Electrical Wire Fire
I was awakened by a strong electrical burning odor around 2:am. The inside of the RV Travel Trailer was filled with smoke. The smoke detectors seem to be working, however, they didn't go off that nigh...
Forum Discussion
glennts wrote:Generally overheating due to a loose connection will cause Less current (amps) so a monitor described above won't help.
Would this type of incident cause enough of an increase in amp draw that a night time amp monitor/alarm could trigger when the draw is > normal overnight. If so then you would be alerted before the smoke/fire stage.
The connection overheats because the additional resistance caused by the loose connection causes a voltage drop across the connection. The combination of current going through the connection and the voltage drop across it results in it dissipating wattage (volts X amps). Since the connection is not a normal load, it overheats. An ideal connection would have no resistance so it wouldn't drop any voltage. A realistic connection has low enough resistance that it drops a small enough voltage that it doesn't overheat at the current it is rated for.
Since it is a combination of voltage & amperage, a connection that would work OK with a light load may overheat when heavily loaded.
