I agree with 123 I've only ever bought 1 roll of 1mm in my life always 1.5mm. You all need to get using twin brown there as well. Surely better than having to sleeve switch cables. As for the plumber, sounds like he did it out of spite because you couldn't be there at his demand, they are strange and awkward people

With twin brown you don't which is which. The best method, as used in some countries, is an identifiable switch wire colour, orange or violet.
 
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With twin brown you don't which is which. The best method, as used in some countries, is an identifiable switch wire colour, orange or violet.
Why would you need to know whether a phase conductor is switched or not? From a safety aspect all that is important is that it's a phase conductor. How do orange or violet phase conductors match harmonised colours?
 
i would be concerned if the perm L went to L1 and the sw.L to C. on a switch. extra time involved with a meter. give me red and black (sleeved where needed) every time.

oops its not red/black anymore. it's light grey and dark grey when your headtorch battery is going flat.
 
With twin brown you don't which is which. The best method, as used in some countries, is an identifiable switch wire colour, orange or violet.
One is usually dark brown and the other a lighter shade for that exact purpose, and it's still a long shot better than blue and stops careless people from failing to sleeve it correctly
 
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Do you use bigger ocpds? To my mind it makes no sense to use 1.5 for a 6A circuit whem 1mm is already bigger than is normally necessary.
PVC/PVC singles and PVC/PVC single+earth is something I would love to see commonly available, and used, over here.

Unnecessary waste of materials annoys the hell out of me, oversized cables or T&E used where only one core is required are fine examples.
Are single pvc/pvc and earth not readily available? What do you do if you need to take a neutral and earth to a light with a switch wire coming from somewhere else? Just run a t+e?
 
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One is usually dark brown and the other a lighter shade for that exact purpose, and it's still a long shot better than blue and stops careless people from failing to sleeve it correctly
TBH even if they weren't different shades, it's simple enough to identify the conductors just like you would have to with MICC cable it hardly takes any time
 
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TBH even if they weren't different shades, it's simple enough to identify the conductors just like you would have to with MICC cable it hardly takes any time
Precisely. I didn't think a simple continuity test or beller test should be beyond any of us.
 
Simple to bell out when you've got that cpc just sitting there. Just stick a bared brown end into the screwhole of the box and bell from the other end to find...

Saying that, I prefer working with brown/blue rather than brown/brown.... but then I haven't seen any of that since it was red/red.


So, following on from everyones suggestions.… my van contains brown 6241Y, blue 6241Y in 1.0mm and 1.5mm..... 6242Y in 1.0, 1.5, 2.5, 4.0, 6 and 10... G/Y singles in 10 and 16 along with 25mm tails...
1.0, 1.5 and 2.5 singles for working with conduit.... in brown, blue, black, grey and g/y…….
All that, and a cable roller... (black and decker workmate and a broom handle) in the back of my little van....
I've had to leave all my tools at home!

Seriously though. I've just started using 1.0mm more than 1.5 for lighting. A bit easier for terminating into downlights with push in connectors. Find 1.0 is easy to snap in a screw connection
 
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get out the MFT and wander lead. null the meter, fall over the wander lead that tangles round your legs when half way up your steps. clip end on cable at light, then realise that tripping over the wander lead has pulled the croc off at the switch. SOD IT. brown/blue every time.
 
get out the MFT and wander lead. null the meter, fall over the wander lead that tangles round your legs when half way up your steps. clip end on cable at light, then realise that tripping over the wander lead has pulled the croc off at the switch. SOD IT. brown/blue every time.
No need for a wander lead. Simply put one of the browns on the cpc terminal on the backbox and bell it out.
 
No need for a wander lead. Simply put one of the browns on the cpc terminal on the backbox and bell it out.
too easy. you'll have apprentices over educated.:p:p:p
 
Tel, you have a ...
headtorch???
Traitor!
and i thought you were old school too...

BTW, I have a 100m drum of twin red if anybody is interested...
 
JK...they are not just stupid, they are evil!
 
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Are single pvc/pvc and earth not readily available? What do you do if you need to take a neutral and earth to a light with a switch wire coming from somewhere else? Just run a t+e?

It's very rare to encounter that situation as the way we wire lighting circuits generally doesn't produce that situation. Plus we are used to thinking in terms of using T&E so would naturally tend to wire the lighting that way.
But yes when a single conductor and earth is needed then we would normally just run a twin and only use one conductor.
 
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It's very rare to encounter that situation as the way we wire lighting circuits generally doesn't produce that situation. Plus we are used to thinking in terms of using T&E so would naturally tend to wire the lighting that way.
But yes when a single conductor and earth is needed then we would normally just run a twin and only use one conductor.
I would suggest that it's not that uncommon with outside lights though, or wall lights etc.
 
I would suggest that it's not that uncommon with outside lights though, or wall lights etc.

I can't say I recall ever encountering the need for single core and earth for either of those.
Normally I'd just take a feed to the switch and s/l and neutral to the light from the switch, or alternatively use a joint box. But that's what I mean by us approaching the job from the point of view of using T&E rather than having a single core cable available.
 

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