Electric Safety Corporation Changes Wiring Methods to Prevent Fires in Ceilings

Partial Amendment to the Korea Electric Installation Regulations

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] As the method of electrical wiring work on ceilings of houses and commercial buildings changes, metal flexible conduits must be used instead of synthetic resin conduits (combineduct conduits) inside the ceilings from now on.

The Korea Electrical Safety Corporation announced on the 6th that it partially amended the "Korea Electrical Installation Regulations (KEC)" with this content. The amendment includes measures to prevent accidents after it was found that some of the fires that occurred in recent years originated from electrical wiring.

The Electrical Safety Research Institute under the Electrical Safety Corporation has conducted research on the risk of fire spread caused by combineduct conduits, evacuation risks due to smoke, and the risk of casualties caused by harmful gases. The research results revealed that compared to flexible conduits (ST conduits), the amount of smoke generated by combineduct conduits (CD conduits) is 26 times higher, and by polyvinyl chloride conduits (PVC conduits) is 31 times higher. Experimental results also showed that harmful gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) reach levels that are fatal to humans within 10 minutes in CD conduits and within 3 minutes in PVC conduits.

The Electrical Safety Corporation expects that changing the wiring method inside ceilings this time will improve facility safety and help reduce electrical fires.