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SAB-Electrical

I'm going to do a job in France soon and I have a few questions, the main one being; are the MCBs the same as British ones?

All help will be much appriciated. :)
 
Hager is german and they all look the same, do the same job. So im guessing yes.

Especially all the EU crap, like colour cable etc
 
no expert but dont they use double pole mcb's on the continent ?
shouldn't be a problem to an experienced spark
 
I've sorted out a messy (and unsafe) CU in France for family, and the MCBs were double pole. I even had to link the feed from the main switch into each breaker. No room for busbars as the terminals were inline and not offset.
 
The basic characteristics of mcbs in France are the same but as others have said often double pole devices are used on single phase applications.
Generally they do not use a manufactured consumer unit but will "make" one using a DIN slotted box with dinrail and either a comb busbar or hard wiring from the incoming switch disconnector, or in most cases RCD.
With Merlin Gerin (Schneider) and Hager both manufacturing in France you will not be unfamiliar with the majority of devices you come across.
 
am over here on holiday atm have spoke to an english spark who's been working over here for the last ten years or so, mcbs are double pole and for items such as cooker fridge freezer washing machines etc they have type "ac" which from what i can gather is an rcbo.
hope this helps.
 
hi

just been doing some work on some cabins which have come from france, all accessories are legrand including the mains which have double pole mcb's. also all the wiring is done in some sort of flex which i aint seen before.

regards
gary
 
the type 'AC' prob refers to the leakage protection- sensitive to ac fault currents

not familiar but assuming the supply isn't 'split-phase'-i think the DP mcbs might be related to plugs or sockets not being polarised
 
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done loads of work for european export.
all mcb are double pole
the flex type cable you refer to is triple insulated cable
lighting is generally done in a spider web formation, ie one feed to a box and each light switch fed from that box
youll find that busbars are the comb type
 
Yep, DP. Legrand won't sell them over here. Much better than ours. Would solve loads of problems if we had them. There's no EN number on the device but I understand they are NF C 61-410, EN 60898 and IEC 947.2 They are called a Disjoncteur (Unipolaire + Neutre)
Heres one I brought over.....MCBs in France? FrMCB - EletriciansForums.net
 
Why do you think they now have a BS EN number on them?:rolleyes:

Because it is to do with harmonisation with Europe
am over here on holiday atm have spoke to an english spark who's been working over here for the last ten years or so, mcbs are double pole and for items such as cooker fridge freezer washing machines etc they have type "ac" which from what i can gather is an rcbo.
hope this helps.
 
As stated they are DP MCBs and meet the EN for DP MCBs which will have a different EN number EN60947-2 from the BS EN 60947-1 for single pole. The reason for DP is that the sockets take the two pole europlug. in the case of IT supplies you also need a dp MCB to prpootect the neutral. The french wiring standard is NF C 15-100 [2002]. Note that the wiring rules are not fully harmonised across the EU. Switches are to EN 60669-1 but UK is type B where as most of the Friech are type A like the uk grid switches. In theory you should be able to use uk switches for lighting but whether EDF would accept them is another matter.
 
For what its worth,most french circuits are radial,on different rate meters,the higher the meter rate,the more costly,but the more reliable,in country areas anyway...ill post a link when i can,but look at jbfrenchhouses,there are links there...Be Lucky..!!
 
am over here on holiday atm have spoke to an english spark who's been working over here for the last ten years or so, mcbs are double pole and for items such as cooker fridge freezer washing machines etc they have type "ac" which from what i can gather is an rcbo.
hope this helps.

am over here on holiday atm have spoke to an english spark who's been working over here for the last ten years or so, mcbs are double pole and for items such as cooker fridge freezer washing machines etc they have type "ac" which from what i can gather is an rcbo.
hope this helps.

As we are dealing with French are you having Deja Vous cagedanimal. You guys must have both met that English spark, can't be too many of them over there.
 
my parents bought and renovated a farmhouse in france (where they now live)
I (being a bit of an electrical geek) decided to whip the cover off the dis board to see 'how they did it' ?
I was very impressed.
They dont use ring mains, its radials for everything , 2 sockets on balcony = radial etc
makes for a lot of ways but less disruption if there is a problem on particular radial.
the wiring colours are
red - live
blue - neutral
green yellow - earth
(unsure about 3 phase as only single phase supply)
The EDF energy cut out was digital too - (no was not the meter, def the cut out fuse) and this had a digital display on it.
it was very modern and high tech in comparison to what I find domesticaly on a day to day basis.

Am not a fan of the french in general tbh.......but their new electrical installations are very good

Lloyd
 
From what i have heard, we are still the only country installing ring final circuits. I always fit radials when i can though.
But thanks for some interesting posts, its to see how others do it.

Cheers........Howard
 
i nthink we're the only country using harmonised cable colurs as well, see lloyd's post. harmonization. it's a joke.
 

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