6381Y PVC

[WallaceP]

Hey, has anyone used 6381Y PVC double insulated flexible tails for meter tails? Personal I have only used 6181Y Double insulated tails before but I seen them in a catalog and thought the flexible tails could be handy. Only seems to come in double blue or double grey tho, well in this CEF catalog anyway.

 

[Dave OCD]

I'm sure EON [And possibly others] stipulate in their Terms and Conditions that they will only accept the 7 strand tails for connection to metering equipment.

 

[Bellendian]

UKPN also on that list.

 

[Ian1981]

If the dno only accepted 7 strand meter tails then most of these new builds that have swa installed as the ‘tails’ would have been ripped out by now, so I’d say that they wouldn’t give a monkeys if you used 19 strand

 

[davesparks]

If the dno only accepted 7 strand meter tails then most of these new builds that have swa installed as the ‘tails’ would have been ripped out by now, so I’d say that they wouldn’t give a monkeys if you used 19 strand

Why? Swa cores are 7 strand so will meet that requirement.

 

[Zerax]

From my experience... new builds get away with all sorts of things... even basic, fundamental building regs are often not adhered to !

 

[Ian1981]

Why? Swa cores are 7 strand so will meet that requirement.

I was replying to above posts Dave about power suppliers only accepting 7 strand tails as in meter tails and not swa.
To my knowledge they don’t particularly care either way.

 

[davesparks]

I was replying to above posts Dave about power suppliers only accepting 7 strand tails as in meter tails and not swa.
To my knowledge they don’t particularly care either way.

The documents I've read from UKPN, EDF and a couple of others all specify that flexible cables including tri rated are not permitted for connection to their equipment.

 

[Simon47]

I can see that a DNO might not accept either SWA or tri-rated as neither are double insulated or insulated and sheathed at the meter entry - and thus they'd be within their rights to refuse to connect an installation not to BS7671.
I've had a search for ENWL documents, and found their Electricity Specification 212 which looks like their specifications for connections of the size we're discussing. Nowhere does it specify any restrictions on the load side connections, only specifying "stranded" cables. It does state that connections from the cutout to a single phase meter are normally to be by way of a block rather than cables.
A search for ENWL and 6181Y, 6381Y, or tri-rated doesn't come up with anything for me. I guess it soon will when the search engines borg this thread

EDIT: I was talking to someone in ENWL only recently and the topic of stranded tails came up. Turns out they've been using them themselves for some large jobs, and annoyingly had to get ferrules for a small number of connections with screw rather than box clamp connections - so it sounds like they put stranded cables directly into box terminals with no ferrule.

 

[Strima]

EDIT: I was talking to someone in ENWL only recently and the topic of stranded tails came up. Turns out they've been using them themselves for some large jobs, and annoyingly had to get ferrules for a small number of connections with screw rather than box clamp connections - so it sounds like they put stranded cables directly into box terminals with no ferrule.

No ferrules is BTs preferred option when using box terminals.

 

[1Justin]

Can I bump this thread please?
The last batch of tails I ordered from a wholesaler turned out not to be grey sheathed BS6181Y 7 strand I ordered, but BS6004 BS6181Y BASEC 19 core. This is “flextail” from some suppliers.
-But do we really see it as "fine wire" re 526.9 and ferrules? It's robust stuff, 1.29mm^2 per strand. A compromise maybe to avoid problems with box terminals, perhaps only ferrule the meter/henley etc end? (And I don't have a bootlace ferrule tool that big yet!).

 

[davesparks]

19 strand 25mm is not fine wire requiring ferrules or other treatment, it is in the same class as 7 strand conductors.

 

[Strima]

25mm fine standed cable is 196 0.4mm strands.

 

[1Justin]

That seems sensible. Thanks