Your Bedtime Routine (1)

Do you remember the old fire safety advert on television called 'Your Bedtime Routine' Where a couple did a singing and dancing act around their home closing doors and turning off electrical appliances before retiring for the night. The idea being to forestall any untoward incidences and risk of an electrical fire. 

Almost every month, the inland waterways media has a boat fire to report. This started me thinking about things on the boat. Most people should know where the battery isolators are located. (Ours are in the engine room) But what about other appliance and equipment isolators. On Rosie for instance we have a gas central heating boiler. Until I started thinking about this as a blog topic, I had no idea if it also had its own gas supply isolator. (It has but more worryingly it took me quite a while to locate it) 

So many bits of electrical equipment like television sets have a standby more. Initiated when turned off with a button on the controller. Mobile phone chargers are often left plugged into a socket. Where contrary to what you might think, they continue to operate and consume electrical power.

However on a boat, there are going to be more unique 'features' than we might have in our bricks and mortar homes. There are certainly many more reasons for making ourselves aware of the risks. 

I think the issues fall into three main categories. Every day things, leaving the boat for extended period and annual events.  An everyday thing might be to turn off any unwanted appliances at night. When leaving the boat for an extended period would be to turn off the water pump and isolate the diesel and gas supply. An annual event might be to change the battery in a smoke alarm.