Rescinding Amendment Three???

[kai]

Rescinding Amendment Three???

Just had a look in Wickes, they have restocked their plastic consumer units once more, and selling them at around GBP 70 for a 10 way populated board with Dual RCD's.

Is there anything on the horizon about re-legalising plastic consumer units?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

It will not be non-compliant to fit plastic CUs.
Amd 3 does not exclude the use of them.

 

[sparkwright]

Aren't there a few exceptions though? For instance if the job was planned a while back, etc?

Obviously this is some attempt to shift a load of old stock, did you notice if any of these were drastically reduced at the end of last year?

 

[JohnW2]

It will not be non-compliant to fit plastic CUs. Amd 3 does not exclude the use of them.

Indeed - they can be fitted inside 'non-combustible' enclosures. Furthermore, if we ever get any clarification of how 'non-combustible' the material has to be, it's possible that at least some of the plastic CUs around will prove to be compliant, on their own.

Kind Regards, John

 

[AndyPRK]

He had been constantly monitoring the prices

 

[sparkwright]

It will not be non-compliant to fit plastic CUs. Amd 3 does not exclude the use of them.

Indeed - they can be fitted inside 'non-combustible' enclosures. Furthermore, if we ever get any clarification of how 'non-combustible' the material has to be, it's possible that at least some of the plastic CUs around will prove to be compliant, on their own.

Kind Regards, John

You've got something here. Years ago, all electrical accessories, such as switches and sockets, had to be fitted to a 'non-combustible box'. Now this meant the old wooden switch pattresses couldn't be used, and metal or bakelite or PLASTIC boxes could be used.

Plastic boxes were typically dry line boxes or pattresses (or moulded boxes, as is sometimes preferred).

So what is non-combustible??

 

[JohnD]

Did it say "non-combustible?"

The words "will not support the spread of flame" seem familiar.

Thermo-setting plastics (like bakelite or ABS) will char, but go out when you take the flame away.

 

[JohnW2]

You've got something here. Years ago, all electrical accessories, such as switches and sockets, had to be fitted to a 'non-combustible box'. Now this meant the old wooden switch pattresses couldn't be used, and metal or bakelite or PLASTIC boxes could be used. Plastic boxes were typically dry line boxes or pattresses (or moulded boxes, as is sometimes preferred).

Quite so.

So what is non-combustible??

Indeed. Obviously not what it says - which, as has been discussed, is impossible. The requirement is presumably for some degree of 'combustion resistance', and they really should have defined that, ideally with reference to some Standard.

I would imagine that they'll get an awful lot of flak about this when it comes to the public consultation on the next Amendment or edition, so hopefully they will be adequately pressurised into giving us usable definition - either that or they might, of course, revise the reg to limit the acceptable material to only 'ferrous metal'!

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Thermo-setting plastics (like bakelite or ABS) will char, but go out when you take the flame away.

Just for the record, ABS is a thermoplastic, not a thermosetting one, with a 'glass transition point' (it doesn't 'melt' in the normal sense) IIRC of around 100° C.

Kind Regards, John

 

[sparkwright]

Is there any way all this has been blown out of proportion? There wasn't a specific requirement the consumer units HAD to be METAL. Just non-combustible. So is the rule only referring to, say, consumer units which are partially made of wood?

 

[kai]

The old Wylex ones, with a Wooden back come to mind. Did you know a few older Crabtree Boards had wooden backs too?? I had a 2001 catalogue from Crabtree, and it even had a Wooden backed C50 consumer board in it!!!!!

 

[kai]

Aren't there a few exceptions though? For instance if the job was planned a while back, etc?

Obviously this is some attempt to shift a load of old stock, did you notice if any of these were drastically reduced at the end of last year?

The prices of the last remaining old stocks did fall to around GBP 14.99 for a dual RCD board (empty) between December and January, but as new stocks arrived in February, they shelves are full again, and the prices are more normalised.

 

[sparkwright]

The old Wylex ones, with a Wooden back come to mind. Did you know a few older Crabtree Boards had wooden backs too?? I had a 2001 catalogue from Crabtree, and it even had a Wooden backed C50 consumer board in it!!!!!

C50? That's those big black early MCBs from the 1960s, isn't it?

You could some of that as recent as 2001??

 

[JohnW2]

Is there any way all this has been blown out of proportion? There wasn't a specific requirement the consumer units HAD to be METAL. Just non-combustible. So is the rule only referring to, say, consumer units which are partially made of wood?

Who knows. As has been said, there cannot be a requirement for NON-combustibility", since that's impossible - so they obviously intended something less than that but, unless/until they tell us, we don't know what criteria they had in mind. As I said, I would imagine that (in response to flak/pressures) this will be at least partially clarified/resolved in the next Amendment/edition.

Kind Regards, John

 

[333rocky333]

The old Wylex ones, with a Wooden back come to mind. Did you know a few older Crabtree Boards had wooden backs too?? I had a 2001 catalogue from Crabtree, and it even had a Wooden backed C50 consumer board in it!!!!!

C50? That's those big black early MCBs from the 1960s, isn't it?

You could some of that as recent as 2001??

Wf still sell the c50 breakers, there brown not black