WO2003003324A1

WO2003003324A1 - Electrical fire indication detector

Info

Publication number: WO2003003324A1
Application number: PCT/KR2001/001106
Authority: WO
Inventors: Chang-Jong Kim; Young-Soo Kim
Original assignee: Saturn Information & Communication Corporation
Priority date: 2001-06-27
Filing date: 2001-06-27
Publication date: 2003-01-09

Abstract

An electrical fire indication detector for detecting a pre-fire condition in the electrical distribution connections caused by arcing as well as overheating of the connections. The detector (10) includes a plug (12) capable of being plugged into a wall outlet to be coupled to a power line, and an outlet (14) coupled to the plug by an internal wire for receiving a plug of a load appliance. Signal detection means (20-28) is electrically coupled to the plug (12) and detects a high frequency signal in the power line to output a high frequency data. Temperature sensor (30) detects a temperature of the power line to output temperature data. Control means (32) determines an outbreak of an arcing in the power line based on the high frequency data and determines an overheating of the power line based on the temperature data. Visual and/or audible alarms are provided when the arcing breaks out.

Description

ELECTRICAL FLRE INDICATION DETECTOR

Technical Field The present invention relates to a fire detection apparatus and, more particularly, to an electrical fire detection apparatus identifying an electrical fire indication by detecting electrical arcing breaking out in electrical power distribution connections in an office building or home.

Background Art

Of the three primary contributing factors to a fire, fuel, heat and oxygen, the typical heat sources in office buildings or dwellings are arcing in electrical connections and overheating of the electrical connections caused by overload conditions. Even though arcing is an inherently unstable phenomenon and does not usually persist long enough to start a fire, the arcing occasionally can develop temperatures well above the ignition level of most common flammable materials and therefore poses a significant fire hazard. While fuses and circuit breakers are capable of preventing serious overload conditions, they have been generally ineffective to prevent electrical fires caused by accidental arcs which frequently occur and persist at current levels below the level at which the fuse will blow or the circuit breaker has been set to trip.

Accordingly, various devices have been contemplated for detecting a pre-fire condition caused by electrical arcing in the electrical wiring. In U.S. Patent No. 5,434,509 issued 18 July 1995 to Fredrick H. Blades and entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING ARCING TN ALTERNATING-CURRENT

POWER SYSTEMS BY MONITORING HIGH-FREQUENCY NOISE, Blades describes a method and apparatus for detecting arcing in electrical connections by monitoring high frequency noise to provide the user with visual and audible alarm indications. Also, U.S. patent No. 5,831,538 issued 3 November 1998 to Robert G. Shena and entitled ELECTRICAL FIRE HAZARD

DETECTOR discloses a detector which senses an arcing condition in AC power distribution systems by sensing RF radiation generated by arcing to activate a visual and audible alarm. However, the detectors of the above patents just detect the arcing conditions, and fail to detect the overheating of the electrical connections. Further, due to the locality of the alarms, the alarms are disregarded in the case that there is no human being nearby when they are generated. Particularly, the detectors of the patents do not store any history or index of the alarms, which makes it difficult to check the history of the alarms and closely examine the cause of a fire after the outbreak of the fire.

Disclosure of the Invention

To solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical fire indication detector for detecting a fire indication or a pre-fire condition in the electrical distribution connections caused by the overheating of the connections in addition to the arcing in an office building or a dwelling and providing a user with alarms when the indication is detected, so that the user can prevent an electrical fire. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical fire indication detector which can communicate with an external monitoring system or authority.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical fire indication detector which stores arcing history data in its internal memory so that the user can check recent history data locally or in a remote site and which maintains the history data even after an outbreak of a fire.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the electrical fire indication detector includes a plug capable of being plugged into a wall outlet to be coupled to a power line connected the wall outlet, and an outlet which is coupled at least selectively to the plug by an internal wire for receiving a plug of a load appliance to supply power to the load appliance. Signal detection means is electrically coupled to the internal wire and detects a high frequency signal in the power line to output a high frequency data. Temperature detection means detects a temperature of the internal wire to output a temperature data. Control means determines an outbreak of an arcing in the power line based on the high frequency data and determines an overheating of the power line based on the temperature data Alarming means provides alarms under a control of the control means when the arcing breaks out in the power line. In a preferred embodiment, the electrical fire indication detector includes a current transducer, a notch filter, a band pass filter, and a first converter. The current transducer senses the magnitude of current flowing through the internal wire and transduces the magnitude into a voltage signal. The notch filter receives the voltage signal and suppresses, in the voltage signal, a frequency of the power supplied through the power line. The band pass filter receives an output signal of the notch filter and selectively passes frequency components of a predetermined frequency band. The first converter analog-digital converts an output signal of the band pass filter and outputs the high frequency data.

