A ring main question

Was that out of the goodness of your heart, or to prevent their electrics burning your house down? :-)

Reply to
Martin Bonner
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Yes. Still some about and bloody dangerous now

Reply to
Alang

at least get the system tested

Reply to
Alang

Rewireable and he mentioned a blue fuse holder and 15 Amp wire, which all fits together.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

I think he is getting some one in to look at it. He was the person that checked the wiring after his extension after it was built, so he must have some electrical knowledge.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Ah, well blue would tally with 15A, however that explains why it blew so easily.

His 3kW kettlw, fan heater fridge etc could easily add up to a 30A total load which would not be a problem on a typical power circuit protected with a 30A fuse (RED dots). However on a 15A rewireable fuse, a 30A load will probably cause it to blow in under 4 mins.

Reply to
John Rumm

LOL. To be fair, there was an element of relief once it was done!

The actual cable was in fact in pretty good condition given its age - most of what I saw was still reasonably flexible and rubbery (apart from near some of the terminations). The main problem was the general lack of capacity, and all the extra bits that had been hacked onto it over the years - the number of 13A flexes that had been poked into the old Mem CU and hooked up to whichever ceramic fuse was nearest gave some cause for concern!

Reply to
John Rumm

The plain rubber insulated - rubber covered 2c (or 2c plus earth), with an over all cover of rubber was simply known as rubber insulated. VIR (or VRI) was the single core cable with a cotton waxed outer which was drawn into conduit or installed in the wood channelling etc..

Installing the latter always left your hands with brown or black greasy stains from the wax impregnated cotton. You put a requisition in for

100 yds 3.029 VRI the latter was what you got.
Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Hm, interesting one this; just been having a quick search to see what else turns up. In fact I can find references to both cable types being described as VIR (and the singles that you describe), which suggests that the wiki is probably being overly narrow in its definition... Also I can't find much reference to PBJ (apart from at Russ Andrews, so we can ignore that!). So perhaps that heading ought to go.

(I have tweaked the wiki)

Reply to
John Rumm

I always knew it as TRS (Tough Rubber Sheathed). A replacement for the VIR and lead sheathed of the earlier generation.

I only met the wood channelling wit VIR once. It had to be re-wired pronto as it was blowing fuses incessantly.

Reply to
<me9

At that age unlikely to be PVC, TRS was the 'in' cable then.

Reply to
<me9

My understanding too: TRS is black and the outer sheath is a much denser rubber, similar to a car tyre. VIR is a softer rubber and lasts less well.

Reply to
Tony Bryer

There was also CTS (Cab Tyre Sheathed), which was (according to my hard backed 1936 Sunco catalogue (which I must scan and put on the web some time)) "H.C. tinned copper conductors, each core insulated with pure and vulcanised india-rubber, then sheathed overall with cab tyre to I.E.E. Specification.", and was available from 1·044 to 7·064 as Single, Flat Twin and Flat Triple.

Wood channelling is still available in such as B&Q in the rack of wood mouldings. I know the GPO used to still stock it in the '60s for internal telephone wiring - the moulded (hardwood) cover was meant to be attached to the casing using tiny brass countersunk woodscrews (ISTR 1/2" x 2). Try getting an Openreach guy to do that nowadays :-)

Reply to
Frank Erskine

A good approach to inadequate capacity wiring was to mark the curernt consumption of the appliance in amps on each plug top. Then for the end user its easy not to plug too much load in at once.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Green acres is the place to be. Farm living is the life for me. Land spreading out, so far and wide. Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.

For anyone too young to understand (at all), have a shufty here (though it does not explain my comment):

Reply to
Rod

Most end users wouldn't know what it is or how to calculate it.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The only VIR I ever used was rubber insulated twin with a rubber outer sheath. Was used with those simplex light fittings you clamped over the cable with two prongs to stick in the conductors. I found plenty of the same stuff in the older houses we have bought over the years.

Probably down as an allowed alternative in your buyers handbook

(This is getting to be very much a thread on the right way to change a light bulb with some people sayingtheyshould be called lamps) :)

Reply to
Alang

Or the significance of it, even were it marked.

Reply to
Huge

teenagers cant even understand that leaving doors open cools their bedroom when the heating is from electric fires (not central heating)

aaarrgh

Reply to
george (dicegeorge)

snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net submitted this idea :

Now you have reminded me, that is the name I was taught.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

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