More and more businesses and domestic households are installing rooftop solar systems due to their affordability and many benefits. The Aswich Firefighter Safety Switch has been brought to the market to increase the safety of homes and workplace buildings and decrease the risk of danger should there be a fire within the building.
The Firefighter Safety Switch works according to standard international firefighter routines which starts by shutting down all AC power in the building. As soon as this AC power is shut down, the switch will automatically switch OFF and isolate all DC current running through the building into the inverter. Without the knowledge of knowing the DC current has been made safe, firefighters may not begin saving the building as it can be extremely dangerous, they may have to complete a control burndown instead.
The Firefighter Safety Switch is powered by a motorized ‘True’ on-load DC switch with a ‘snap action’ spring mechanism, its response time is less than 3 milliseconds extinguishing any potential DC arc. The Aswich ERS must be located as close to the PV modules as possible, this minimizes the amount of cabling with dangerous DC voltage and leads to a completely powerless situation in the building, maximising safety when needed.
The Firefighter Safety Switch has been developed to allow easy installation to reduce labour costs. The automatic switch runs off the buildings AC supply which can be a regular 240V AC house plug or similar.
Building management systems and fire alarms can also be wired into the switch to isolate in case of an emergency.
Aswich has over 30 years’ experience developing DC switchgear for a range of industries from solar PV, rail, defence, steel and more. Aswich has proven itself to be the leading DC switch manufacturer and this is why we are the inverter manufacturer’s choice for DC switches.