Preferably, the electrical fire indication detector further includes a second converter for analog-digital converting an output signal of the current transducer to output a current data. In such a case, the control means may determine that the arcing beaks out in the power line when more than a predetermined number of samples greater than a predetermined level exist for a predetermined time in the high frequency data. It is preferable that a circuit breaker is inserted between the plug and the outlet, so that the control means trips the circuit breaker to interrupt the power supply from the plug to the outlet when a magnitude of the current data is greater than a predetermined criterion.

While being operable standalone, the electrical fire indication detector may be interfaced with an external monitoring system as well. In a preferred embodiment, the electrical fire indication detector includes a power line communication modem and a filter/coupler to communicate with the external monitoring system. The power line communication modem is coupled to the control means for modulating a signal to be transmitted to an external monitoring system and demodulating a signal received from the external monitoring system. The filter/coupler facilitates the coupling of the power line communication modem to the internal wire. In the case that the detector is installed in an office building, the monitoring system may be installed, for example, in the control room or the guardroom of the building. In the case that the detector is installed in a dwelling, e.g., an apartment house, the monitoring system may be installed, for example, in the administration office of the apartment house. Of course, the status of the detector can be relayed to the fire department or a security keeping company through the monitoring system.

Preferably, the electrical fire indication detector further includes a non- volatile data storage for storing an arcing history data, which can be utilized in identifying the cause of a fire after the burning of the fire in the building in which the detector is installed. The non-volatile data storage is accessible by the control means and stores arcing history data from the control means. It is preferable that non-volatile data storage is enclosed in a nonflammable housing which is similar to a black box of an aircraft to be protected from a possible fire.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the electrical fire indication detector may be fixedly installed in a switchboard, for example. In such a case, the detector preferably includes a power line communication modem and a coupler/filter for the communication with the external monitoring system, also. Further, the detector preferably stores the arcing history data in a non-volatile data storage, which is enclosed in a nonflammable housing to be protected from a possible fire.

Brief Description of the Drawings The above objectives and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the electrical fire indication detector according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the electrical fire indication detector of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a format in which data is stored in the third memory shown in FIG. 2;

FIGS 4A and 4B are flowcharts illustrating the process of detecting an electrical fire indication caused by an arcing and providing alarms in the detector of

FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the process of detecting an electrical fire indication caused by an overheating of the power line and providing alarms in the detector of FIGS. 1 and 2; and FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the interconnection between electrical fire indication detectors and an external monitoring system.

Embodiments

Referring to FIG. 1, a preferred embodiment of the electrical fire indication detector 10 is installed by plugging into a wall outlet of an office building or a dwelling to be powered and provide a power supply path to a load. To be more specific, the electrical fire indication detector 10 is equipped with a plug 12 for being connected to a power line on its rear surface, and an outlet 14 allowing the plug of a load appliance to be plugged on its front surface. In addition, the detector 10 includes a light emitting diode (LED) display 38 and a liquid crystal display (LCD)

40 on its front surface, a plurality of push buttons 48 for manipulating the operation of the detector 10 are provided near the LCD 40. Even not being shown in FIG. 1, a buzzer or speaker is provided on the exterior surface for generating an audible alarm when an arcing breaks out or the overheating happens in the power line. FIG. 2 shows the electrical fire indication detector 10 of FIG. 1 in detail. The detector 10 includes a current transducer 20, a notch filter 22, a band pass filter 24, a first analog/digital (A/D) converter 26, a second A/D converter 28, a temperature sensor 30, a microprocessor 32, a first through a third memory 34-36, a LED display 38, a LCD 40, a buzzer 42, a power line communication (PLC) modem 48, a PLC filter/coupler 50, and a relay 52.

