When going through the old MM Cables plant in Christchurch here a few years back, I was told that it makes no difference what colour the insulation is, they made cable to a given spec, that being Insulation Resistance and Sheath Quality.
I don't reckon it
should make much difference, if any, but when the "harmonized" cables first appeared here they were more expensive than the normal types. I figured it might be just because they were only being manufactured in small quantities at first, but even once they were in "full swing" the prices still seemed to be quite a bit more than traditional red/black cables.
the bare earth TPS cables were in use here in NZ too. Not anymore though. How come the UK still has them?
The earths in T&E have always been bare here, although for a good few years now the Regs. have specified that they should be sheathed with green/yellow insulation where exposed from stripping the outer sheath.
Paul BDC?
You got a web link to them.
I find BDC to be good on prices, but they often have significant "holes" in the range of items they carry. I think they must operate on a policy of dropping anything which doesn't sell in sufficiently large quantities to keep the price way down.
For example, 6491X singles: 1.5 & 2.5 available in brown, blue, green/yellow, but no black or gray. 4mm is available only in green/yellow, but 6mm is brown, blue, and g/y. Metal-clad switches & sockets (commercial types, not fancy decorative) are also thin on the ground, with Micromark and Powerlektrick single/double 13A sockets, and some switches and FCUs, but no 4-gang switches, no MK grid range, etc.
