FP200 vs T&E (vs LSOH T&E)

Mineral insulated copper cable (MICC)
Lasts forever and looks good when properly installed, no plastics to burn except the sheath, does not ignite, even when severely overloaded, smaller OD, fun to install, robust as hell, cables available with up to 19 conductors.

FP200
Cheap, garbage cable favoured by unskilled installers who are scared of MI, can be easily damaged during installation or over the life of the cable, not resistant to weather or UV.

You know what the correct cable to use is.
 
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FP200 is nearly the same as BS8436 one of the trade names like Flexishield and Guardian often referred to as Ali-tube cable. It was put forward as one of the cables you could use buried in a wall without RCD protection, however the price resulted in it not really catching on. 522.6.5 in BS7671:2008 refers to the cable, not sure if in the new BS7671?

Where visible it can be made to look like MICC cable, and I can see where the installer has not got the skill required to install MICC it may be prudent to use Ali-tube rather than risk glands not being made off correctly. However on a large job I would have thought worth learning how to use MICC.

However question was Al-tube v T&E both rated 90°C but Ali-tube is advertised as being impact resistance (1.0kg weight dropped from a height of 0.8m, at ambient temperature).

It is available as 2, 3, and 4 core from 1.5 mm² to 6 mm² well I say available, that has always been the problem, although it may have been in 2008 a method to wire a fridge/freezer supply without RCD protection, getting a short length was a problem, if one walked into a whole sale outlet and asked for Guardian it was a whole role or nothing, and retail outlets had not got a clue what it was.

When I first saw the cable I thought how good it was, but it is not cheap, and when compared with MICC I would have thought MICC was better, however although MICC states up to 250°C it does not actually state its impact resistance.

So in real terms it is down to what is asked for and what they are willing to pay for, it is pointless quoting for MICC if by doing so you price yourself out of the market. My worry with Ali-tube was being 10 meters short and having to buy 100 meters 90 of which will just sit on a shelf gathering dust.
 
Yes, the sheds stocked white.
In my day, T&E was allowed in Fire Alarm circuits as long as it was only feeding the call points.
 
Indeed, I too used flat 1.0mm2 T+E for break glasses and detectors.

They did red sheathed flat 1.0mm2 T+E for this purpose, but it's not seen often down my way.

Since 2006, as far as I know, all white flat T+E has been the low smoke stuff only.

From around 1970 to 2006, virtually all flat T+E cable was white down SOUTH.

To get grey cable around this time in this region was not impossible, yet difficult - at least I thought so.

I believe grey cable was to be found oop NORTH.

1 core+E cable and just 1 core cable (both PVC PVC) is also rare down South.
 
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One shop I used at that time just outside London said he couldn't sell grey. When I asked why he said that people preferred white for surface mount installations.
 
From around 1970 to 2006, virtually all flat T+E cable was white down SOUTH.

To get grey cable around this time in this region was not impossible, yet difficult - at least I thought so.

I believe grey cable was to be found oop NORTH.
I've seen, in the past, a north-south divide stated as the grey/white "tradition".
 
Mineral insulated copper cable (MICC)
...

FP200
...

You know what the correct cable to use is.
And for installations where it's not visible ? MICC is "a bit overkill" for something that's either under the floor or in trunking !
Mind you, in the office block I used to work in, they ran some of the submains from the meter room to units in MICC - in trunking. What a mess, trunking about 100% overfilled, lids don't fit properly, etc, etc :evil: The reason I know what's inside the trunking is that it's 3 section, and I've had occasion to run data cabling around. In places they've flattened out a divider and still not got the MICC to fit in - look down the corridor and you can see the bulges where the lid doesn't fit.
 
Some of our jobs involved wiring entire houses in MI. Don't forget those old council houses wired in the stuff!
 
I've seen an entire block of flats from the 60s that was completely wired in concealed MICC get rewired with T+E and vast amounts of plastic mini-trunking.

This was to satisfy the insurance company.

This was about 4 years ago, so not even any metal supports for the new cable.

I think I know which wiring system was better.
 
Some of our jobs involved wiring entire houses in MI. Don't forget those old council houses wired in the stuff!
I've seen an entire block of flats from the 60s that was completely wired in concealed MICC get rewired with T+E....I think I know which wiring system was better.
I know a building wired in MICC in 1936 and it's still going strong.
 
A company I worked for had an in-house Printed Circuit Board ( PCB ) production area. There was some MI wiring in the area around the etching tanks. Rumour has it that some of the copper sheath of the MI had been etched away to expose the insulation.
 
Would all the sleeves over the wires have been replaced by now?
Believe so. And one or two of the terminations have been repotted.
Apparently when it was done, there was a sizeable collection of parts ordered for maintenance down the years.
 
Presumably not a lot of it exists, or a lot has been added to in T+E.

Sockets in 1936 would have been very minimal, I imagine the sockets will have been rewired.

I imagine just the lighting remains more or less as it was...?
 
Sockets, I understand many are now 2G but the circuit is still MICC only.
Lighting is unaltered.
Unit was a shop with a flat above.
 

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