The current transducer 20 senses a magnitude of the current flowing through the internal wire 13 connecting the plug 12 to the outlet 14 and transduces such magnitude into a voltage signal(hereinbelow, referred to as "current magnitude signal"). The notch filter 22, which is a band stop filter having a stop band at a power line frequency, e.g., 60 Hz, removes or suppresses power line frequency from the current magnitude signal from the current transducer 20. The band pass filter 24 filters the output signal of the notch filter 22 to selectively pass high frequency components caused by the arcing. Preferably, the band pass filter 24 has a pass band of 1 KHz - 100 KHz. More preferably, the band pass filter 24 has a pass band of

1 KHz - 50 KHz. Particularly preferably, the band pass filter 24 has a pass band of

2 KHz - 20 KHz. The first A/D converter 26 carries out sampling of the output signal of the band pass filter 24 and converts such signal into digital form to output digital data representing the high frequency noise (hereinbelow, referred to as "high frequency data").

The second A/D converter 28 carries out sampling of the current magnitude signal from the current transducer 20 and converts such signal into digital form to output digital data representing the current magnitude (hereinbelow, referred to as "current data"). In general, when a load connected to the power line turns on or off or is operating, the load may generate a high frequency noise. In order to discriminate the high frequency noise caused by the arcing from the noise due to the load variation, the present invention utilizes the current variation information from the current transducer 20. That is, the current data converted by the second A/D converter 28 is provided to the microprocessor 32 so that the microprocessor 32 determines whether the high frequency noise originated from the arcing or the load variation, which is described below in detail.

The temperature sensor 30 senses the temperature of the internal wire 13 or the power line and provides temperature data to the microprocessor 32. As described below, the temperature data is used by the microprocessor 32 to determine the overheating of the power line. The temperature sensor 30 may be implemented by use of a digital thermometer DS 1620 or DS 1621 provided by Dallas Semiconductor Corporation (Dallas, Texas, USA). In a preferred embodiment, the temperature sensor 30 is attached to one line of power line pairs after peeling off the coating, which is followed by a molding with insulating material.

The microprocessor 32 receives the high frequency data and the current data from the first and the second A/D converters 22 and 28, respectively, and stores such data in the second memory 35 to determine the occurrence of the arcing based on the data. When determining that the arcing is generated in the power line, the microprocessor 32 controls the LED display 38 and the LCD 40, so that the LED display 38 turns on or change its light-emitting color and the LCD 40 displays a status message. Further, the microprocessor 32 makes the buzzer 42 provide a warning beep. Particularly, in the present embodiment, the LED display 38 includes multiple three-color LED lamps. The number of turned-on LED lamps and the light-emitting color varies according to the number of times of the high frequency noise caused by the arcing. On the other hand, the microprocessor 32 receives the temperature data from the temperature sensor 30 and stores such data in the second memory 35 to determine the occurrence of the overheating of the power line based on the data. When determining that the power line is overheated, the microprocessor 32 generates a visual alarm through the LED display 38 and the

LCD 40 while providing a warning beep through the buzzer 42.

The first memory 34 is implemented, for example, by a ROM and stores a program code for operating the microprocessor 32. The second memory 35 is implemented by a RAM and stores temporary data generated during the operation of the microprocessor 32. The third memory 36 is implemented by a non- volatile memory such as an EEPROM and is enclosed in a housing 37 which is made of nonflammable or fire-resistant material.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a format in which data is stored in the third memory 36. The third memory 36 stores the number of arcing generated in last thirty days in a unit of one day. Also, the third memory 36 stores the detailed number of arcs for twenty-four hours in a unit of one hour. Data stored in the third memory 36 may be reported to an external monitoring system periodically, e.g., every hour. Meanwhile, since the third memory 36 is sealed up in the nonflammable housing 37, the third memory 36 and data stored therein are not destroyed by fire.

Thus, the user or a fire analyst can refer to the data stored in the third memory in identifying the cause of a fire after the burning of the fire.

In FIG. 3, each field consists of one byte. Day fields Dl through D30 store the number of arcing generated in last thirty days in a unit of one day, and a day pointer DP indicates the day field in which most recent data is stored. Hour fields

HI through H24 stores the number of arcing generated in last twenty four hours in a unit of one hour, and an hour pointer HP indicates the hour field in which most recent data is stored. For example, the number of arcing generated from 1 :00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. is stored in the hour field H2. Just after the number data is recorded in the hour field H2, the hour pointer HP indicates the hour field H2. The number of arcing generated from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. overwrites the data stored in the hour field H3, and the hour pointer HP is updated to indicate the hour field H3 upon the completion of recording of the hour field H3. The day fields Dl through D30 and the day pointer DP is stored or updated similarly. On the other hand, the microprocessor 32 stores the detailed arcing data for last one hour in the second memory 35, and updates the data in the third memory 36 based on the data in the second memory 35.

