A friend has bought a house there and wants me to comment on the electrics since it needs to be "brought up to scratch". Seemingly, he's got a 3-ph supply at the moment but they're planning to replace it with a single-phase supply and he wants to rewire the place. I'm familiar with UK regs, design, installation and testing, but obviously need to understand the French regs..
Would someone please point me to the wiring regs for France?
And, yes, I know that ring main final ccts are uncommon in France....
I've just found out from a friend, this week in fact, that if you bring the wiring up to British standards it is fine for the French building surveyors as well. So just do it as per usual and you shouldn't have any problems. They'll soon be doing the wiring the same way in France as they do here anyway.
Under the new mutual recognition agreements that are being banded about in the EU just now, it is becoming more likely that standard systems for things such as domestic / commercial electrical distribution, and its supply and wiring schemes, will be adopted throughout the continent in a couple of years time. I've heard that talks are already taking place on this, and the EU councils are becoming more open minded to the trades becoming more integrated all over the European market countries.
It may mean you'll be able to travel around the EU and do your job as you normally would, without having to interpret different regulations as you pass from country to country. I, for one, hope it comes to fruition, because it would make my life a bit easier.
I see what you're saying. However, from practical experience in a number of areas of harmonisation, the practicality takes a long time to follow the political ideal.
Virtually everywhere else in Europe one has a radial wiring arrangement and Schuko wall outlets. Those have implications on wiring, fittings used etc. There are older systems still around in most countries - Denmark, Switzerland and Italy being notable, but other than that the UK is the odd one out and it would not be easy, as we know to retrofit UK houses with radial wiring, change connectors on appliances etc. etc. Likewise, I have difficulty in imagining BS1363 ring circuits appearing in other countries apart from Ireland. There's no incentive to do it.
There may be some sense in the wiring colour schemes, earthing and bonding arrangements and so on.
I would be more inclined to believe a trend in the UK towards radial circuits, but even that one seems a bit of a stretch,.
I completely agree - there are a lot of benefits in harmonised standards. I have a feeling that it will take a very long time in this area though.
Yes. A friend at work rewired a house in France for a relative, completely to UK standards and materials, and EDF were perfectly happy to connect it up to the supply.
Whilst Schuko wall outlets are probably more common than any other type in Europe, they are a very long way from being universal. The French in particular don't use them -- they use an outlet which is not used anywhere else other than Belgium that I've seen (but could be used in some of their former collonies like our outlets are used in our former collonies).
Probably not in Europe. BS1363 socket outlets are however used in more countries of the world than any other type of socket outlet. That's something you can thank the influence of the British Empire and the Commonwealth for.
There's a lot more to it than ring verses radial. Most EU countries have lost the live/neutral polarisation by the time the supply reaches an appliance, which can mean double fusing or moving the fusing back in the supply to a point where polarisation is still known. Some supplies have neither main conductor near ground potential anyway. Some parts of the EU routinely use earth-free locations as a means of safety in the home when using class I appliances with no earth connection in the supply. In my mind these are much more significant differences.
The attempts which involved changing things (like all the EU adopting a new socket outlet) have failed a long time ago. Current harmonised standards seem to be leaning more towards working out what's reasonably common and ensuring it becomes allowed anywhere.
Which reminds me -- wiring colours -- a colleague who visited a bank to do some on-site work tells me notices have appeared on all their wiring closets saying "It is strictly forbidden to use the new mains wiring colours anywhere on these premises" (might not be the exact wording). They would seem to have a Health and Safetly Department who are on the ball...
That depends on which part of France you are in. There is a North/South divide on the type of wall outlet used and appliances usually come with a plug that will fit either.
When my parents wanted their supply in Brittany connecting, EDF were happy to do it, even though the consumer unit only had one light and one socket connected (we wanted power to start work) and we just waved an earth rod under the guy's nose and said are you happy with this. Once EDF had gone we got on with the installation.
We also discovered that the supply system *is* polarised and EDF had connected it in reverse to the meter, for some odd reason this caused the meter to rotate very slowly even when completely isolated from any load. Does anyone have any idea why?
BTW french 2-gang sockets consist of two sockets side by side, one rotated
90 degrees to the left and the other to the right. They are connected together by straight, horizontal connections - ie: one socket is the reversed polarity of the other.
There are some areas where it has made sense such as with EN standards applied to certification of electrical equipment. It means that vendors don't have to do testing in every single country in which they wish to sell and reduces costs and prices to the consumer.
I agree that there are numerous areas where this is impractical or inappropriate, but there are a lot of good things as well..
It's compatible with though, because the Schuko plug has a hole underneath to accept the projecting Franco-Belgian wall socket earth pin.
Well.... yeeees. but many of these are pretty small economies. If you scaled by GDP or population it would be a different story I suspect.
Right. WHich in effect means that there is a limit to what can be practically achieved in terms of wiring practice, since all of that is implied.
This is going to get interesting. I wonder if that means that H&S principles take precedence over wiring colour legislation? Common sense would suggest that they should not be mixed in a building anyway.
The ability to have near unlimited sockets without problems. Also, having the fuse in the plug restricts the maximum current that can flow in an appliance fault, and helps prevent fires.
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