"Gidday" from New Zealand...

[SparksNZ]

Kia ora to all my British compatriots. I thought that joining this site would give me a clearer understanding with regard to leading edge electrical developments, both technologically and from an installation point of view. Though we don't share the same electrical system, rules or regs, electricity is just the same. Unlike our water, which goes down the plug hole in the opposite direction to yours, our power doesn't flow any differently!

PV off-grid and grid-tie installation is just starting to ramp up now, and very little is known (by a lot) regarding its installation. We are limited by the available equipment for installing such gear, but that will be just a matter of time before the market is saturated.

I look forward to learning from this site, and injecting the occasional query relevant to our trade.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sintra]

Hi & welcome.

 

[Pete999]

Kia Ora to you mate, what ever that means, But welcome to the mad house

 

[Badged01]

Someone better expalin to you that generally you need sun for PV to work ..... rain and wind don't do anything for the panels

 

[Badged01]

..... and hopefully you 'down under guys' have a sense of humour and thick'ish skin!

 

[SparksNZ]

To set the record straight - I'm a girl, but no offence taken and it's rained twice since November last year! Yes, I have a very thick skin and very warped sense of humour.... I also sound nothing like a 'Stray-yin (Australian!!!). Thanks team, look forward to some good healty banter

PS: Kia Ora is "greetings" in Maori

 

[ian.settle1]

Kia Ora thought that was orange squash or similar drink.

Welcome to the site

 

[sparkymalarky]

Welcome to the forum , or should I say 'Mi Wadi'.

 

[SparksNZ]

Thanks team for the warm welcomes. @Sparkymalarky, just Goggled Mi Wadi.... do you mean the flavoured drink? Sounds slightly Indonesian! LOL!

Anyways, I am getting lost in some of your electrical acronyms, could you please tell me what CU is. Can make reading threads frustrating when you don't know the local lingo.While I am on the asking trail, what are spurs? Finally, I know that you run ring circuits in the UK, so if you were wiring say a small 2-3 bedroom unit/house, typically what size conductor do you run for power and lights, you obviously fuse the wiring, then your socket outlets are also fused? What are the ratings typically used in this situation? Do you have thermal ratings for your cables when cables are bundled or surrounded by insulation, etc? When do you use SWA cable? The only time I have ever used SWA is in the petroleum industry where everything including phone and data are SWA for intrisic safety. Just getting my head around the differences. One last question, do you run different different low voltage networks, eg: TT, TN-C-S or similar? We run a TN-C-S system with an MEN (Multiple Earthed Neutral) derivative. Has its pros and cons, but we a lobbying for an alternative TT system install in certain situations. Currently not allowed TT though

 

[Richard Burns]

This thread may help.
CU is consumer unit (fuse box)
A spur is a single cable branch from a ring final circuit.
Standard RFC (ring final circuit) is 2.5mm² line and neutral conductor and 1.5mm² circuit protective conductor (cpc) This is 2.5mm² twin and earth cable (T&E or TWE) with a 32A type B mcb (circuit breaker).
Socket outlets are not fused but UK BS1363 plugs are fitted with fuses (generally 3 -13A).
Yes there are limits on current carrying capacity in different installation methods.
SWA is used where the cable needs to be strong, often used outside and underground, used in standard industrial fixed wiring, used where the cable needs to have an earthed sheath (this avoids use of 30mA RCD protection for buried cables).
TNS, TNCS, TT are all common earthing arrangements, the DNOs are aiming for everything to be TNCS in the end (unless they do not want it to be!)

 

[SparksNZ]

Thanks Richard, got it! I think you summed up all the other acronyms that were going to haunt me eventually in a nutshell.
So with regard to the spur, this is a single circuit outside of the ring. I take it there are exemptions to this not needing to be part of the ring, or is this where say a light cannot be 3-plated, eg: new single outside light maybe? Sorry for dumb questions, was in the UK 10 months ago and was doing a lot of head scratching when I stayed at my friend's house - of course between sightseeing etc.

3-plating stopped being fashionable here in the 1960's, so only re-wiring an existing installation where you cannot conceivably get down a wall cavity we will rewire in this fashion. Ring circuits and mains are illegal here, except in street lighting circuits and a few specialised industrial installations. I really like the fusing of the appliance plugtops, but alas, we only rely on the manufacturers internal protection for appliance safety. We are only able to use type C breakers for general applications. Are all your installations (domestic only?) protected by a main RCD before sub-circuit RCD's? Has this been mandated on all installs or just when upgrading a switchboard (CU?).

We use neutral screen cable for underground, where the screen can be used as an earth or neutral, if rated for underground can then be buried direct. NS cable much easier to terminate than SWA. Actually, we can also bury TPS (tough plastic sheathed) T&E direct, but I never would, but not illegal! I suppose if anyone were to dig that deep with spade or digger then circuit protection would hopefully kick in.

Thanks again.

 

[SparksNZ]

BTW, by no means am I here to harrass or belittle your way of doing things, but am keen to see why changes are made to our collective regulations. We have rafts and rafts of changes which come through monthly to our system, which are probably spurred on by changes made in other parts of the world with much larger populations and more statistics surrounding serious harm incidents and mortality rates. We have some rediculous rules and some very relevant ones too. Our biggest current joke is that if you want to become a sparkie it wouldn't hurt to obtain a law degree first. We have so much legal speak in our regulations now that we spend more time interpreting rules than actually doing paid work, that is interdispersed with mountains of documentation and paperwork, which either makes us less or more liable.