<Things You Should Know> Home Fire Prevention Part 31: Reducing Fire Risk with Earth Leakage Breakers

This is the thirty-first installment in our series on preventing home fires.
This time, we will discuss "Reducing fire risk with earth leakage breakers."

In multi-unit dwellings such as apartment buildings, earth leakage breakers equipped with leakage detection functions are used.

Many detached houses also use earth leakage breakers, but in older homes, it is quite common to still have standard breakers without a leakage detection function.

An earth leakage breaker is designed to prevent electrical fires by immediately tripping and cutting off the power when it detects a current leak.

The installation cost is not very high and the work time is relatively short, so if you are still using a standard breaker, you should ask a professional to replace it.

Also, make sure to find a reputable contractor with a solid track record.
Do not get stuck with a shady contractor just by looking at the lowest installation price online.

Even with an earth leakage breaker, there are rare cases where a fire can still occur if ignition happens immediately after the leak, but there is often a time lag between the leak and the ignition, which certainly reduces the risk of fire caused by electrical leakage to some extent.

The first installment of the home fire prevention series can be found here.
To protect your precious belongings, your home, and the lives of yourself and your family, please read them in order starting from the first one.

<Things You Should Know> Home Fire Prevention Part 1: Introduction

Next time, we will discuss "Beware of fatal accidents involving fire extinguishers."