Observations From France

[Mr.Simple]

Guys, I will again point out that I am not an electrician but an electronics engineer, so please be patient with me. I recently chatted to a French electrician to identify some key and basic differences between here and France. I was surprised at some of them and thought that most had merit, and decided to share for feedback. Please approach this with an open mind rather than an automatic British is best.

1. They have no ring circuits, all are radial. Power is delivered via 2.5mm wires to up to 8 sockets protected by a 20A breaker. This means that a fault in the wiring results in the customer seeing no power in part do the cct, and they then call someone in to fix it. Here if a ring breaks down all of the CCT remains live and the customer is unaware of the fault.

2. High load appliances, dishwashers, washing machines, tumble driers etc, have dedicated circuits protected by appropriate breakers. This extends the concept that we use for cooker circuits.

3. The breakers in the Consumer unit are double pole switching both live and neutral. This means that if for any reason the polarity is wrong throwing the consumer unit breaker will always isolate the circuit. I know that people may argue that polarity is treated, but are there ever mistakes?

4. The bus bars (live and neutral) lie above the breakers, with the circuit wires coming from the bottom of the breakers. I think in the uk our live bus bar is at the bottom with the circuit lives coming from the top of the breakers. This seems plain wrong as we all know that electricity flows better downhill (electrons are affected by gravity too).

i welcome your thoughts

 

[telectrix]

your points 1,2, & 3 all have thier merits, but as fot electrickery flowing better downhill, it's time for your tin hat. these used to be popular in france:

 

[Pete999]

So that's why they say it;s best to install the consumers unit at a higher level, to get a better flow, marvelous

 

[Marvo]

You can overdo it though, if the CU is mounted too high the electrons can get scared resulting in unstable voltages.

 

[Mr.Simple]

You can overdo it though, if the CU is mounted too high the electrons can get scared resulting in unstable voltages.

That will explain why CU's are usually mounted in cupboards. As a CU in a tower block would be very high It would be necessary to ensure that they don't see how high they actually are.

 

[telectrix]

:76:heree we have some tower block electrons.

 

[Marvo]

That will explain why CU's are usually mounted in cupboards. As a CU in a tower block would be very high It would be necessary to ensure that they don't see how high they actually are.

It's also the reason most wires are insulated, an ignorant electron is a happy electron

 

[telectrix]

ah, but what about those electrons that have only done a Electrical Trainee course. should they be confined to ELV?

 

[Engineer54]

Guys, I will again point out that I am not an electrician but an electronics engineer, so please be patient with me. I recently chatted to a French electrician to identify some key and basic differences between here and France. I was surprised at some of them and thought that most had merit, and decided to share for feedback. Please approach this with an open mind rather than an automatic British is best.

1. They have no ring circuits, all are radial. Power is delivered via 2.5mm wires to up to 8 sockets protected by a 20A breaker. This means that a fault in the wiring results in the customer seeing no power in part do the cct, and they then call someone in to fix it. Here if a ring breaks down all of the CCT remains live and the customer is unaware of the fault.

2. High load appliances, dishwashers, washing machines, tumble driers etc, have dedicated circuits protected by appropriate breakers. This extends the concept that we use for cooker circuits.

3. The breakers in the Consumer unit are double pole switching both live and neutral. This means that if for any reason the polarity is wrong throwing the consumer unit breaker will always isolate the circuit. I know that people may argue that polarity is treated, but are there ever mistakes?

4. The bus bars (live and neutral) lie above the breakers, with the circuit wires coming from the bottom of the breakers. I think in the uk our live bus bar is at the bottom with the circuit lives coming from the top of the breakers. This seems plain wrong as we all know that electricity flows better downhill (electrons are affected by gravity too).

i welcome your thoughts

One very big drawback for applying all those items 1. 2. 3, which is the size of the CU that'll be required to contain all those extra MCB's. Then virtually double it for them being DP breakers!!!

 

[ArseyDee]

One very big drawback for applying all those items 1. 2. 3, which is the size of the CU that'll be required to contain all those extra MCB's. Then virtually double it for them being DP breakers!!!

But on the plus side, it would require a nice big dedicated space, rather than awkward access to our existing CU's buried at the back of the shoe cupboard or in a kitchen base unit, etc, etc......