Domestic Metal consumer units

[Evans Electric]

On the 1st January 2016  , was it ?,   virtually  every house in Britain   , overnight .... fails to meet the electrical Regs .  

And as raised in another running thread ,  there are indeed sparks who immediately claim  that the plastic must be replaced .    

Amazing that from the age of the wooden Wylex ...  and through the plastic board era ..... not one member of the IEE  ... NICEIC.... ECA ....  not one contractor ... college lecturer .... university based electrical engineers .....Health & Safety .....  not one of the thousands of electricians   across the country  ....not the government ....not even the European Parliament in Brussels ,  not the Archbishop of Canterbury  or the Pope  or  HM the Queen  or even Steptoe   ever thought that domestic boards should be made of metal . 

All those years , never occurred to anybody .  Then all of a sudden , all the plasict ones ..if fitted in a house ...will be a fire risk but fitted in commercial premises  they will be fine . 

Many years ago , in a galaxy far away ,  it was mooted that the 13A  three pin socket  had had it's day and needed to be replaced by a 16A  version .  This was just about when ALL the old stupid mish- match of 2A 5A, 10A, 15A 2pin & 3 pin sockets had finally been wiped from the face of the Earth  & everywhere you went there was the same standard socket  .

It was said that the likes of washing machine manufacturers were limited to the size of product and needed bigger sockets.   We were then told that this was a scaremongering exercise to create a need that wasn't there and it was all kicked into touch . 

Create a need that wasn't there eh!    

Just saying !

 

[Sidewinder]

Oh the need here was definitely created, by the scams accepting anyone, qualified, competent, or not, and, by the lack of training being provided to the "modern apprentice", along with the Not a Valid Qualification route, where by you can buy a portfolio which has already been given a distinction for an NVQ3 from eBay.

How good is that!

 

[ProDave]

There is nothing new about metal boards. There are plenty of them about even before the start of this year.

But of course my pet hate is they have not addressed WHY consumer units catch fire, just put them in a tin box to (attempt) to stop the fire spreading. And as already noted, they never catch fire in an office, just in a house. Perhaps there is a link here, you don't get much DIY electrics done in a commercial building....

Another pet hate is if anybody was remotely interested in making electrical stuff "safe" then BC and ES lamp holders where you can remove the lamp and insert you finger onto live contacts, would have been outlawed years ago.

On the subject of sockets, the 5a round pin is steadiliy making a comeback for lighting sockets.
 

 

[Evans Electric]

There is nothing new about metal boards. There are plenty of them about even before the start of this year.

But of course my pet hate is they have not addressed WHY consumer units catch fire, just put them in a tin box to (attempt) to stop the fire spreading. And as already noted, they never catch fire in an office, just in a house. Perhaps there is a link here, you don't get much DIY electrics done in a commercial building....

Another pet hate is if anybody was remotely interested in making electrical stuff "safe" then BC and ES lamp holders where you can remove the lamp and insert you finger onto live contacts, would have been outlawed years ago.

On the subject of sockets, the 5a round pin is steadiliy making a comeback for lighting sockets.
 

Well yes but thats always been with us , its for a specific purpose as you say .  But note that it was beyond the early engineers to say , now hang on , we must have a common socket throughout the land .  I remember as an apprentice , we had a box of made up short converter leads to save constantly replacing plug tops on drills etc. 

Must agree with the live lampholder  position , no one addresses that  except , I think Crabtree & MK offered a safe one with lamp removed.  Very rare in my experience.  

 

[Andy™]

im surprised BC & ES havent been banned in homes either, especially for table lamps etc

 

[Blue Duck]

The elf n safety lamp holders are a nightmare if you get a cheapo lamp stuck in one. But very rarely do I find them.

 

[ProDave]

I had in mind using something like the GU10 base for all lamps. Simple, reliable, and shrouded. But nobody likes simple ideas.

Am I the only one old enough to remember actually using round pin sockets? I even used to have a 3 way adaptor that converted a 15A round pin to three 13A sockets.

And then there were the things you plugged into BC lamp holders to use them as power points, with a Y adaptor so you could still use a lamp. I remember the wireless being plugged into one of those. Probably because the one and only socket in the room was in use for something else.
 

 

[Blue Duck]

I still come across these things on an almost weekly basis. The y BC adaptor seems to be popular in cellars. 

And I've had a few confrontations with customers when presented with 15a sockets and asked why I can't connect a security light as the council said it was fine 25 years ago!

:shakehead

 

[Sidewinder]

The product standard for both BS & ES lamp holders has required disconnection of the live supply from the pins without a lamp fitted for some years now.

It's awkward to check because you have to put pressure on the connections to check with a test probe.

I wouldn't fancy the finger test myself!

 

[Murdoch]

I'm surprised electricity hasn't been banned in homes either,

corrected that for you...

 

[Andy™]

i knew i got something wrong, just couldnt figure it out

 

[ProDave]

The product standard for both BS & ES lamp holders has required disconnection of the live supply from the pins without a lamp fitted for some years now.

It's awkward to check because you have to put pressure on the connections to check with a test probe.

I wouldn't fancy the finger test myself!

You had better tell the manufacturers. It's rare to see a BC lamp holder like that, and I can honestly say I have never seen an ES lamp holder that disconnects the L with no lamp in.
 

 

[Andy™]

ive never seen an ES holder that disconnects the live, and only ever seen hager BC pendants that do

 

[Sidewinder]

BS EN 60238:2004+A2:2011 Edison screw lampholders

BS EN 61184:2008+A1:2011 Bayonet lampholders

Just checked them, and there is a "test device" that must be fitted, which is to prevent access to live parts, I had missed the test device bit, or I had selectively forgotten it!

I had honestly believed that the current standards ensured that the contacts were not live and accessible with no lamp fitted, which is kind of true, but only with this "test device" fitted, which doesn't really count!

 

[Andy™]

Just checked them, and there is a "test device" that must be fitted, which is to prevent access to live parts,

does this test device also have to confirm there is power at the connections, something like this?!

 

[Sidewinder]

does this test device also have to confirm there is power at the connections, something like this?!

No, it didn't look like that in the standards! :slap  

 

[Andy™]

No, it didn't look like that in the standards! :slap  

must be looking at the old standards. any better?

 

[Sidewinder]

must be looking at the old standards. any better?

I refer the learned Gentleman to my earlier comment.

 

[Tony S]

Is that a lamp standard or a standard lamp?

 

[Lurch]

I think Crabtree & MK offered a safe one with lamp removed.

I think Legrand used to do safety lampholders, maybe they still do? Very rare I even fit pendants at all on a job now so lost touch slightly!

I had honestly believed that the current standards ensured that the contacts were not live and accessible with no lamp fitted

No need... yet. Wait until they start catching fire because of all these cheap Chinese WiFi colour changing lamps and then they will need to be metal for no apparent reason.