Over The Years....

[securespark]

....people posting here, both DIYers and sparks, have asked to confirm when certain installation practices began and ended, often in an effort to accurately date an installation.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to compile a list and post it in the Wiki.

What do folk think?

 

[sparkwright]

Lets do it.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

....people posting here, both DIYers and sparks, have asked to confirm when certain installation practices began and ended, often in an effort to accurately date an installation.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to compile a list and post it in the Wiki.

What do folk think?

Sounds like a great idea if you can create a page - it won't let me in!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I suspect one persons opinion on actual dates, might be at odds with how another might remember progress. Your best bet would be a vote on actual dates of the many changes over the years.

 

[mattylad]

I forsee many arguments over that

 

[securespark]

Lets do it.

Great!
We obviously need to be accurate. For example, we can confidently say that the 14th Edition in 1966 brought in the requirement for earthing to all lighting circuits.

Apparently, prior to this, only lighting circuits supplying metallic accessories needed earthing. But I cannot find any regulations in the 13th Edition to corroborate this.

 

[mattylad]

Start it off with:

"As far as we know"

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Some clues to editions, if not their contents here - https://www.wiring-regulations.co.uk/wiring-regulations-history/

This points out the main changes to the Regs - http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Wiring_regs_history

I remember being taught to make a joint like this, in college for the 13th Edition -

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/images/a/ad/The_Wiring_Regs_1st_Edition.pdf

(section 13)

More and more detailed history here - https://www.voltimum.co.uk/articles/short-history-iee-wiring-regulations but you need to log in.

More details of changes for each Edition - https://www.opulous.co.uk/electrician-brief-history-electrical-regulations

 

[bernardgreen]

Quoting from https://www.wiring-regulations.co.uk/wiring-regulations-history/

Here we will take a look back at the UK wiring regulations from 1882 to the current and future regulations.

1882 1st edition of the ‘Wiring Rules’ issued. Entitled ‘Rules and Regulations for the prevention of Fire Risks Arising from Electric Lighting’

1888 2nd edition

1897 3rd edition Entitled ‘General Rules recommended for Wiring for the Supply of Electrical Energy’

1903 4th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations, called ‘Wiring Rules’

1907 5th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations

1911 6th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations

1916 7th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations

1924 8th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations ‘Regulations for the Electrical Equipment of Buildings’

1927 9th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations

1934 10th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations

1939 11th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations, Revised issue (1943), reprinted with minor amendments (1945), Supplement issued (1946),Revised Section (1948)

1950 12th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations launched, Supplement issued (1954)

1955 13th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations launched, Reprinted, 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1964

1966 14th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations published Reprinted, 1968, 1969, 1970 (in metric units), 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1976

With the publication of the fifteenth edition it was decided that in future reprints of the same edition (amendments) would be contained in one of five different coloured covers red, green, yellow, blue and brown, a new edition would be published when the brown covered reprint required updating.

1981 The 15th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations launched

1991 16th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations published (adopted as the BS in 1992) Electricity at Work Regs. (Northern Ireland) come fully into being

2004 Part P of the Building Regulations becomes law BS 7671:2001 Requirements for Electrical Installations (Incorporating Amendments No 1: 2002 and No 2: 2004), The IEE Wiring Regulations (Sixteenth Edition)

2007 17th Edition BS 7671:2008+A3:2015 (the 17th edition incorporating Amendment 3:2015) issued in 2008 and updated (“Amendment no. 3”) in January 2015 and mandatory from July 2015.

2018 18th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations.

 

[securespark]

What would have been helpful would have been a list of changes made over the years.

Sounds like a great idea if you can create a page - it won't let me in!

Nor me.

What I suggest is that we all submit ideas for inclusion here, then I will compile a document and appeal for a mod to post it up in the Wiki, assuming of course that they have access!

For clarity, please put an Asterisk * before and after the text you want to submit.