Referring back to FIG. 2, the power line modem 44 modulates a signal to be transmitted to the external monitoring system through the power line, and demodulates a signal from the monitoring system to provide a demodulated signal to the microprocessor 32. The PLC filter/coupler 46 enables the power line modem 44 to be coupled to the power line and filters the communication signal to provide to the modem 44. The first and the second A/D converters 26 and 28, the microprocessor 32, and the first and the second memory 34 and 35 may be implemented using separate components. Alternatively, however, such elements can be implemented in an embedded core integrated circuit chip.

Now, the operation of the electrical fire indication detector of FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 A through 5. FIGS 4 A and 4B illustrate the process of detecting an electrical fire indication caused by the arcing and providing alarms. The process of FIGS. 4A and 4B generally includes steps of detecting high frequency signal (steps 100 and 102), steps of determining whether detected high frequency signal is an electrical fire indication or not (steps 104 through 1 12), steps of verifying the electrical fire indication based on the current data from the second A/D converter 28 to avoid an erroneous alarm (steps 114 through 118), and steps of providing an alarm and ι reporting to the external monitoring system (steps 120 and 122).

First, the current transducer 20 constantly detects the current in power line (step 100). When an electrical fire hazard impends due to a line fault or a deterioration of power line coating, an arcing generally occurs as a fire indication. The arcing brings about a high frequency current being mixed with a normal current in the power line. In particular, the inventors of the present invention have discovered that most power of the high frequency current components is distributed in the band of 1 KHz - 100 KHz and, more specifically, in 2 KHz - 20 KHz. The notch filter 22 and the band pass filter 24 selectively pass the frequency components of the band, 2 KHz - 20 KHz, in the current magnitude signal while suppressing the power line frequency of 60 Hz. The first A/D converter 26 converts the high frequency signal from the band pass filter 24 into the high frequency data to provide such data to the microprocessor 32.

The microprocessor 32 receives the high frequency data from the first A/D converter 26 and determines the presence of a possible arcing by comparing each sample with a first threshold (step 104). If there is a sample greater than the first threshold, the microprocessor 32 increments the number of turned-on LED lamps in the LED display 38 (step 106). While a single lamp is turned on with emitting light in green, the number of turned-on LED lamps is incremented and the lamps emit light in yellow whenever a sample greater than the first threshold is found. Also, whenever finding a sample greater than the first threshold, he microprocessor

32 stores the sample data in the second memory 35. Meanwhile, the microprocessor 32 constantly counts the number of samples greater than the first threshold for a certain time, for example, in last one minute (hereinbelow, referred to as "arcing index") (step 108). In step 110, the microprocessor 32 determines whether the arcing index is greater than a second threshold, e.g., 10. In the case that it is determined that the arcing index is not greater than the second threshold, the microprocessor 32 regards the samples as external noises and returns the procedure to the step 100. If, however, it is determined in the step 110 that the arcing index is greater than the second threshold, the microprocessor 32 changes the light-emitting color of the turned-on LED lamps into red in step 112 and verifies that the high frequency noises arose from the arcing with reference to the current data in steps 114 and 116.

As mentioned above, when the load appliance connected to the power line turns on or off or is operating, the load may generate a high frequency noise. Thus, it is necessary to prevent the electrical fire indication detector 10 from malfunctioning due to the load noise. In order to avoid such erroneous operation, the microprocessor 32 analyzes the characteristic feature of the high frequency noise based on the current data in addition that the upper cutoff frequency of the band pass filter 24 is set to be less than 100 KHz. In the step 114, the microprocessor 32 reads out the current data stored in the RAM 35 compares the recent current data with that stored before the accumulation of extraordinarily large samples. If it is determined that the load current has increased compared with the current before the accumulation of extraordinarily large samples in step 116, the microprocessor 32 regards the high frequency noises as having been originated from the operation of the load, resets the LED lamps, and returns the procedure to the step 100. On the other hand, if it is determined that the load current has not increased substantially, the microprocessor 32 regards the high frequency noises as having been caused by the arcing, a fire indication (step 118).

After determining in the step 118 that the arcing broke out, the microprocessor 32 generates the warning beep through the buzzer 42 and makes the LED display 38 flickers in red color (step 120). At this time, a warning message "ARCING IN ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS. POSSIBLE FIRE HAZARD. PLEASE VERIFY." may be provided on the LCD 40. Subsequently, the microprocessor reports the fire indication to the external monitoring system (step 122). The audible and visual alarm continues unless a reset command is input through the push button 48. When the user applies a reset command, the detector 10 is initialized (steps 124 and 126). Here, while the LED display 38, the LCD 40, and the buzzer 42 is initialized, the data stored in the second the third memory 35 and 36 is maintained regardless of the reset operation.

