[Moth]

I voted the last choice. I don't actually leave the premises, but I do go to bed.

Until recently, my studio was in an enclosed back porch, but still attached to the house. I would run the annealing program, flip off the lights and go to bed.

Now, my studio is in the basement. I have a solid fire brick kiln with no painted shell sitting on cinder blocks. It is 3 feet from any surface all the way around (even above) and the nearest wall is concrete.

If my kiln were to catch on fire, I don't think it would be from the elements. It would have to be from wiring inside the controller and as soon as the insulation on the wires and the plastic box housing the digital guts burned itself off, there wouldn't be anymore fuel for the fire to burn. The flames from this would have to be over 3 feet high to reach the floor joists above it and I don't think the flames would get half that big.

I'm more afraid of my stove, clothes dryer and toaster than my kiln. I've actually had a toaster do quite a bit of damage and just this year my neighbor had the fire trucks in her drive for a smoking clothes dryer.

Do I trust it 100%? No, I don't trust anything 100%, but I don't have trouble sleeping. I have hardwired with battery back-up smoke alarms on all 4 floors of the house. I have 3 fire extinguishers. No pets. Lots of escape routes from the house and emergency second story fire ladders for the upstairs windows.

It would have to be a freak accident for the kiln to burn my house. The same kind of 'accident' that catches toasters, tv's, stoves, wiring and dryers on fire. I feel relatively safe.

THAT said, if I had a red powder-coated bead annealer sitting on a wooden table up against my kitchen wall firing away at 1000 degrees I wouldn't leave the room til it was off.

Especially after reading this thread. I never knew the ignition point on that powder-coat was around 1200 degrees.

~~Mary