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Very similar to our UK Reg's in many respects, ours too are minimum requirements, although there are some that treat it as a bible, that cannot be deviated from. I'm often accused of applying my own rules, i'm not, there often requirements that are made in electrical specifications to contracts, which are always of a higher calling than those laid out in our Reg's.

I must say, that the NEC code requirement for minimum Rod Ra values make much more sense than ours. Whereas yours call for 25 ohms ours call for 200 ohms!!! Which is why i've never take any notice of that ridiculous figure, and would never leave a TT system at anything like that value ....lol!!!

Having said that, ...i have no time at all for your ''Multi Branch'' circuit arrangement, or the use of screw/wing nut connections, seen far too many catastrophic failures of those things, and some of them are bloody huge things!!! ...lol!! Anyway it's good to hear you take an interest in our Reg's (BS7671), it's always good to broaden your outlook, and you just never know, ...it may well come in very useful later for you.

Are you working overseas for an American company to US codes or are you working with various codes, as i often find myself doing??
 
I work on British Camp Bastion and Afghan camp Shorabak, both to 17th ed., American Camp Leatherneck to NEC, and private jobs to
no spec other than "make it safe."
"multi-wire branch circuit" is just shared neutral. A perfectly balanced shared neutral
carries no load. so thats safe.
a ring circuit on the other hand........
 
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Always good to talk/banter with you 1capybara...

How are you getting on with the multitude of testing that the 17th ed calls for??

....Haha, come on, when have you ever seen a perfectly balanced multi branch circuit in a domestic or commercial setting, with mixed lighting and receptacle loads, ...that is almost an impossibility?? Oh, and if you have a break in the neutral conductor at the DB??

OK then, so let's hear your concerns with the UK 13A ring final circuit??
 
About those shared neutrals, any two circuits [of equal value and different phases]
sharing a neutral will reduce the neutral load, not increase it, right?

1. if your not aware it is a ring circuit, you disconnect the wire on what you believe is the "line" side, you now assume the
outlet is dead. but it isnt because its also fed from what you thought was the "load" side.
2. the homeowner has a blown fuse in the BS1363 outlet, so he bypasses the fuse. now you have an outlet designed for
13A but its capable of 32A before tripping a breaker.
 
Capy,

Sorry for the delay, been a very busy week for me!!!

That's the point, the (multi branch) circuits have to be finely balanced to have no load on that neutral conductor, and your not going to find many of those in a domestic/commercial environment, when mixing lighting and receptacle circuits, .... now are you???

1/ One would hope that the protective device (MCB) would have been switched to the off position before disconnecting the wiring at any socket outlet device!! And seeing as you would be switching the MBC off, you would hopefully have also noticed at the time, that it is rated at 30/32A...Yes??

2/ The same thing can be said of any fuse, .....they can all be defeated, in one way or another. The fuse is there for a purpose, if a bloody idiot wants to defeat that purpose, ..... Well you just can't protect idiots from themselves, can you?? Does that make, what is a pretty safe all round circuit, ...unsafe?? We also use the same fused plug top for 16A/20A radial circuits, are they also unsafe??
 
Hi

so what are the procedures for an english electrician to gain work in the states? i'm guessing its different for different states? but what qualifications/ experience do you need, and whats it like compared to being a sparky in england?

thanks

Matt
 
yes, its state by state, if u have 4 years experience as an apprentice, your eligible to take the
licensing exam in any state [afaik!], then once your licensed in one state, other states [but not all other states]
have reciprocal licensing agreements with their neighboring states. i cant compare that to the UK, dont u have
4 years apprenticeships also?
 
Hi

Apprenticeships are about 3-4 years i'm pretty sure, i think after you've done the 4th year which would be entirely work based, they let you get on with it.
everyone does it slightly different here, i'm not a major fan of the JTL scheme. Although i can see how it helps certain people.
 
