Should I worry? Mains cables

It seems that my lack of knowledge has led me to spend more money than I needed on cables that are over-specc’d for what i need and fail pat tests! That’s an expensive lesson!

imageoven wrote: djgorey wrote: It seems that my lack of knowledge has led me to spend more money than I needed on cables that are over-specc’d for what i need and fail pat tests! That’s an expensive lesson! Swap the 13A plugs for 16A Ceeform...

Snap!

Also, The IET CoP for electrical in service testing, is just that, a Code Of Practice. A recommendation for the right/best way to do things, if you will.

It is something you should do; and if you do follow it, you are far less likely to kill, injure or cause damage. Equally, if you still manage to vaporize something or someone, and are up before M'Lord, if you can prove that you did everything by "the book", you sentence will be most likely reduced.

However, just that one CoP in isolation is not the whole story. There is BS7909 and BS7671 - 18th Ed especially is recognised by H&SE as being something that reduces risk of death and fire, if followed, and take a very dim view if you don't.

British and harmonised EN standards make sure manufacturers and importers do make stuff in a safe manor, fit for purpose. However, the quest for profits, and the Chinese doing what they are told for a price, can lead to many things that claim compliance, but aren't. The number of fake BS1363 ("13A") plugs on leadsets and applainces is worryingly prevalent.

Then there is PUWER and EaWR which you are legally obliged to comply with, as an employer or "company", i.e. try and make money from your activity, even if at a loss. Charities would also still need to comply with PUWER and EaWR AFAIK.

Ultimately PAT is "a" method of proving maintenance of your electrical appliances - maintenance, and proof thereof, is required by law as part of PUWER and EaWR.

If you had cheeaped out, and used 0.5mm, I would have taken the piss, but you went the right way for the right reason, and just got unlucky.

I have loads of 13a - 16a made with 1.5mm h07 built 30cm long.

ceharden wrote: My personal opinion:...

I agree, some decent branded plugs will allow 2.5 h07 into them, and close down correctly, with no crimp of cable, or gap between housing and plug.

I think that is where H07 has improved over the years, and the amount of insulation to make it 450/750V rated has reduced through better materials, hence got thinner.

However a BS1363 plug is fused at a max of 13A. Why you need more than 1.5mm, is only if you are doing something very long distance, in which case you are beyond the remit of what a 13A plug was designed for.

Don't forget it, and ring mains, were designed so that you could pick up your 3KW electric fire, and move it into whatever room you were in, at any one time. The ring allowed for a second person in a different room to do the same thing. The only other electric things back then would have been "the wireless", and maybe the odd house would have had a TV. And then some 5A round pin outlets for your 60W table lamps. Irons would have been heated on the Aga; domestic electric washing machines, fridges and freezers, etc all started being available in the late 50's, so very rare in a domestic setting until the 60's.

BS1363 (1947) and BS7671 11th Ed were being dreamt up as a solution to how to build good homes to replace those lost in WW2, during the end years of WW2. BS7671 11th Ed was 1939, with amendments in 43, 45, 46 and 48. "12th Ed" was 1950.

Wikipedia wrote: In 1941 Lord Reith, then the minister of Works and Planning, established committees to investigate problems likely to affect the post-war rebuilding of Britain. One of these, the Electrical Installations Committee, was charged with the study of all aspects of electrical installations in buildings. Amongst its members was Dame Caroline Haslett, President of the Women's Engineering Society and an expert on safety in the home.[38] Convened in 1942, the committee reported in 1944, producing one of a set of Post War Building Studies that guided reconstruction.[39] The plug and socket-outlet system defined in BS 1363 is a result of one of the report's recommendations. Britain had previously used a combination of 2 A, 5 A and 15 A round pin sockets. In an appendix to the main report (July 1944), the committee proposed that a completely new socket-outlet and fused plug should be adopted as the "all-purpose" domestic standard. The main report listed 8 points to consider in deciding the design of the new standard. The first of these was stated as, “To ensure the safety of young children it is of considerable importance that the contacts of the socket-outlet should be protected by shutters or other like means, or by the inherent design of the socket-outlet.” Others included flush fitting, no need for a switch, requirements for terminals, bottom entry for the cable, and contact design.[40] The appendix added 5 further "points of technical detail" including requirements that plugs could not be inserted incorrectly, should be easy to withdraw, and should include a fuse.[41] This requirement for a new system of plugs and sockets led to the publishing in 1947 of "British Standard 1363:1947 Fused-Plugs and Shuttered Socket-Outlets".[42] One of the other recommendations in the report was the introduction of the ring circuit system (often informally called a "ring main"). In this arrangement a cable connected to a fuse, or circuit breaker, in the distribution board was wired in sequence to a number of sockets before being terminated back at the distribution board, thus forming a ring final circuit. In the ring circuit, each socket-outlet was supplied with current by conductors on both sides of the 'loop.' This contrasts with the radial system (which is also used in the UK, often in the same installation) wherein a single cable runs out radially, like a spoke, from the distribution board to serve a number of sockets. Since the fuse or circuit breaker for a ring circuit has to be rated for the maximum current the ring could carry (30 A or 32 A for a breaker), additional protection is required at each socket-plug connection. Theoretically, such protection could have been designated either within the socket or within the plug. However, to ensure that this protection has a rating matched to the appliance flexible cord fitted to the plug, a fuse rated between 1 A and 13 A is incorporated into each plug. Wired connections may also be connected to the ring, and these are also required to include a suitably rated fuse. The ring circuit in the UK requires the use of BS 1363 plugs and sockets, but the BS 1363 system is not limited to use with ring circuits