Is my boiler wired right?

[littlespark]

my 2 cents before the fallout....

Green and yellow is a cpc.... circuit protective conductor.... it protects the circuit.
Heating controls, youve got unarmoured flexible cables crossing between joint boxes and valves, or thermostats or whatever....
Something happens and this flex gets struck with a pointy metal object. metal objects now shorting between a live cable and what should be a cpc...
Nothing happens. Circuit breaker doesnt trip, metal object now live.

Would you use the cpc as a live cable in a lighting circuit? Plastic switch, plastic box? No, i dont think so.

Using the cpc as a live cable in heating controls should never be allowed... identified or not. And it just reeks of a plumber wiring it up, not a competent electrician.

 

[oscar21]

my 2 cents before the fallout....

Green and yellow is a cpc.... circuit protective conductor.... it protects the circuit.
Heating controls, youve got unarmoured flexible cables crossing between joint boxes and valves, or thermostats or whatever....
Something happens and this flex gets struck with a pointy metal object. metal objects now shorting between a live cable and what should be a cpc...
Nothing happens. Circuit breaker doesnt trip, metal object now live.

Would you use the cpc as a live cable in a lighting circuit? Plastic switch, plastic box? No, i dont think so.

Using the cpc as a live cable in heating controls should never be allowed... identified or not. And it just reeks of a plumber wiring it up, not a competent electrician.

If it had never been allowed I could understand the reasoning but not that long ago you could do exactly that, so if its as dangerous as you say why was it ever allowed. As for your scenario it could just as easily happen to the brown or blue wire in the cable, we sleeve blue wires up all the time with brown cable, we sleeve black with brown and grey with blue, all sorts of colour changes going on there but the copper and insulation thickness are exactly the same physics wise, the only difference is the colour of the covering, if someone is going to get a shock after something goes wrong, the angry pixies dont care one bit what colour a cable originally is.

 

[oscar21]

Also my original point wasn't whether we can use the cpc as a live or not it was about the tonnes of regs changes that are happening all the time and unless you are a bookworm or enjoy watching nerds on youtube with receding hairlines quoting hours and hours of regs in a monotonous voice instead of being down the pub or out for a drive or something then most of them will pass you by until you chance upon them by accident.

Alternatively you could pay a hundreds if not thousands every year for every update course going, I believe they have courses for every part of the building regs nowadays. After all whats the point in doing the electrical regs to the letter if you haven't got a clue about the other 15 parts of the buildings regs.

 

[rewireIT]

^ some good points but i look at it like what would Barry Homeowner do?

I know people aren't supposed to look inside their appliances or circuits, but they do. What happens when the boiler trips out and they take the cover off and see yellow and green and just assume it's earth?

It takes no extra effort and simply putting in 5core in my boiler situation to ensure this doesn't happen. Even if it's a 1 in a million chance of someone not getting injured by it it's worth the extra 50p for the right cable, no?

 

[DPG]

Also my original point wasn't whether we can use the cpc as a live or not it was about the tonnes of regs changes that are happening all the time and unless you are a bookworm or enjoy watching nerds on youtube with receding hairlines quoting hours and hours of regs in a monotonous voice instead of being down the pub or out for a drive or something then most of them will pass you by until you chance upon them by accident.

Alternatively you could pay a hundreds if not thousands every year for every update course going, I believe they have courses for every part of the building regs nowadays. After all whats the point in doing the electrical regs to the letter if you haven't got a clue about the other 15 parts of the buildings regs.

All you need to do is read the updates/amendments when they come out. If you can't put that bit of effort in then it's a poor show.

And how does it cost thousands of pounds every year?

 

[oscar21]

All you need to do is read the updates/amendments when they come out. If you can't put that bit of effort in then it's a poor show.

And how does it cost thousands of pounds every year?

Like I said, if you are only concerned with following the electrical regs then a bit of reading would probably do it, but what about all the other countless regs you may breach whilst doing it, has anyone read the entire documents on ventilation, sound, energy conservation etc when fitting a 100mm fan in a bathroom, you 3 core&E might have sleeving but what about the other gazillion regs there are whilst doing so, its a pretty futile pursuit of exactness.

 

[rewireIT]

Like I said, if you are only concerned with following the electrical regs then a bit of reading would probably do it, but what about all the other countless regs you may breach whilst doing it, has anyone read the entire documents on ventilation, sound, energy conservation etc when fitting a 100mm fan in a bathroom, you 3 core&E might have sleeving but what about the other gazillion regs there are whilst doing so, its a pretty futile pursuit of exactness.

But using the correct colours is the bare minimum basics, no?

 

[Avo Mk8]

a pretty futile pursuit of exactness.

Sounds like my career! I'm glad you didn't decide to become a dentist, surgeon, watchmaker, or accountant

 

[DPG]

Sounds like my career! I'm glad you didn't decide to become a dentist, surgeon, watchmaker, or accountant

As long as you don't murder or kill anyone it's ok

 

[timhoward]

@oscar21 it's simple. The last big amendment (AM2) cost around £80 to buy.
For the same price (£80) I could go to a trade show, meet some other sparks, visit a few stands, watch a few seminars that outline the most significant changes, and the price included a copy of the regs. So I got the book I would need anyway plus free training. And if that isn't enough I get a bacon and egg breakfast roll thrown in. The real cost was travel to the nearest roadshow (Manchester in my case) and a morning of my time.

If that is too much work there is also a FREE playlist on youtube explaining the changes:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVsHvs2SuqmqMoXZCFp_CYTgZH_Y2ywwk

The reality of life is that nothing stands still, we learn more, we become aware of regs that are confusing or being misinterpreted, our use of electricity evolves, so the rules keeping people safe have to change too.

( There's just been a very minor housekeeping update to AM2 which can be obtained free online and can be read in 5 minutes:
Updates to 18th Edition - BS7671- IET Wiring Regulations - https://tinyurl.com/ys2u4uuh )