Having just browsed Part P (again), I am always "amused" to note the section at the end detailing the harmonisation of colour coding (Appendix D).
How many costly errors are going to be made before someone realises the special stupidity of changing a secondary live phase colour (or switched live) to the dominant neutral colour, and vice versa?
How much worse might happen in the hands of a less than competent person?
Mixed installations? Oh yes - they're allowing that too.
Now, is that blue live, or not? Should it be?
And what about the black? Is that an "old" black, or a new one? Live then, huh?
Yes, *I* know that a new multi-core SWA has a grey core in it and an "old" one has a red core.......
It is actually a special get out clause for that nice Mr. Prescot.
So when the death rate rises as a result of part P, he can point to the swapping of colours, throw up his hands in dispair, and say its all down to harmonisation with those pesky europeans and hence "not my fault gov". If it was not for them, then the half billion or so it has cost you so far would have all been worth it.
The trade press has been full of such concerns from electricians. Some companies have banned the use of the new colours in any of their premises where they would be mixed with the old colours in the same installation, on health and safety grounds.
It now means that any colour except Green&Yellow could be live. And the latter two if it's found in CH controls.
However is the situation that different from the _majority_ of domestic installations that already have many black wires that carry switch live. (I know it _should_ be sleeved in red or brown)?
at home I can use ladders without restriction, at work I have to be 'ladder trained', fill in a ladder log and have someone foot the ladder.
at home I cannot do my own electrical work, at work I do occasional installations and daily 110, 240 and 3 phase work and fault finding
imho the biggest mistake was changing fire extinguisher colours from easily identifiable colours to all red and the idiots are daft enough to do the same with wiring
Can any one tell me what a ladder footer can do in the event of a ladder slipping?
I also have a City and Guild certificate and a licence issued by the home office that legalizes me to work on high powered, high voltage systems, but I am not allowed to re-wire some of my house. :-(
I have to agree with you on this. A quick glance told you what fire the extinguisher was capable of containing.
Perhaps we should have all cores coloured red, with sleeving to define what runs through it. :-)
Red insulator with a blue sleeve denotes neutral Red insulator with a brown sleeve denotes live Red insulator with no sleeve denotes a switched live Red insulator with no sleeve denotes a bell wire that runs at low voltage. etc. ;-)
Going back to the fire extinguisher problem. I once asked a Lancashire Fire Brigade officer why the sound of a fire alarm had never been standardized. He looked very sheepish and claimed that it was not needed. Well before, I asked this question I had been in MFI when their alarm went off and I thought that it was just a door open alarm. Just goes to show how quick you could get fried.
I am led to believe that buy and spew were amazed at how quick one of their stores went up in a fire a couple of years ago.
Perhaps they didn't know they were selling anything inflammable in their stores and how warm it was before the fire :-(
This is all written by people who probably haven't even been potty trained.
I completely agree. I know a couple of firemen and they feel that this was one of the worst things ever done. To be fair they do also say that fire extinguishers are of limited use because most people don't know how to use them anyway, especially in the stress of the situation. However, they did mention that there have been cases where fires have developed more than they might have done if people had been sure on which extinguisher to use.
Not a lot maybe but on the other hand I *never* use a ladder at home unless there is someone else in the house who is aware of what I'm doing. Falling off a ladder and breaking a leg is not something I ever want to do but, if it happens, I want someone to be around to call the ambulance.
Someone else around is vital and that 'footer' may be the way to ensure it.
Well the rest of Europe seems either to have got it right first time or changed and survived. Its clear its the british standards establishment that go it wrong. Seems to me that having harmonised flexible cable colours, wasn't that so that the colour blind, quite a common affliction could distinguish, its inevitable and right that fixed wiring should follow. Easy solution, make sure we only employ eastern european sparkies. Oh well happenning anyway.
I thought that fell into the category of what we "knew".
Yep - figures.
I can cook whatever I like at home. For whoever I like.
Can't do that at work. Even though they have (better) facilities for so doing.
Ah - you can, so long as it meets the "ideas" proposed in Part P.
You might have noted that the very *worst* that can happen is the Building Inspector can require you to pay to have the work re-done "safely".
Presumably, he is also going to pay for the cost of ripping open walls to ascertain that you used the correct cable all the way through, and didn't bury cable in the wall unprotected, or bury junction boxes in the wall somewhere?
That is Part P"athetic" at work for your Tax Pounds.
Yep - f*kkin stupid.
Red - wait, red with a white label......wassit say - hang on, I'll get me glasses......out of the fire........
Blue - Neutral Brown - Live Bare - Earth (to be sheathed green/yellow)
For 3 and Earth:
Brown - Live Black - Live Grey - Live Bare - Earth
For SWA As Above, plus:
4 Core SWA:
Brown - Live Phase 1 Blue - Neutral Black - Live Phase 2 Grey - Live Phase 3
Green and Yellow flexes have been known to be used as switched live in many CH installs - it commonly happens where lazy plumbers cannot be bothered to use 4 or 5 core flex.
Didn't think so. Most of Europe is a disaster waiting to happen.
Maybe it already has......
The whole point of most harmonisation is that the furriners want OUR standards. Only so long as they can make it look like we need theirs, though.
Only in places.
They should never have changed the colours of flexible cable to start with!
Then it should have harmonised at the same time, no?
Besides, most recognised electrical installers have in place safeguards to ensure colour blind people do not get put in the position of electrocuting themselves.
I sincerely hope you don't think that. A friend at the EU likes recounting the time in a mid-90s meeting on trying to harmonise Europe to use a common IEC mains plug/socket when one of the representatives of our glorious IEE actually proposed that everybody changed to the UK system. Everybody went deathly silent, presumably hoping this idiot would say he was only joking. But he didn't.
Eventually a Swede pointed out that the UK system was actually a Swedish design that was rejected by them as too dangerous.
I've ignored the rest because I don't necessarily disagree with your arguments its just that I favour harmonisation but I confess I meant to use the term colour blindness, not colour blind (or colour blind people as you have echoed). You are surely not saying that its quite right that people can no longer DIY in their own home because they might not be able to tell the colours apart?
Civil service rules specifically prohibit it. Any electrical problem involves a call via three departments to the in-house sparky who arrives a month later.
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