When did earth sleeving become the norm?

[PBC_1966]

Should we use Tesco single cream, or organic Devon clotted cream? Nearly white, or nearly yellow?

"Light straw" might be appropriate for telecoms earths - It was the name given to the color specified for G.P.O. equipment from the 1960's onward:

 

[stillp]

But did they define "Light Straw"?
I used to have a copy of the old (60s?) BS for standard colours, like a pint manufacturer's colour card but filled a 2 inch ring binder. Left it behind along with a lot of others when I retired.

 

[PBC_1966]

PBC. Are those breakers current stock?
They look similar to our previous gen breakers going back as far as the mid sixties.

That one pictured is 1980's manufacture that I picked up NOS. The current versions have a plastic mounting "foot" for the rail instead of the metal clip you can see on that one, a smaller test button, and the now-ubiquitous "one size fits none" terminal screws. And they're no longer made in the U.S.A.

Otherwise, they don't look too much different. Cutler-Hammer is now owned by Eaton:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Eaton-20...e-CH-GFCI-Circuit-Breaker-CH120GFCS/100210432

See also:
//www.diynot.com/diy/threads/electrics-in-the-us.450187/

 

[PBC_1966]

This house was wired in 1980 and there wasn't any sleeving to be seen any where, all the earth wires were bare. I have sleeved them when I have changed sockets etc. At least the lighting circuit is earthed though!

Slip some sleeving on as and when you do something if you want to, but otherwise it's nothing to worry about. I certainly wouldn't go around every switch and socket reterminating all the earths just to add sleeving.

 

[PBC_1966]

But did they define "Light Straw"?

I couldn't tell you the standard number offhand, but it was certainly defined in a specific standard, along with Post Office Red (for mail vans), Mid Bronze Green (the older G.P.O. Telephones vans) and Golden Yellow (the slightly later P.O. Telecoms vans into the 1970's).

 

[stillp]

Post Office Red (for mail vans)

Don't forget the black wings! At one time the GPO Morris vans had rubber wings, to avoid any need to knock out slight dents. When the supplier put the prices up they reverted to steel wings but kept them black. The painter at the GPO Engineering depot across the road from my college used to spray his shoes black instead of polishing them.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

In one of my IEC committees we discussed the possibility of specifying a colour for FE/FB conductors, but couldn't agree - in some countries, white is specified, in others cream, but the list of available colours (IEC 60757 IIRC) doesn't define 'cream'. Should we use Tesco single cream, or organic Devon clotted cream? Nearly white, or nearly yellow?

BS 7671 does not define any colours by standard , RAL number etc....

 

[stillp]

No, it doesn't. Nor should it - we have basic standards for that sort of thing.

 

[john4703]

The relevant British Standard for functional earth is cream rather than white, to be pedantic.

I checked and they look white and printed on the RCBO is the information that the neutral is blue and the fe is white.

 

[JohnW2]

No, it doesn't. Nor should it - we have basic standards for that sort of thing.

I imagine that what BAS really meant was that BS7671 does nor refer to any Standards which define the colours it specifies, leaving the reader to make common-sense/'everyday' interpretations of what the specified colours mean. On that basis, it presumably was free to include "cream" if it so wished?

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

it presumably was free to include "cream" if it so wished?

It does.

 

[JohnW2]

it presumably was free to include "cream" if it so wished?

It does.

Quite - that's what I was saying - since it clearly 'so wished', it was free to do what it did.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

As a slightly related question, does anyone have any views of what colours should be used to identify the conductors of a ('floating') AC SELV circuit? Table 51 only offers colours for Line and Neutral of single-phase AC circuits - concepts which obviously do not exist in a 'floating' circuit?

... so, to be compliant with BS7671, should one use brown+blue (arbitrarily), brown+brown or what?

Kind Regards, John

 

[stillp]

There's nothing specified in 60445. Problem is that there just aren't enough discretely-identifiable colours.

 

[JohnW2]

There's nothing specified in 60445. Problem is that there just aren't enough discretely-identifiable colours.

So do you feel that to use brown-blue for a floating SELV circuit is compliant with BS7671, even though it requires an arbitrary decision as to which to call "Line" and which to call "Neutral"?

There's obviously nothing special about (S) ELV, although that is the common situation in which the question would arise - at least, domestically. The same issue/question would apply in the case of a 'floating' LV circuit (e.g. after an isolating transformer).

Kind Regards, John