With our cables you'll be a step ahead…
During 2015 Fenix will begin to offer power supply leads that do not contain halogen (Halogen FREE) with their products – heating cables and mats for floor heating. Even though current legislation with regard to cables only requires the use of halogen-free materials in power and distribution cables, and only in public buildings, it can be assumed that in the future this requirement will be extended to other products and residential structures as well. Fenix has decided to support this trend and now actively contributes to increasing the safety of technical equipment used in the field of building heating.
The importance of halogen-free cables
When investigating the causes of fires in industrial structures, public buildings with high concentrations of people and structures containing expensive, complex technical equipment, it was discovered that very often it is power cables that cause the outbreak and spreading of fire. Such cables run through the whole structure, and their insulation and sheathing are fabricated from synthetic materials with various burning intensities. For this reason, cable sheaths containing fire resistant halogens began to be used.
Follow-up analyses of the consequences of large fires occurring over the last two decades have shown, however, that the most significant danger to people during fires was not from the flames themselves, but primarily from the drop in visibility due to the great amount of smoke generated, which in addition has a high content of toxic substances. For this reason, it has become necessary to remove all materials containing halogens (as well as other things) from the structures of cables.
FENIX halogen-free cables
It is clear from the information stated above that the risk of releasing toxic substances is directly connected with the risk of fire, and that this is above all an issue affecting electrical wiring inside buildings, where dangerous concentrations of such substances can arise. Heating cables themselves are always placed within the structure of a floor – usually in concrete or anhydrite screed, self-levelling screed or bonding cement – and thus cannot be directly impacted by fire. However, flames can potentially reach power supply leads, which can be installed (for example) inside protective tubing within a wall. Because of this, FENIX plans to gradually introduce halogen-free leads (i.e. cold leads) for use with their heating cables and mats for floor heating. These products will be labelled with our new Halogen FREE logo in technical and commercial materials.
