Can we also go back to red & black wires please...

[timhoward]

Funnily enough at one point the phases were called
Phase ------------ cable colour
Red (R) ---------- red
Yellow (Y) ------ white
Blue (B) ---------- blue


I kid you not!

Here you are Julie - here's some Red White and Blue for you, even triangular conductors!

 

[Aaron b]

The plain green sleeving is from very old installations… 60’s and 70’s. Not quite as old as lead.
Lighting circuits were lucky if they even had a cpc!

It was around the same time frame as the insulation that breaks down over time and becomes “green goo” which ends up dripping out of sockets.

I have a list of dates to help me date cables:

Red and black '50 - '04
No earthing - pre '66
Polyethylene - '50 - '60
PVC - post '60
Tinned copper - '60 - '70
Green earth - '66 - '77
Green goo '68 - 75
Imperial - pre '72
Aluminum - '72 - '76
2.5 t&e with 1mm earth - '69 - '81

Please enlighten me if I'm wrong with any or if there's anything else that could help.

 

[Julie.]

I wasn't aware of the green neutral, perhaps I just haven't paid enough when stripping things out. Was that at the same time as the lead sheathed flat cable? Or the vrf stuff?

Green neutral is really old, pre war really (it changed mid ww2), but when I started, it was only ~35 years old at that point.

It was common to find installations still in service after 40 - 45 years, I think less so today as the regs change so frequently now - 18th had ammendment 1 in less than 2 years , the 14th edition basically lasted ~24 years, the only change was the move to metric sizes!

 

[loz2754]

I vote to go back to the proper colours!

Red, white, blue for L1, L2, & L3
Green for neutral
Black for earth.

Yes, EARTH, none of this fancy "CPC" stuff!

Proper colours I say!

We can then have a proper notice to 514.14

"...This installation has colours to "s*** loads of versions of bs 7671..."

And we should go back to IEE, none of this IET lark...

And don't get me started on the size of "wagon wheels" today, when I were a kid, they were big enough to replace a three course meal...

Indeed I recall when wagon wheels were so big you had to actually wheel them home!

 

[telectrix]

Indeed I recall when wagon wheels were so big you had to actually wheel them home!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

here's some Red White and Blue for you

If you strip any of that out I need it for the museum!

 

[Julie.]

If you strip any of that out I need it for the museum!

It looks like it might be quadrant (4c) rather than 3c , but can't really see on my phone

 

[timhoward]

If you strip any of that out I need it for the museum!

Noted! (Yes 4 core)

 

[ipf]

Just imagine them singing 'I can see for kilometres and kilometres'.
It would be a disgrace.
That's why we still use miles...... not many know about 1760 yards, though.

 

[MJPD29]

Colours were still red and black when I was in college, it changed the year I left and part p was brought in.

Flex has been brown and blue for as long as I remember so why do we need the label on the distribution board?

It is there for idiots. Had a 4th year apprentice working with me recently and he was baffled by 3 phase. Had absolutley no idea why it was RYB and claimed never to have seen it before. Needless to say after seeing his work I'd be scared to think next year he'll probably be out working on his own for a company no doubt.

 

[telectrix]

Just imagine them singing 'I can see for kilometres and kilometres'.
It would be a disgrace.
That's why we still use miles...... not many know about 1760 yards, though.

also........

 

[nicebutdim]

also........

There's no way they'd walk 880,000 yards.

 

[Mike Johnson]

When I started work all dimensions on drawings where in imperial with the metric equivalent in Millimetre's in brackets underneath never used Centimetre's or come to think of it Meters.

 

[oracle]

It is there for idiots. Had a 4th year apprentice working with me recently and he was baffled by 3 phase. Had absolutley no idea why it was RYB and claimed never to have seen it before. Needless to say after seeing his work I'd be scared to think next year he'll probably be out working on his own for a company no doubt.

An apprentice? I've seen 5 day Part P jockeys trading the next week.

 

[pc1966]

When I started work all dimensions on drawings where in imperial with the metric equivalent in Millimetre's in brackets underneath never used Centimetre's or come to think of it Meters.

It is recommended to only use multiples of 1000 (so um, mm, m, km) and not cm as it becomes far more obvious in the "unit" is wrong if out by 1000 instead of 10.

I have had some stuff machined to 1/10 scale as a result of that sort of mix-up!

 

[telectrix]

When I started work all dimensions on drawings where in imperial with the metric equivalent in Millimetre's in brackets underneath never used Centimetre's or come to think of it Meters.

when i started meters were for putting shillings in. rememember my dad telling me to put my pocket money in the "safe" under the stairs

 

[MJPD29]

An apprentice? I've seen 5 day Part P jockeys trading the next week.

We don't have the 5 day wonders here as far as I am aware, but then I don't get involved in the domestic market. What amazed me was how confident and cocky he was even though after 4 years he didn't know cable colours, how to fit a occupancy sensor or what a contactor did. Incredible

 

[telectrix]

There's no way they'd walk 880,000 yards.

it's 1,760,000 yards. as they need to comeback to record the next album. maybe be they entitle it "letter from Ukraine".

 

[Julie.]

It is recommended to only use multiples of 1000 (so um, mm, m, km) and not cm as it becomes far more obvious in the "unit" is wrong if out by 1000 instead of 10.

I have had some stuff machined to 1/10 scale as a result of that sort of mix-up!

Yeah, the use of cm really annoys me, there are preferred multiples/units.

Most come from latin so...

Instead of 1/100th - (centeimus) -
centimetre

Perhaps we should start using 1/20th - (vicesimum) - vicesmetre, vicesohm, vicesvolt.

That piece of cable is only 10vm long, it has a voltage drop of just 1vV.

That's going to mess them up!

 

[telectrix]

Yeah, the use of cm really annoys me, there are preferred multiples/units.

Most come from latin so...

Instead of 1/100th - (centeimus) -
centimetre

Perhaps we should start using 1/20th - (vicesimum) - vicesmetre, vicesohm, vicesvolt.

That piece of cable is only 10vm long, it has a voltage drop of just 1vV.

let me get a 50cl 1 gill of scotch and i'll re-read that.