FIG. 5 illustrates the process of detecting an electrical fire indication caused by the overheating of the power line. In addition to the arcing in the power line, the overheating of the power line may be another cause of a possible fire hazard. The fire indication detector of the present invention constantly detects the temperature of the power line electrically and thermally coupled to the internal wire 13 to detect a fire indication caused by the overheating of the power line and provide alarms upon detection of the indication. The temperature sensor 30 constantly detects the temperature of the power line and provides the temperature data to the microprocessor 32. The microprocessor 32 stores the temperature data from the temperature sensor 30 in the second memory 35 (step 200). The microprocessor 32 calculates periodically, e.g., every one minute, the change of temperature ΔT for last one minute based on the temperature data in the second memory 35 (step 202). In step 204, the microprocessor 32 determines whether there is a substantial temperature change, that is, the temperature change ΔT is substantially greater than zero. If there is little change in the temperature, the temperature data collection of the step 200 is repeatedly carried out without another separate action.

Meanwhile, if it is determined in the step 204 that the temperature change ΔT is substantially greater than zero, the microprocessor 32 increments a count (hereinbelow, referred to as "temperature index") and stores such data in its internal buffer or the second memory 35 (step 206). In step 208, the microprocessor 32 determines whether the temperature index is greater than a third threshold. In the case that the temperature index is determined not to be greater than the third threshold, the procedure returns to the step 200. However, if it is determined that the temperature index is greater than the third threshold, that is, the temperature gradually increases, the microprocessor 32 regards the temperature increase as a fire indication and provides an audible and visual alarms through the buzzer 42 and the

LED display 38 (steps 210 and 212). At this time, a warning message "ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS OVERHEATED. POSSIBLE FIRE HAZARD. PLEASE VERIFY." may be provided on the LCD 40.

In case of the detection of the overheating of the power line, the number of turned-on LED lamps and the light-emitting color may be varied also in each determination step. As a matter of course, the microprocessor 32 may report the fire indication due to the overheating to the external monitoring system through the power line modem 44. Meanwhile, in an alternative embodiment, the microprocessor 32 may further detect a temperature change exceeding a certain limit to determine such an abrupt temperature change as another fire indication.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the interconnection between a plurality of electrical fire indication detectors 10 and the external monitoring system 50. In the case that the electrical fire indication detector 10 is installed in an office building, the monitoring system may be a personal computer PC in the control room of the building. In the case that the electrical fire indication detector 10 is installed in a dwelling, e.g., an apartment house, the monitoring system may be installed, for example, in the administration office of the apartment house. Of course, the status of the detector 10 can be relayed to the fire department or a security keeping company through the monitoring system 50.

Generally, an apartment house or an office building adopts the three phased- four line power distribution system, and each room or outlet is powered by any two phases of wiring. Thus, each electrical fire indication detector lOa-lOn plugged into any outlet just can detect an arcing breaking out between two lines. Accordingly, it may be desirable to install two or more two detectors lOa-lOn in an office or room in some applications. The monitoring system 50 is equipped with multiple power line modems 52a through 52m for checking the existence of communication signals for all the possible line pairs, a multiplexer/demultiplexer 54 multiplexes the signals received through the modems 52a through 52m and provide a multiplexed signal to the monitoring system 50. On the other hand, when transmitting a signal to any one of the detectors lOa-lOn, the monitoring system 50 sequentially transmits the signal through the modems 52a through 52m via the multiplexer/demultiplexer 54. In order to facilitate the communication, each detector lOa-lOn is preferably given a home code and a device address. The use of the home code and the device address and a collision detection scheme is known in the art, and thus the detailed description thereof is omitted.

Although the present invention has been described in detail above, it should be understood that the foregoing description is illustrative and not restrictive. For example, in an alternative embodiment, the plug 12 and the outlet 14 may be coupled via a circuit breaker rather than being connected directly. In such a case, the microprocessor 32 provides a trip control signal to the circuit breaker so that the circuit breaker interrupts the power supply from the plug 12 to the outlet 14 when the microprocessor 32 determines, based on the current signal data from the second a-D converter 28, that an excessive current is supplied to the load. The audible alarm 42 and a visual message may also be provided through the buzzer 42 and the LCD 40, respectively, in this case.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention can be plugged in and separated from the wall outlet, another embodiment of the detector may be fixedly installed in a switchboard, for example. In such an embodiment, the current transducer 20, the temperature sensor 30 and the PLC filter/coupler is directly coupled to the power line.