 

[securespark]

I think I will start with what I have mentioned before:

*The 14th Edition of the Wiring Regulations, published 1 October 1966 introduced a requirement for earthing to all lighting circuits.*

 

[chivers67]

I forsee many arguments over that

I don't. See what I did there

 

[RF Lighting]

How’s this for starters?

https://www.diynot.com/wiki/Electrics:Over-the-years

I don’t seem to have trouble with the wiki. You just need to log in to the wiki site at the top of the page using your username and password which you use for this site.

 

[flameport]

You just need to log in to the wiki site at the top of the page using your username and password which you use for this site.

That only works for a select few. For everyone else, it's impossible to sign in and impossible to register as a new user.
Been like that for years, and it's the reason no one uses or contributes to it.

 

[ericmark]

Before 1992 (BS 7671:1992) I do not remember seeing any editions of the wiring regulations hanging around, much was rumour control, the lads in the firm who went to collage would tell the old guys about the changes, however often they did not take much notice and continued as they had always done. As to the 1966 change I do wonder how sparks of the time found out, however this is the closed shop era, and the Unions were very strong, some where I have the guide to one of the editions published by the Union not the IEE. So it would seem the Unions were responsible for keeping it's members updated until Margaret Thatcher stopped them. The scheme providers of today have basic replaced what the Unions did to keep electricians up to date.

I made a sidewards move in around 1978 from auto electrics to commercial, and my collage certificates were as an auto electrician, my apprenticeship included bridges and all the winding gear to open them, mainly knife switches, but there were only two that I ever worked on, so technically three phase 415 volt was part of my apprenticeship but in really terms did very little in first 10 years of my working life, it was when I joined SLD pumps that I first started to work on 415 volt, employed as I knew how to repair portable traffic lights, they taught me how to repair pumps.

But 1980 I went to work in Algeria, mainly Dutch stuff, first time I came across the maintenance free connectors, and systems where the fuse was before the switch, so fuse always live with the bottle fuse.

My return to UK in 1992 approx to work on building of Sizewell power station was a surprise, so much had altered while I had been working abroad, so it would seem from 1980 to 1992 the ELCB-v had been outlawed, I never actually saw one in use until after they had been withdrawn, would love to know how they were tested. And the RCCB or ELCB-c or RCD which every name you want to give it had arrived with a bang. We had amps rating from 100 mA to 5 amp, with time delay as well, not sure when the 30 mA arrived it may have been out then? They caused many problems as the neutral was often not switched, so the neutral earth fault could cause tripping even when the circuit had been made inactive.

I moved then into petrol chemical and the rules on making dead were strictly observed, not having a proving unit and voltage tester at your side would result in pass being revoked, i.e. the sack. Same for not wearing safety glasses. This must have been around 1997, training courses galore, how to make off Hawk gas tight glands, working in confined spaces, and remember there was a change in cherry picker licences as I had got one on building the 7 bridge but seems it was not valid when doing point or ayr gas terminal. Same with forklift licence.

I remember also the argument was it scaffold or staging in Harland and Wolff you needed a licence for scaffold not for staging and I could not see the difference, also working a height became an issue, remember a guy being sacked on Longannet power station for standing on a container without a harness on.

Every job seemed to have a new rule, lost count how many inductions I went to. Returning to house bashing for a short time around 2000 I just could not believe what they were getting away with, had I done that in industry I would have been sacked. Then 2004 I think the Part P came out, not surprising when you saw standard of workmanship at the time.

So in real terms it would depend on who installed things what the quality was, were they worried about marking a gland, or testing if gas tight varied so much. Even use of second hand equipment. So we look at a loadmaster MCB and we tend to think before 1995 but GEC were reusing them in 1998 so hard to tell, as to when the Wylex fuse box went out of production I don't know, my house had them in 1980 and my dads house in 1954, and today one of the major manufacturers has stopped making consumer units, but there products are still being sold.