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I am an old school Leccy having done 24 years in the Royal Navy as an electrical/electronic engineer (Control Electrical Mechanic) maintaining and repairing submarine sonar sets.
When I left I went to Highbury Tech in Portsmouth and did my C&Gs to the 16th edition of the IEEE edition of the regs.
I did the odd job but at the time there were enough Leccys out there so I went into MoD work working for Plessey GEC Marconi etc.
I took early retirement and moved to France and after a while found the need to work which I did with a firm in the Limoges area as an Electrician.
It didn't take me long to realise (about half an hour) that the French don't wire houses the same as us Brits. It also struck me that the French and probably other areas of Europe do have some good methods of house bashing.
So why is it that us Brits still house bash the way we do.
The French use Interupteurs (RCDS) and Interupteurs Differentials (RCDs that are used specifically for electrical bits of kit subject to cliches and spikes such as washing machines etc) They feed Disjonctuers (MCBs) like our MCBs but both sides are ie phase and neutral are wired thru the MCBs OK so now we have RCBOs that take the place of both the RCD and the MCB is that a good move? Food for thought some one obviously thinks so.
The French don't have a socket ring main but a spured system of between 5 and 8 sockets depending on the cummulative total current/wattage of the equipment being supplied.
Things like washing machines, Freezers etc have their own supply. ie all on seperate disjoncteurs
Most cable runs are in gaine (plastic concertina type plastic conduit) and are run as single cores so 2.5 TWE as it would be here would be three 2.5 single core 2.5mm sheathed cable even the earth!!! Which I have never understood here why the earth in a 2.5 TWE flat sheathed cable has a 1.5mm core and not sheathed !!
This system makes it easy to when you need odd cabling systems such as two or three way light switching or control cables for heaters etc.
Joining or adding cables to a Cct the French very rarely use 'choc block and never use those brown or white circular bakelite excuse for a JB but use push fitted connectors such as the WAGO connectors into purpose built square or round plastic JBs. When I was doing some work on my bungalow about three years back and went into CEF to see if they had any there was a lot of teeth sucking and tutting why?? I daren't ask !
I'm not saying everything the French do or did was good but a lot of it made sense.
TNS systems weren't very apparent and trying to get a decent earth connection on an earth spike was sometimes fun NOT!
Anyway I guess I have sufficiently wound up some of you with my rantings but surely isn't it about time we brought our house bashing techniques into the 21st century??
 
I think one of the problems with the French system is that using radials and adding on over the years you get an unholy tree of sockets that is murder to fault find on. Branching and branching away think about it in terms of the maths in fault finding. Personally I think Radials are much easier but the long term outlook is poor. At least with a ring and the testing method you really can predict what it should be and fault find very quickly. Why re-invent the wheel. RCBO are great for fitting retrospectively and mean only one circuit is off rather than the whole lot. Personally I am a fan of WAGO's wouldnt use a JB if you paid me (well depends how much) I do like the idea of singles and use nothing else in light commercial, with conduit (round 20mm²). Dont forget the frog legs and escargot!
 
I think one of the problems with the French system is that using radials and adding on over the years you get an unholy tree of sockets that is murder to fault find on. Branching and branching away think about it in terms of the maths in fault finding. Personally I think Radials are much easier but the long term outlook is poor. At least with a ring and the testing method you really can predict what it should be and fault find very quickly. Why re-invent the wheel. RCBO are great for fitting retrospectively and mean only one circuit is off rather than the whole lot. Personally I am a fan of WAGO's wouldnt use a JB if you paid me (well depends how much) I do like the idea of singles and use nothing else in light commercial, with conduit (round 20mm²). Dont forget the frog legs and escargot!
Aaa Haa being back in Blightly for almost 4 years now and in to our second bungalow its not just radial systems that get added to without any respect to what was fitted originally. Both socket ring mains had added spurs enough to call it a hybrid system (a ring radial system !!)
 
There are a lot of methods used around the globe.
The British method of using standardised fused plugs and rings is probably the most versatile of all.
France uses TT quite a lot and in some areas they do not supply a neutral.
So the use of double pole MCBs and Double pole RCDs is quite understandable.
You mention that wiring is installed in flexible PVC conduit, however, I know that T&E with a sheathed earth is extensively used.
Not 100% sure as to why a smaller CSA of CPC is not used.
It could just be that as much of the system is TT, a larger CSA is required because disconnection times are longer?
I don't think it is true to say that choc blocks and JBs have not been used in France.
I have seen installations where chock blocks are fixed to joists without the use of JBs with a small square of fire resistance material between the choc block and joist.
I have seen JBs plastered into walls with the lid showing so the connections are accessible. However I have also seen JBs plastered in walls with no lid, the plaster filling the JB.
 
This from a nation who have not even managed to crack proper bogs yet. The frogs are great at cooking and going on strike, beyond that I wouldn't get too excited.
 
Systems in different countries have pros and cons, a lot of them are only different for historical reasons. If we all scrapped everything and started again there would be much less difference, we could all take the best bits of each system. One of the reasons things were different historically was that before certain standards and specs had evolved, it was up to the manufacturers what to make, and trade was not as global as it is now. For example, Siemens had a strong presence in Germany, they invented the Diazed cartridge fuse and so that became popular there and adopted into the national standards. They spread through mainland Europe while we were still faffing with rewireables. 100 years later, they're still about in Germany and no-one here has heard of them.

We are the odd ones with our ring final, it's a clever trick but it relies on fused plugs. In 1947 we had a committee to look at economies and efficiencies for rebuilding and they recommended to obsolete all the old plug standards and start again with a more modern concept. Had British housing stock been in a better state after the war, there wouldn't have been so much interest in a modernised system and we might have carried on with radials and unfused plugs, like most other countries.

I do like some of the European things you mention, general use of conduit, SPSN MCBs, multiple phase colours, etc. Before you could get Wagos and IP54 square JBs in the UK, I used to bring back a suitcase load from France or Germany each time I went over there.
 

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