I know you may not necessarily have a baby in your home but the title Babyproof your home through Architecture was the best fit for this post. Stay with me.
Someone is likely going to kill a cockroach after reading this.
I know a lady today, who was once a child. There were no personal phones then keeping children busy like we have today. Their family lived in a 3-bedroom semi-detached (flat) building.
She and her siblings were not allowed to go out and play with other children in the neighbourhood. They learned to experiment with anything in the house. From reading books and novels to playing hide and seek.
One day, this lady child came upon a dangerous discovery. Her hands were damp, as she was cleaning one of the rooms in their home. While wiping dust and cobwebs off and around a lamp holder located inside a wardrobe, her hand touched the interior of the lamp holder.
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She felt a sudden vibration all over her body and was wondering what that thing was. It was a very painful experience. She kept this discovery to herself.
She later went back to this lamp holder a few times to test her discovery. She noticed that the vibration only came when there was light, and her hands were damp.
Another day came, there was electricity at the time, and she invited her siblings to this lamp holder in the wardrobe. She told them that for this discovery to work, they had to get their hands damp.
So, they went to the kitchen sink and got their hands damp. Then they came back to this wardrobe and touched the interior of this lamp holder. Each of them felt the vibration and two of the siblings chose to never go near it.
They were initially laughing and giggling about it but the pain they felt from the vibration was enough to keep them all from touching it further.
I guess you know what I’m talking about. Your children do not understand that they are getting electric shocks from touching naked or open electrical fittings.
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- A 13 amp wall socket_©rehmie.com.ng
I have seen a crawling baby with a metal fork, attempting to insert the prongs through a 13amp wall socket. This 13amp was located on the wall at 1 foot from the ground.
In Electrical drawings, Architects are instructing our service engineers to locate 13-amp wall sockets at 1200mm (4 feet) from the structural floor level. At this height, your baby cannot reach a wall socket as most crawling babies are at 2 feet height on average.
All openings created for electrical fittings that are not in use should be closed up. Call an electrician to close up any lamp holder that has no bulb in it.
You may not have children who like to explore around you, but your friends could come around with such explorative kids.
You may not be as lucky as those siblings who escaped with just electric vibrations.
