Hi all .... New Member

[starni999]

Hi all,
Just a quick intro to say Hello. My names Chris Warr.
I'm 52 years old, been in the trade since 1980, on and off the tools. I'm currently working for an industrial landlord with about 500 units on 4 sites, everything from a one room office to a Cinema. I'm maintenance / breakdowns, as well as complete rewires / new installs. I cover pretty much all industrial stuff, but hate alarms, phones, door entries etc, and avoid them if I can :biggrin5:.

What prompted me to join is a question for a bet.

When did MCB's start being standard spec in industry? We have a building thats all MEM / MEMERA / BS88 / BS1362 fuses, steel black enamel tube, no CPC's to the lights. They reckon it was installed early 80's. I say no way. I reckon 60's / 70's as I was fitting C50 breakers in 1980.

What do the old sparks out there reckon?

Cheers
CW.

 

[Pete999]

Welcome

 

[brucelee]

Hi mate welcome to the forum,
this part of the forum is for introduction so no doubt some moderator will move your post to a relevant section
I also was fitting CUs with MCBs in 80s so I would agree with you mate. A wiser person will know when as the 80s was when I was a apprentice

 

[7029 dave]

Welcome to forum, I was fitting mcb's in the late 70's, also when we moved into a new council house in 1977, the 8way wylex board had mcb's.

 

[davesparks]

Hi all,
Just a quick intro to say Hello. My names Chris Warr.
I'm 52 years old, been in the trade since 1980, on and off the tools. I'm currently working for an industrial landlord with about 500 units on 4 sites, everything from a one room office to a Cinema. I'm maintenance / breakdowns, as well as complete rewires / new installs. I cover pretty much all industrial stuff, but hate alarms, phones, door entries etc, and avoid them if I can :biggrin5:.

What prompted me to join is a question for a bet.

When did MCB's start being standard spec in industry? We have a building thats all MEM / MEMERA / BS88 / BS1362 fuses, steel black enamel tube, no CPC's to the lights. They reckon it was installed early 80's. I say no way. I reckon 60's / 70's as I was fitting C50 breakers in 1980.

What do the old sparks out there reckon?

Cheers
CW.

How on earth can you have a steel conduit installation without any cpc? The conduit is the cpc!

You will have to come up with a definition for standard spec, because MCBs have existed for a long time, They have an entry in the 1950's edition of the Stubbs electrical encyclopaedia

 

[starni999]

Welcome to forum, I was fitting mcb's in the late 70's, also when we moved into a new council house in 1977, the 8way wylex board had mcb's. View attachment 32773

Cheers Gents,
This is typical of the building, I just can't see it being 80's...





And as it's intros here I am...


Cheers
Chris Warr.

 

[7029 dave]

Cheers Gents,
This is typical of the building, I just can't see it being 80's...





And as it's intros here I am...


Cheers
Chris Warr.

Okay yes not domestic set up then. lol IMO that mem db could be 60's 70's, 80's maybe, c50 breakers were with the crabtree range if memory serves me right.

 

[davesparks]

MEM are still making those exact same DBs today, so that not overly helpful.

The switchfuse is of the memshield 1 era, but that covers a broad range of time. It's the next range after the ones which had bs3036 fuses, and I think it's post metricisation which would put it late 70s at the earliest I think.

I reckon the RCD is probably the easiest thing to narrow down a date for, which my initial guess would be 80's


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[electron1]

Welcome

 

[starni999]

Cheers Gents,
Yeah I meant earth cable not cpc, and I mixed up BS1361 / 1362 as well.
Looks like it might be early 80's after all then.
Interestingly the twin socket that is linked to the DB in the above photo is fed back entry from the corridor outside. Used to be a Fire Exit sign. Tenant getting that free Landlord's power they love so much, and I get to live dangerously. Luckily I did test first before ripping it all out.
Cheers
CW.

 

[Gnasher]

The disttribution board is an old Bill type that would have been fitted with rewritable fuses but the fuse carriers look to be Bs88 conversions. These boards were installed upto and around the early/mid 70s. The heater would be around the same era.
The MEM Exel fused switch is still available but the one in the photograph was probably supplied with rewireable fuses also may have had a BS88 fuse carrier conversion in the mid/late 80s.
The RCD is probably a later addition to a change in the regs around the time of the red book.
A little difficult to tell but the conduit is possibly old imperial so that would be pre 1974 I think but not sure.