Draft amendment to 17th ed. wiring regs (DPC BS 7671 Amd. 1)

[Andy Wade]

Draft for public comment here:

"The first amendment to BS 7671:2008 Requirements for Electrical Installations is expected to be published on 1st July 2011 and is intended to come into effect on 1st Jan 2012. Installations designed after 31st Dec 2011 are to comply with BS 7671:2008 incorporating Amendment No 1, 2011"

And it's now subtitled the IET wiring regs; the IEE is no more :-(

I've not digested it myself yet, just had a skim through the 5 page introduction. It looks as if there might be some welcome easing in 522.6:

Regulation 522.6.101 now permits an exception for a cable forming part of a SELV or PELV circuit.

Regulation 522.6.102 now permits an exception for minor works where the designer is satisfied that there would be minimal increased risk of damage to the circuit cable due to penetration by screws, nails and the like.

Regulation 522.6.103 now permits an exception for minor works that do not involve a new partition or a cable passing through a metal part of a partition, where the designer is satisfied that there would be minimal increased risk of damage to the circuit cable due to penetration by screws, nails and the like. Also, an additional indent is added.

Download, digest, discuss...

[Andy Burns]

Unfortunately it requires a password to open the DPC .pdf, the password does not seem to be given on the webpage, the accompanying instructions .doc file or introduction .pdf file.

[John Rumm]

A few I noticed...

"Chapter 41 Regulation 411.3.3 (c) now permits an exception for minor works where the designer is satisfied that there would be no increased risk from the addition or alteration. In addition Table 41.5 has been modified."

This means one can extend a general purpose socket circuit without being forced to add an RCD.

534, comprehensive new section on installing surge and lightening protection. 700, loads of extra detail on medical installations.

For ref, that is "A cable installed under a floor or above a ceiling shall be run in such a position that it is not liable to be damaged by contact with the floor or the ceiling or their fixings. A cable passing through a joist within a floor or ceiling construction or through a ceiling support (e.g. under floorboards), shall"

(I notice they left the pictures of CPD response curves out of the draft...)

[OG]

I'm using an old version of Adobe reader (v7) which was OK to open it without a password, and I can now view it for 30 days.

[Andy Burns]

Ahh, I'm using Evince/Poppler on Linux, so if they've DRM'ed it that probably explains it.

[John Rumm]

It "phones home" to get access rights and report usage... so they can kill it when they choose.

[The Other Mike]

Short of taking screen grabs is there any way of getting this to print out?

[John Rumm]

Well, they have not disabled cut/copy this time - so you can paste it to something else and print.

[Dave Osborne]

John, how many pages is it? I have completely ditched Adobe Reader and I'm not reinstalling it for this one doc. Any chance of ripping it to a "normal" PDF?

[John Rumm]

210 including intro notes.

Alas no - its encrypted and so only loads in recent versions of reader, and the print option is disabled so I can't print to PDF either. Cut n past sort of works, but makes a bit of a pigs breakfast of it - some block replaces make it better but you still lose all the equations and graphics etc.

[Andy Burns]

Google ineptpdf and/or tetrachroma - I haven't tried it ...

[Dave Osborne]

OK, thnx.