Thus, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many obvious modifications can be made to the invention without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. Thus, it should be apparent that the invention can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. We claim all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

Industrial Applicability

As described above, the present invention enables the detection of the arcing in electrical distribution connections as well as the overheating of the connections to alarm a pre-fire condition caused by such phenomena, so that a resultant electrical fire is obviated. Particularly, since the detector of the present invention can report a pre-fire condition to the external monitoring system, it is possible to take an action even when there is nobody in the vicinity of the detector. Further, the electrical fire indication detector of the present invention facilitates the confrontation to a possible fire and a comprehensive analysis of a fire burned, since the detector stores arcing history data in its internal memory in a manner that the data can be checked locally or in a remote site.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An electrical fire indication detector, comprising: a plug capable of being plugged into a wall outlet installed on a wall of a building to be coupled to a power line connected the wall outlet; an outlet, being coupled at least selectively to said plug by an internal wire, for receiving a plug of a load appliance to supply power to the load appliance; signal detection means, being electrically coupled to the internal wire, for detecting a high frequency signal in the power line to output a high frequency data; temperature detection means for detecting a temperature of the internal wire to output a temperature data; control means for determining an outbreak of an arcing in the power line based on the high frequency data and determining overheating of the power line based on the temperature data; and means for providing alarms under a control of said control means when the arcing breaks out in the power line.

2. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 1, wherein said signal detection means comprises: a current transducer for sensing a magnitude of current flowing through the internal wire and transducing the magnitude into a voltage signal; a notch filter for receiving the voltage signal to suppress a frequency of the power supplied through the power line from the voltage signal; a band pass filter for receiving an output signal of said notch filter to selectively pass frequency components of a predetermined frequency band; and a first converter for analog-digital converting an output signal of said band pass filter to output the high frequency data.

3. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 2, wherein an upper cutoff frequency of said band pass filter is equal to or smaller than 100 KHz.

4. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 2, further comprising: a second converter for analog-digital converting an output signal of said current transducer to output a current data.

5. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 4, wherein said control means determines, when more than a predetermined number of samples greater than a predetermined level exist for a predetermined time in the high frequency data, that the arcing beaks out in the power line.

6. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 4, further comprising: a circuit breaker disposed between said plug and said outlet, said circuit breaker being coupled to said plug by a first wire and to said outlet by a second wire, wherein said current transducer and said temperature detection means are coupled to the first wire, wherein said control means trips said circuit breaker to interrupt the power supply from said plug to said outlet when a magnitude of the current data is greater than a predetermined criterion.

7. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a power line communication modem, coupled to said control means, for modulating a signal to be transmitted to an external monitoring system and demodulating a signal received from the external monitoring system; and a filter/coupler for coupling said power line communication modem to the internal wire.

8. The electrical fire indication detector as claimed in claim 1, a non-volatile data storage for storing an arcing history data from said control means; and a housing, made of nonflammable material, for enclosing and protecting said non-volatile data storage.

9. An electrical fire indication detector for detecting an arcing breaking out in a power line installed in a building, said detector comprising: signal detection means, being electrically coupled to the power line, for detecting a high frequency signal in the power line to output a high frequency data; temperature detection means for detecting a temperature of the power line to output a temperature data; control means for determining an outbreak of an arcing in the power line based on the high frequency data and determining overheating of the power line based on the temperature data; means for providing alarms under a control of said control means when the arcing breaks out in the power line; a power line communication modem, coupled to said control means, for modulating a signal to be transmitted to an external monitoring system and demodulating a signal received from the external monitoring system; and a filter/coupler for coupling said power line communication modem to the internal wire.

10. An electrical fire indication detector for detecting an arcing breaking out in a power line installed in a building, said detector comprising: signal detection means, being electrically coupled to the power line, for detecting a high frequency signal in the power line to output a high frequency data; temperature detection means for detecting a temperature of the power line to output a temperature data; control means for determining an outbreak of an arcing in the power line based on the high frequency data and determining overheating of the power line based on the temperature data; means for providing alarms under a control of said control means when the arcing breaks out in the power line; a non-volatile data storage for storing an arcing history data from said control means; and a housing, made of nonflammable material, for enclosing and protecting said non-volatile data storage.