Comment by fpgaminer
7 years ago
On the one hand, you're right, pneumatics won't burn the house down. On the other hand, their failure mode is to explode like a bomb and send shrapnel flying through human beings. But at least the house is safe?
7 years ago
On the one hand, you're right, pneumatics won't burn the house down. On the other hand, their failure mode is to explode like a bomb and send shrapnel flying through human beings. But at least the house is safe?
Eh, while there is a certain potential, the primary failure mode for pneumatics is just a simple rupture, where a pipe splits and all the air runs out.
Even that is easy enough to avoid by adding a few relief valves here and there that spring at the working pressure of the system, but that's not really a failure, and other house systems have comparable safety features, so not really a distinguishing feature of pneumatics vs electrics.
the primary failure mode for pneumatics is just a simple rupture, where a pipe splits and all the air runs out
...rapidly releasing all that stored energy in the process, i.e. an explosion.