Rescinding Amendment Three???

[sparkwright]

Yeah I suppose they are more brown.

Who are Wf?

 

[333rocky333]

Wholesale Fittings, part of Rexel Senate now

 

[PBC_1966]

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

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=crabtree+c50&biw=1024&bih=621&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X

Well-made apparatus, and far better than most of the cheaply made stuff around today. Back around 1971 my father rewired the "fixer upper" house we moved into, and put a C50 board in with about half a dozen breakers. I bet at that time it was the only house in the street with C50's, if not the only house in the street with breakers rather than fuses.

 

[ericmark]

When I attended meeting it seemed 900°C was being muted but you are of course correct most materials will at some temperature exothermic combine with oxygen which is what we consider as burning. What is important is the temperature at which this happens.

 

[JohnW2]

When I attended meeting it seemed 900°C was being muted but you are of course correct most materials will at some temperature exothermic combine with oxygen which is what we consider as burning. What is important is the temperature at which this happens.

Indeed - and also factors such as whether it is 'self-extinguishing'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[kai]

There was one Achillies Heel to the C50's from Crabtree - They had a very low max PFC rating - Only M3 rated - so were superseded by newer types with higher M ratings.
You always thought the C50's should have had a far higher PFC rating than they actually did!

 

[^woody^]

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?

Plastic CU's can be housed in a metal box.

 

[MattChan]

They may be able to make units out of UL94 V-0 or UL94 5V rated plastic. Other standards allow these to be used for fire enclosures for fixed equipment.

Details of their requirements are here:
http://www.fibox.co.uk/450/Flammability classification_ENG1.html

A tedious thing is that most plastic IP65 plastic boxes are UL94 HB but you can throw them in anywhere in a fixed installation. However if you put a PCB in it with a couple of connectors on it and try and run it through Electrical CE safety testing you will fail. Thats why manufactures like Gewiss supply boxes from the same mould tool but with different UL94 rated plastics, the V0 ones are always special order though...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Plastic CU's can be housed in a metal box.

Or plasterboard.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Or plasterboard

Regular, or pink?

All we are really waiting for is a definition of "fire resistant".

 

[JohnW2]

All we are really waiting for is a definition of "fire resistant".

Sort-of ... we're really waiting for them to first change 'non-combustible' to 'fire-resistant' (or something like that) - and then to produce a definition for the latter.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Let's not forget that it's only domestic (household) premises where "non-combustible" CUs are required - shops, offices, hotels, restaurants, factories, hospitals etc can carry on using "combustible" ones.

 

[sparkwright]

Let's not forget that it's only domestic (household) premises where "non-combustible" CUs are required - shops, offices, hotels, restaurants, factories, hospitals etc can carry on using "combustible" ones.

That's another good point.

Before Christmas I struggled getting a plastic consumer unit for something that really didn't warrant a metal board.

There clearly is still a market for these plastic insulated boards, and many wholesalers don't have them any more.

 

[kai]

Wickes have them piled up high once more, and on their website - just google, and most wholesalers have them back in stock now - and even charge extortionate prices for them now - the same price as the Amendment Three metal boards, once you take v.a.t. into account it's even more!!

 

[JohnW2]

... and most wholesalers have them back in stock now - and even charge extortionate prices for them now - the same price as the Amendment Three metal boards, once you take v.a.t. into account it's even more!!

That probably makes sense. They probably only offered them for silly low prices because they thought that the market for them was about to disappear. If they've discovered that there is, in fact, a substantial ongoing market, it makes sense that they would have put them back to their 'original' prices.

Kind Regards, John