BGB Rant

[ban-all-sheds]

It is shameful that the Amendment can’t be downloaded from the IET website as was possible in the past. The Amendment on its own is of no use without the Regs, so making it available for free would not hurt sales of those. Of course a new publication revision including the amendments should be done for new purchasers, but people who already own a red copy ought to be able to update it, not to have to pay to replace it when almost all of it is unchanged.

If nothing else it’s environmentally unsound – unnecessarily using all that paper and ink.

An electrician who made a customer pay to have his entire house rewired when there was nothing wrong with it at all and all he wanted was a new cooker circuit would find himself starring in an episode of Rogue Traders.

What the IET are doing is exactly the same in principle.

 

[flameport]

The amendment changes things on virtually every page, so a download would contain most or all of the content.

Of course, it is entirely possible that things were deliberately changed on every page just to ensure a whole new book had to be created.

There is also the OSG to buy as well - with green cover.

 

[stillp]

BAS rant - surely not?

Sounds an interesting idea, but think about the production process; the amendment would have to be produced as a separate pdf file, which would have to be checked against the BGB and BRB to make sure it was correct.
Then there would be the people who'd try to get away with using the old OSG plus the new amendment. Just think about the posters on this forum who are still using the 16th edition, but if your plan was implemented they'd be claiming to work "to the latest amendment of BS7671".

Amended standards are also really hard to use. I used to work with a large number of old BSs, some of which had 6 or 7 amendments, with paragraphs deleted and new paragraphs pasted in all over them. Really hard to read. Thankfully they are nearly all superseded now.

 

[JohnW2]

...people who already own a red copy ought to be able to update it, not to have to pay to replace it when almost all of it is unchanged.

As others have said, although it's probably true that "almost all of it is unchanged" in a material sense, in a literal sense there are actually 'changes' on viurtually every page, such that publishing just an 'amendment' document really wouldn't be practical (or particularly usable).

Kind Regards, John.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Could it just be that the price is excessive?

How much does it actually cost?

As soon as it came out Amazon were offering it for £60.00.

On ebay you may get it for between £40 and £50.

Where do these sellers obtain it?

 

[chivers67]

Do you think one day it will be available on Kindle

 

[stillp]

Where do these sellers obtain it?

The strange thing for me is that BSI are charging £80 to both members and non-members, the same as the IET non-member price, whereas the IET only charge members £52.

Presumably the ebayers selling it for less than £52 have done some special deal with IET, or have had pirate copies printed in China or somewhere.

 

[Paul_C]

An interesting comparison:

In 1966, the original 14th edition cost 17/6 (including postage).

According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator -

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/inflation/calculator/flash/index.htm

- that would be equivalent to £12.70 today.

The metric 14th edition in 1970 cost 25s. - Equivalent to £15.08 at today's prices.

So even allowing for a larger book today, the price has still gone up out of all proportion.

 

[SimonH2]

So even allowing for a larger book today, the price has still gone up out of all proportion.

But not out of all proportion to the size (and probably number of meetings) of the committee(s) that produces it

It does strike me as a) a bit of legalised protection racket, and b) counterproductive overpricing.

On a) it's effectively a requirement for most people in the trade to have access to the current version. So they have little choice but to shell out for each new version.

On b) it means it's not something that people who could benefit from it but don't need it aren't going to buy it. On the other hand, it's got so much now that few who don't need it are likely to understand it !

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The amendment changes things on virtually every page, so a download would contain most or all of the content.

Does it?

I've not yet invested in it, but does the amendment change the wording of regulations on virtually every page, or just change where page breaks are?

 

[JohnW2]

I've not yet invested in it, but does the amendment change the wording of regulations on virtually every page, or just change where page breaks are?

There are 'changes', in the literal sense, on virtually every page, but most are trivial and relatively few represent 'material changes'. Although changes are marked as such, there is no indication of what the old text was - so a lot of BRB/BGB comparison is necessary to ascertain that.

Kind Regards, John.