Im looking to go to america at the end of the year with a working visa, Im a fully qualified 17th edition jib electrician and wondering if it would be easy enough to get work?
 
After having just come back from my holiday in florida, a couple of things i wondered if you could help me with .

1. I have noticed that you do not seem to use anything but conduit for commercial installations, the only time i saw trunking used was in disney with lights on it and in small pieces below panels top common up conduit runs. Has nobody thought of introducing trunking to the states as it would seem to be a much quicker way of doing things. instead of 20 runs of tubing you could have one run of trunking???

2. Why dont they like putting 2 way switching systems in hotels/villas, the amount of times i switched the bedroom lamp on at the door switch then off at the lamp and then come the next night go to turn it on and its not going to come on as its off at the Lamp. Stumble across the room to find the lamp and turn it on there. Then repeat every night till I leave .


Nick
 
the trip setting on our gfci outlets is 5mA designed to be below the lethal shock level. Us Yanks dont see the advantage of a trip level of 30 or 300mA which would allow a lethal shock without tripping.
The new thing here is AFCI [arc fault circuit interrupters] designed to prevent fires due to sparking.
BTW, im from California, but have been working in the Mid East for 3 years where im learning 17th ed. The difficultest part is the terminology is different for every little thing.
Hi I dunno if you could help me with this; i bought a sony home theatre sound system amp in US and need use in UK, it's 120v, 60HZ, what can i do in particuler to change the 60Hz to 50HZ, is it poss, i know i have to figure the voltage output to get a rating for suitable transformer, this is where my brain stops working, cheers
 
on second thought, all electronics are low voltage DC internally after the AC to DC transformer. so if possible, hook a DC power source into the internals of that system, attaching it after the transformer. 3v DC is typical. IMHO. YMMV ["your mileage may vary" as we say in the states :)]
 
on second thought, all electronics are low voltage DC internally after the AC to DC transformer. so if possible, hook a DC power source into the internals of that system, attaching it after the transformer. 3v DC is typical. IMHO. YMMV ["your mileage may vary" as we say in the states :)]
cheers, but not quite sure how to hook up, can u expand a bit, might be my way thru, thx
 
on second thought, all electronics are low voltage DC internally after the AC to DC transformer. so if possible, hook a DC power source into the internals of that system, attaching it after the transformer. 3v DC is typical. IMHO. YMMV ["your mileage may vary" as we say in the states :)]
I think I'm getting the jist of wat your saying, but checkin abvout using a transformer, it seems that if I used a 750w (output max 700w) I woudn't have to be to bothered about the freq, I think that's wat u were intemating in your point, but would that be a safe solution e.g does it damage the machine, I undersand freq fluctuates anyway and most of the AV unit use is AC and not so much DC, wat do u think
 
when u take apart the system, you will find a small transformer attached to the cord where [in a system bought in the states] 120v goes in. in other words, its a 120 VAC to
[typically] 3 VDC transformer. Its two ouputs are 3 VDC and ground. If you have one,
you can replace it with a 230 VAC to [typically] 3 VDC transformer and replace the wall cord [american plug] with a Brit or euro plug.
 
I think I'm getting the jist of wat your saying, but checkin abvout using a transformer, it seems that if I used a 750w (output max 700w) I woudn't have to be to bothered about the freq, I think that's wat u were intemating in your point, but would that be a safe solution e.g does it damage the machine, I undersand freq fluctuates anyway and most of the AV unit use is AC and not so much DC, wat do u think
my experience is most electronics is DC internally, am i wrong???
 
when u take apart the system, you will find a small transformer attached to the cord where [in a system bought in the states] 120v goes in. in other words, its a 120 VAC to
[typically] 3 VDC transformer. Its two ouputs are 3 VDC and ground. If you have one,
you can replace it with a 230 VAC to [typically] 3 VDC transformer and replace the wall cord [american plug] with a Brit or euro plug.

This is brilliant, so am I rt in saying it's like converting it to uk system compatible
 

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