Is pvc pvc T&E soon to be written off ?

[Dustydazzler]

I made a very rare trip to my local wholesalers today (I usually buy stuff online now and have it delivered) and was speaking to the manager who I have known since college.
He reckons in the coming amendment to the regs , grey pvc pvc twin and earth cable will be written off and we will be required to use LSF / LSOH cable domestically...

anyone else heard this ?

 

[Timbo]

Maybe pyro will come back into fashion...

I love Pyro. ?

 

[nicebutdim]

I was (perhaps incorrectly) informed back around 2005 (coinciding with harmonisation of cable colours) that only LSF came with 'White' sheath, the 'normal' T&E was in now Grey sheathed!

I'd always understood (albeit from a layman's position) that PVC T&E was grey and LSF was white, but over time have read several discussions about white T&E having long been used in some areas of Southern England.

It's possible that this has always been LSF, but those discussions led me to believe otherwise. From what I could ascertain, white T&E was used as this was what some wholesalers stocked.

This use of white cable is sort of a grey area for me.

 

[pc1966]

There was a case recently on this forum with some low IR T&E in otherwise good looking condition, probably a crap make/batch though.

Also I recently IR tested a hired cabin after it tripped the RCD, trip was down to water getting in to an outdoor connector, but in doing so I found each circuit's L or N was showing 0.5M (or a little less) to E, and they could only be 5m or so of cable tops!

 

[nicebutdim]

There was a case recently on this forum with some low IR T&E in otherwise good looking condition, probably a crap make/batch though.

IIRC the cable with low IR discussed on this forum was grey. There have been a couple of Youtube videos about such cable, with Efixx recently focusing on the subject of 'fake' cable, but all the T&E involved was also grey

 

[nicebutdim]

These guys don't half churn out content - this is from late last year, but had to scroll back about 50 videos to find them!

 

[UNG]

I have, and most bizarrely! I'll have to dig through the archives to find a pic but 2-3 years ago a mate had a new problem in their (old) house that they'd been in for years and after some testing I'd narrowed it down to one cable that I could see both ends of, about 5m long and in visually perfect condition, not disturbed since installation many years earlier. After some headscratching and guestimation I peeled open a section of sheath to discover that there was a manufacturing break in the conductor, clearly a good couple of mm. There must have been enough of a bend or whatever at that point to have made the ends make contact and 'work' for the twenty odd years it had, but there was no signs of arcing etc. Most bizarre.

Didn't have an AFDD installed??
Is that evidence we do need them

 

[Rockingit]

Didn't have an AFDD installed??
Is that evidence we do need them

Now then.... go outside, say twenty Hail Mary's and never set foot in this hallowed place again.....

 

[robd]

The fact that a manager at a wholesaler should even think he knows about things that might happen in the regs before a time served electrician is depressing in its self and all that's wrong with the trade in my opinion

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I'd always understood (albeit from a layman's position) that PVC T&E was grey and LSF was white, but over time have read several discussions about white T&E having long been used in some areas of Southern England.
It's possible that this has always been LSF, but those discussions led me to believe otherwise. From what I could ascertain, white T&E was used as this was what some wholesalers stocked.

This is correct. Before LSF T+E was available, one could get both white and grey PVC and some wholesalers had both, I think grey was marginally cheaper but white was usually more suitable where visible.

 

[Dartlec]

This is correct. Before LSF T+E was available, one could get both white and grey PVC and some wholesalers had both, I think grey was marginally cheaper but white was usually more suitable where visible.

Are we talking 80s here? I assumed white was the norm switched to at some time in the 70s, right up until the colour change. Had no idea it was a regional issue - but literally every house I see with 80s on wiring is in white here (Kent/London) (including my own) - and pretty sure it's not all LSF....

 

[Zerax]

This is correct. Before LSF T+E was available, one could get both white and grey PVC and some wholesalers had both, I think grey was marginally cheaper but white was usually more suitable where visible.

I've still got half a reel of white PVC/PVC T&E in old colours...

 

[nicebutdim]

Are we talking 80s here? I assumed white was the norm switched to at some time in the 70s, right up until the colour change. Had no idea it was a regional issue - but literally every house I see with 80s on wiring is in white here (Kent/London) (including my own) - and pretty sure it's not all LSF....

I've never seen PVC T&E in any colour other than grey.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I've still got half a reel of white PVC/PVC T&E in old colours...

a sealed roll of old colour 2.5 sells for about £100 on eBay £££

 

[littlespark]

I see white t&e on a job where the rest is grey and I think “b&q diy job”

Certainly wasn’t lsoh.

 

[Dustydazzler]

You can’t get old colours in B&Q ?