It would probably be a good idea to have the rest of your domestic electrical wiring checked out as well. Shoddy workmanship at the circuit breaker probably indicates other safety issues for your domestic wiring. The US domestic wiring will be different to the UK standards but a socket tester such as this one at

http://www.martindale-electric.co.uk/sockets.htm

will test for the correct socket polarity and earth leakage problems. There should be a US equivalent tester to test for wall socket wiring problems.

Having a Residual Current Circuit Breaker RCCB installed is highly desirable as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual-current_device

They are known life savers protecting against lethal electrocution.

Sorry, it seem that I had given the impression that there is a continuous burning smell for a few days. What I meant was my family members and myself noticed a very faint smell of burning in the evening for the past few days. Each time we would go around searching for the smell. But the smell would disappear within 10 minutes. During day time, none of us can detect any burning smell.

I had triple checked that there is no more burning smell or open flame in / around my house before going to sleep.


I will get some smoke detectors installed and properly have to try out the existing fire extinguishers and topup too.

Yes, I do have those stuff you mentioned and a plan to handle the potential risks impacting my house or region. There was no need to deploy those items so I did not mentioned them.

This incident show the differences between what I imagine is need for a power failure situation and what is actually needed.

I had the same view too. My rechargeable batteries are solely for my kid's toys. For emergency kits, I would prefer primary battery. It just happen that I had spend the time & effort to recharge all the batteries and it fail me less than 7 days later when I need them.

most small fireextinguishers can not be "tryed". You can buy another one to train with, since the small domestic models tend to be single use. Check the pressure and when i doubt, buy a new one. Generally not worth to service them.

Thanks for the information. This is new to me. Anyway, my current fire extinguishers had been with me for several years. Guess it is time to replace them.

Yes, it is an excellent idea. But I did strip out all cablings including the circuit breakers, switches and recable the whole house when I move in 10 years ago. It would be a nightmare to recable the whole house now.

I post over Candlepower forum to share what flashlights that I had used in this incident and found useful. So that other folks will not be struck in an extended power failure with a super bright flashlight that last less than half an hour and having to sit in the dark for the rest of the duration.

My objective of repeating the post here is for discussion on the emergency preparedness aspect. I had always believe that I am quite well prepare to handle crisis such as a power failure. I had imagine what the need for a power failure will be and prepare accordingly. But was a little surprise to realise there is some shortcoming on my preparedness.

I had always assume that the cause of power failure will be external to my house, such as grid issue, tree fell on transmission line, etc. Never realise a circuit breaker melted down, will cause a power failure as well as the threat of fire.

I wish I can foresee what is my family first aid requirements are? For I would hate to break the seal on my first aid kit then realise that I had insufficient quantity of cotton wool or lack certain lotion, etc.

If you plan to replace your extinguishers, the old ones might still be suitable for training your family on proper use and to get an idea of their effectiveness. I think many people place too much faith in small extinguishers which are suitable only for small fires that are detected almost immediately after ignition.

I would certainly agree that a store of alkaline cells is prudent in case of power failure, in this case the probem was only in the OPs home and batteries could be readily purchased. in the event of a general blackout it is probable that the store would either close or run out.

As regards the cause of the problem, in addition to installing smoke detectors in the recomended places in your home, I would suggest an additional smoke detector close above the electrical panel, this could give valuable early warning of any overheating.

In the UK the use of RCDs is to be recomended, in the USA these are known as GFCIs and are already in widespread use.
Such devices protect against leakage of current to earth/ground which can kill or start fires, they do not in general protect against overheating caused by loose connections or overloading.

Yes, I intend to use the old ones for training purposes. But I am more curious to find out their lifespan, whether it would still work after 5 years in storage.

Good idea.