British Standards not highly regarded

[KennyKen]

Thought this would be the best place to vent.

As most of you know I work abroad. Australia. So during my long arduous Nightshift I got talking to some international sparkies. Three Aussie and One Canadian. The old conversation of Standards got brought up. To which I said that I thought very highly of British Standards considering I'm An UK time served Sparks. I got a resounding laughter from the Aussies who's first reply was "You guys still wire Ring mains pre 2nd world war" and what's stopping one leg to become live blah blah blah.

So after my long explanation apparently they see British tradesmen as a bit of a joke. Everyone has a right to an opinion but I found quite astonishing espically I find the British work to be of a higher standard. Plastic conduit is used over here for industrial and commercial installs. Two pin plugs on certain equipment which are flimsy. Most Socket and three phase outlets are plastic. No metal outlets for industrial premises. No fuses in plugs. Testing is not as thorough. Catinary Wire Installs used for cable containment rather then tray. Hardly any use of SWA except where I'm working. In normal circumstances it's orange flex. 240v on building sites. When I said we use 110v. Well they couldn't quite grasp the 55v safe touch voltage.

Rant over.

 

[tex431]

Working in NZ I would defiantly say Uk trained sparks are of a lot higher standard than here. The testing here is shocking / non existent. Look at there Code of compliance form to be filled in for notifiable work
http://www.ewrb.govt.nz/assets/EWRB/files/News-and-resources/forms/combined-coc-esc.pdf

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

 

[Pete999]

Working in NZ I would defiantly say Uk trained sparks are of a lot higher standard than here. The testing here is shocking / non existent. Look at there Code of compliance form to be filled in for notifiable work
http://www.ewrb.govt.nz/assets/EWRB/files/News-and-resources/forms/combined-coc-esc.pdf

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

Yes but they do the HAKA over there so everything should be OK

 

[David M]

Working in NZ I would defiantly say Uk trained sparks are of a lot higher standard than here. The testing here is shocking / non existent. Look at there Code of compliance form to be filled in for notifiable work
http://www.ewrb.govt.nz/assets/EWRB/files/News-and-resources/forms/combined-coc-esc.pdf

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

Literally? (my bold underlined)

 

[Dave the spark]

The original Aussie's came from UK Magistrates Courts!

corrected that for you.

Pretty sure you'll find the original Aussies were there long before the white man

 

[Risteard]

The rcd test makes me laugh the most. Press the test button

I wouldn't laugh too hard - I've heard suggestions that we may be heading the same way with respect to RCD testing.

 

[Des 56]

Perhaps they base their opinion on death rates from electricity,maybe ours is more than theirs,if that is so,we can make claim to having the safest sharks

 

[dmxtothemax]

what about testing the tester ?

 

[silver surfer]

I don't think that's entirely true... they got a bit touchy when I mentioned a few aspects of the trade that I thought were strange.

I've worked down under with Aussies and Kiwis, do they still use catenary wire to tie T&E anywhere they can? and those metal skeleton back plates that fix to wooden "dwangs"?

 

[ipf]

I remember, on TV years ago....an Aussie plumber fitting a new bathroom out and scratching his head when he came across a bidet. He ended up fitting it to the wall for use as a pee stone.

They do have a pretty fair sense of humour.

 

[norcal]

Thought this would be the best place to vent.

As most of you know I work abroad. Australia. So during my long arduous Nightshift I got talking to some international sparkies. Three Aussie and One Canadian. The old conversation of Standards got brought up. To which I said that I thought very highly of British Standards considering I'm An UK time served Sparks. I got a resounding laughter from the Aussies who's first reply was "You guys still wire Ring mains pre 2nd world war" and what's stopping one leg to become live blah blah blah.

So after my long explanation apparently they see British tradesmen as a bit of a joke. Everyone has a right to an opinion but I found quite astonishing espically I find the British work to be of a higher standard. Plastic conduit is used over here for industrial and commercial installs. Two pin plugs on certain equipment which are flimsy. Most Socket and three phase outlets are plastic. No metal outlets for industrial premises. No fuses in plugs. Testing is not as thorough. Catinary Wire Installs used for cable containment rather then tray. Hardly any use of SWA except where I'm working. In normal circumstances it's orange flex. 240v on building sites. When I said we use 110v. Well they couldn't quite grasp the 55v safe touch voltage.

Rant over.

With the jobsite transformers, the UK is the only place in the world that still uses 110V, There are those who say North America uses 110V, but they are just showing their ignorance, it's a prewar voltage, it went in stages from 110/220V, 115/230V, to the current standard of 120/240V.

 

[KennyKen]

The advice from HSE (health and safety executive) is that tools, plugs and cable designed for domestic use are not suitable for site conditions. You should use cordless tools or those that operate from an 110v (CTE) center tapped to an earth supply system so that the maximum voltage to earth does not exceed 55v.

This system is deemed the safest. 230v onsite backed by an RCD is Illegal on large construction sites... if an RCD is faulty and fails to operate then it doesn't take a genius to work out the possible implications.

 

[StephenRowley]

arh but what about testing of the tester of tester?