this to contact them.
The relevant item starts at about 0:13:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080ysbz
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01-11-2016, 08:17
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#2
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Inactive
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
I've heard of sockets burning out in lightning strikes, but never as part of a socket/phone wiring fault. There simply isn't the power coming down a line to get it hot enough to burn.
Short some 240v to it however...
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01-11-2016, 09:36
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#3
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Perfect Soldier
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
My mothers phone socket, phone and sky box blew up when there was a local lightning strike on a pole about 200 yds away. The extension lead socket was very charred.
Overhead lines are always vulnerable to strikes or shorts to other cables carrying power especially in high winds, so yes, it could be possible.
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01-11-2016, 10:07
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#4
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Trollsplatter
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
We got a new iMac out of a lightning strike on our phone line some years ago, pre-wifi when it was hard wired to the modem via Ethernet. iMacs of course have everything on the motherboard, so the insurance company took one look at the repair bill and decided on a new-for-old swap.
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01-11-2016, 10:44
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#5
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
I've seen one during a lightning stike
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01-11-2016, 11:20
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#6
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Of course these are exteme examples. In the normal course of events the 48 volt supply on the phone line has very little current available so in itself would have insufficient energy to cause a fire. In fact just taking the phone off the hook drops this to around 24v. It's this action that alerts the exchange to give you a line and the dialing tone.
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01-11-2016, 15:12
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#7
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
Are dangerous power surges possible or common with telephone lines (with their low voltage)?
Can they actually catch fire?
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The UK Telephone System uses low power (<50mA) at normally 50v (it can be 60v).
You cannot get dangerous power surges from telephone lines (unless they get hit by lightning, or somehow come into contact with a high voltage system, like mains).
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01-11-2016, 15:46
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#8
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Thanks, so it looks like Openreach are correct when they say it's down to faulty wiring in the house ie the telephone wiring has somehow come into contact with the mains wiring
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01-11-2016, 16:10
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#9
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
Thanks, so it looks like Openreach are correct when they say it's down to faulty wiring in the house ie the telephone wiring has somehow come into contact with the mains wiring
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If it was through the phoneline it would be melted also
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01-11-2016, 16:58
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#10
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laeva recumbens anguis
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
No.
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01-11-2016, 17:56
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#11
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jb66
If it was through the phoneline it would be melted also
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That's a point, you'd think that if a power surge occurred on the phone line network that it would never reach a customers home as the wiring would melt long before as it's not designed for high voltages.
---------- Post added at 17:56 ---------- Previous post was at 17:54 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh
No.
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Why do you say that Hugh?
If there was, say, a lightening strike, wouldn't it melt the Openreach infrastructure before ever getting to the customers home?
I remember that the cable network in the ROI once had problems with something similar though, so (NTL I think) offloaded it.
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01-11-2016, 18:17
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#12
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Perfect Soldier
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Richard, you have to remember the difference between series mode and common mode. The phone cabling can probably withstand >500v in series mode, that's between conductors, but several thousand volts in common mode, that's from the conductors to other circuits, poles, as in lightning strokes and cable crosses.
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01-11-2016, 19:37
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#13
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
Why do you say that Hugh?
If there was, say, a lightening strike, wouldn't it melt the Openreach infrastructure before ever getting to the customers home?
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Probably not, its more likely to melt the insulation than the actual copper.
Until quite recently, BT Master sockets had surge protectors in them as well, but they dont use them any more.
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01-11-2016, 19:39
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#14
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laeva recumbens anguis
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
That's a point, you'd think that if a power surge occurred on the phone line network that it would never reach a customers home as the wiring would melt long before as it's not designed for high voltages.
---------- Post added at 17:56 ---------- Previous post was at 17:54 ----------
Why do you say that Hugh?
If there was, say, a lightening strike, wouldn't it melt the Openreach infrastructure before ever getting to the customers home?
I remember that the cable network in the ROI once had problems with something similar though, so (NTL I think) offloaded it.
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Your question was
Quote:
Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
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No, it hasn't.
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If only we’re brave enough to be it.
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01-11-2016, 19:54
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#15
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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
Thanks, so it looks like Openreach are correct when they say it's down to faulty wiring in the house ie the telephone wiring has somehow come into contact with the mains wiring
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I should imaging Openreach know there were no lightening strikes ATT. There are regulations regarding the routing of electrical curcuits, telephone and ethernet circuits in the home and minimum distances between each to mitigate the chance of a short.
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