Dates for different electrical cable types

Caecilius · 2010-11-03T17:40:15+00:00

I'm doing some building and renovation work on a commercial property,and it's got a number of generations of electrical wiring.Is there any guide as to the approximate dates when the various typesof cable would have been used? This is mainly for my own interest, asI'm getting an electrician to test and rewire as necessary.I've seen the following, in what I think is oldest to newest:1. Rubber covered single cables in black metal trunking. No earthwire, so presumably the trunking was used as earth.2. Grey T&E cable. Not the new grey T&E, because some of it goes toold round three-pin sockets, and the earth wires are joined bytwisting them together which doesn't look like modern practice to me.3. White T&E cable. Looks like the most recent to me.Everything is using the old red/black colour scheme.Does anyone know the date ranges when these types of cables were used?

Nov 03, 2010 21 Replies

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John MacLeod 15 years ago

Certainly went on at least to the mid-1950s in many areas -- and a very neat job they made, with buckle clips.

John

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Nightjar 15 years ago

If it is wired directly into heaters, then it ought to be a heat resisting rubber. The most likely is butyl rubber, which has been around since the 1930s. All the heat resisting rubbers are also highly resistant to aging so, as you say, the general rule does not apply. However, the cost makes it extremely improbably that anyone is going to use butyl rubber for a complete installation.

Colin Bignell

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