Meter Tails - Blue Sheath?

[Lynsey]

Hi

i've been told 25mm meter tails now have to be blue/blue? yet i can't find a supplier of 25mm blue/blue cable...

does anyone know if you're still allowed to use blue/grey & if you're not, where can I find blue/blue?

 

[malcolmsanford]

Can I ask who told you this.

Most tails now have the outer sheath in grey, but the inner sheath in blue. why is this not acceptable ?

 

[Mark_Burgess]

You can get a roll of blue tape for about £1, or for the "top spec" blue heatshrink.

 

[Lynsey]

our compliance manager, he states MOCOPA requirements. i had a look on their website & found this:

"A11.3 For single insulated cables, or the insulation of insulated and sheathed cable, the MOCOPA​

Operators, Distribution Businesses and UMetS providers shall use the following colours where they provide new or replacement cables.The insulation of the line conductors of a polyphase phase supply shall be either:a. all brown and marked L1, L2, L3 at both ends, orb. brown, black and grey and marked L1, L2, L3 at both ends.All neutral conductors shall have blue insulation and marked N at both ends.For conductors of less than 500mm in length and clearly visible throughout, marking at one end may be considered acceptable.A11.4 For insulated and sheathed cables the sheath may be the same colour as the insulation (as defined in A11.3). Where the sheath colour is not the same as the insulation, then it should be a colour other than brown, black, grey, blue, yellow, red, green or greenyellow, i.e. not any colour that is currently, or has historically, been used to identify line, neutral or earth conductors.​

 

[malcolmsanford]

our compliance manager, he states MOCOPA requirements. i had a look on their website & found this:

"A11.3 For single insulated cables, or the insulation of insulated and sheathed cable, the MOCOPA​

Operators, Distribution Businesses and UMetS providers shall use the following colours where they provide new or replacement cables.The insulation of the line conductors of a polyphase phase supply shall be either:a. all brown and marked L1, L2, L3 at both ends, orb. brown, black and grey and marked L1, L2, L3 at both ends.All neutral conductors shall have blue insulation and marked N at both ends.For conductors of less than 500mm in length and clearly visible throughout, marking at one end may be considered acceptable.A11.4 For insulated and sheathed cables the sheath may be the same colour as the insulation (as defined in A11.3). Where the sheath colour is not the same as the insulation, then it should be a colour other than brown, black, grey, blue, yellow, red, green or greenyellow, i.e. not any colour that is currently, or has historically, been used to identify line, neutral or earth conductors.​

Well that bit as certainly snookered you. I have to admit I can't remember ever seeing tails blue/blue

If they are short lengths these people do 30mm OD to custom length, but I bet not cheap

http://www.cablecraft.co.uk/ProductGrp/0007000e0011

Well as MOCOPA are meter fitters, and I personally have only ever seen gray/blue tails, they have either never issued blue/blue to their guys, or every meter is installed against their recommendations

 

[Mark42]

How typical of bureaucratic regulators to insist, by regulation, on using a product which does not exist.

As Mark Burgess said, blue shrink-fit might be the way to go. ‘Mister shrink’ and others on EBay have a good selection at fair prices, in mixed bags, and often the bigger stuff in single colours sold by the metre.

BTW, I use an EBay chef's blowtorch to shrink it. A brilliant piece of kit!

 

[High Tower]

Western power and Eon meter fitters in the west midlands are using brown/brown and blue/blue so it must be available from somewhere

 

[BigBreakfast]

I too have seen these installed in small ind unit by Scottish power, had to look twice because I initially thought they had installed single insulated tails!

 

[vernam616]

We do a lot of domestic new build and seen this quite regular for the past few years

By the sounds it only applies to the meter fitters/distribution and not ourselves as electricians following bs7671

A reason possibly maybe because they will now train anyone to fit meters, so making sure colours are identified better/easier ...basically dumbing it down

 

[ruston]

Not quite what you are looking for but a quick google turned this up. I'm sure they will be able to help you out.6381Y Cable Generally to BS6004

 

[Rockingit]

Me too, have seen them recently down here - Br/Br and Blu/Blu. But then I've also had DNO guys scrounging bits of 'grey' 25mm off me too when they've not had on the van, so can't be THAT big a deal.

 

[Guest111]

get some letter tape like the board uses you know the stuff comes with either l1 l2 l3 or neutral on it then if boss says anything tell him it,s in case people don,t understand what the colours mean.Anyway thought you had to be a competant person to work on wiring these days so arguement 2 is if they cant understand the obvious sounds like they aren,t competant,or does your boss not live in our world?you could always tell him it,s 5 times more expensive,he,d probably go off the idea then.

 

[Tuttle]

I bought some 25mm tails a few months ago and when they came they were blue/blue and brown/brown, I think that I got them from Fastlec, if I remember correctly (I can check later if that helps).

 

[HandySparks]

Yet another reason why they never should have changed from red, yellow, blue, black, gn/yw! Don't think I'll ever get to like the new colours.

 

[Tuttle]

I bought some 25mm tails a few months ago and when they came they were blue/blue and brown/brown, I think that I got them from Fastlec, if I remember correctly (I can check later if that helps).

They were Fastlec part no.s 6181Y25SPLITBLU & 6181Y25SPLITBRN. The picture on their website shows grey sheaths but when I ordered from them the cable they delivered had blue or brown sheaths (the description on their website doesn't actually specify the sheath colour). Might be worth phoning and asking them about it if you really must have coloured sheaths.