So what? The document is merely guidance.However it is worth noting that approved document P still says "Electrical installations should be designed and installed in accordance with BS 7671:2008 incorporating Amendment No 1:2011"
So what? The document is merely guidance.However it is worth noting that approved document P still says "Electrical installations should be designed and installed in accordance with BS 7671:2008 incorporating Amendment No 1:2011"
There has been a collosal f*ckup with the standardisation which means RCD sockets are basically useless if you are following the letter of current standards.
They could have said that people should comply with the latest edition of BS7671 but they did not.
I struggle a little with this aspect, more truthfully I struggle a lot.There has been a collosal f*ckup with the standardisation which means RCD sockets are basically useless if you are following the letter of current standards.
(I think) that is down to a misreading of the wording.
It's more complicated than that, as you say basically a law cannot be made which will automatically change at some future time. It can be written such that an amendment must be ratified when the referred document changes, however if that amendment is not done for some reason( of which there are many senarios) then the law basically becomes moot. Once the law has fallen into redundancy (for the want of a more suitable term) it is then a complete mare to repeal a law in such a situation (as it 's no longer lawful) and attempting to reinstate it requires a complete process and that will fall at the first hurdle as such a law exists in the statute books and it's not permitted to have 2 similar laws.I think thats to do with the way law makers like to work. If they pinned it to the latest version of a standard, then effectivly what the law requires can change (when the standard does) without the normal law making process, and that cannot be allowed, I think the term ambulatory was used when it was explained (I think it might have even been on here.... or if not on IEE/IET)
As I understand it there are a couple of issues, though they look like they may be in the process of being fixed.I struggle a little with this aspect, more truthfully I struggle a lot.
What makes RCD sockets and RCD FCUs useless?
Exactly.As I understand it back in the 16th edition BS7671 didn't specify specific standards for those RCDs, only trip currents and trip times, so as long as a RCD socket/FCU met the trip time/current requirements it was acceptable. Starting with the 17th edition they now specify a specific list of standards for RCDs and BS7288, the standard for RCD sockets/FCUs was not on the list. There was an article where a spokesperson from the IET claimed this was a mistake,
Supplementary means additional.but afaik they have not updated it in later revisions to BS7671. Possibly because of the second issue.
The second issue is that the 17th edition, while greatly expanding RCD requirements also changed the terminology used for RCD protection, under the 16th edition the required RCD protection was for "supplementary protection", under the 17th edition it is for "additional protection".
That is nonsense.Unfortunately BS 7288:2016 specifically said that RCDs to the standard were only suitable for "supplementary protection" and specifically said they were not suitable for "fault protection" or "addtional protection".
Even if you agree with that, if the upstream MCB offers fault protection then the additional protection by the RCD in the socket is satisfactory.It appears that amendment 1 to BS7288:2016 has fixed the issue, and now says that they are still not suitable for "fault protection" but they *are* suitable for "additional protection".
Terms in standards can often have somewhat different meanings from the ordinary English understanding of those combinations of words. "exposed conductive part", "live conductor", "low voltage" the list goes on.Supplementary means additional.
It's like people who think supplementary bonding is a special category of bonding rather than just additional bonding.
I've now got access to a copy of BS7288:2016 and this is what it says (retyped because it wouldn't let me copy and paste)That is nonsense.
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