I have recently done the C&G courses for Portable Appliance Testing. The IEE Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment latest edition 2003 gives details of the visual checks to be applied to a standard plug after removing the cover. These include checking the cord anchorage, cable core terminations etc. On the practical part of the course the instructor also emphasised that the relative free lengths of conductors was very important. The Earth conductor should have the most play, followed by the Neutral, then the Live. The reason being that if a user pulled the cable, with maybe the cord anchorage a bit loose, the Live conductor would become disconnected first, followed by the Neutral, then the Earth. This would seem to be sensible, as the Earth connection would be maintained up to the last point. The CoP book (para 14.5) does not mention this, although the diagram does show the Live having the shortest amount of free play. If I am inspecting equipment, how do I treat a plug which has all conductors with the same free length of cable, or say the Earth has the shortest length? Do I fail it? Do I rewire it?
- posted
19 years ago