hello fellow sparks,,, came across this forum so thought i would join,,

so hello USA hows it hangin??

oh my name is not cornwall,, thats where i live..

look forward to many a discussion

Paul

Paul, welcome. The world is getting smaller. You may have noticed the moderator of the Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades forum at E-C.net has a handle of "pauluk". There is quite a bit of daily traffic in that group, too.

I second the welcome Paul.

Roger

Welcome aboard!

Looking forward to your participation!


Bill

Howdy Paul!! :

Hello from South Dakota!

Welcome Paul.

Hello from Philadelphia.

Welcome and hello from Georgia.

Russell

greasings and lubrications from the PA dutch country, steam powered railroad!

TW

Hi Paul, and welcome to ECN.

Which part of the county are you in? Just curious, as I used to live in Cornwall years ago in a small village between Redruth and Truro.

good grief!
where's Paul Revere when ya need him?

Welome from Vermont

~Steve aka sparky

Gidday Paul!.
Welcome to ECN, mate.

Paul,
How did you find ECN?.
Just curious.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-22-2003).]

Greetings from Minnesota!!

well thanx for all those hello's look forward to chating

Hi

I'm in St Ives where are you ?

Chris

i live in launceston... in the big smoke..

been here for 4 years..came here for the easy life but got to busy and now i am really stressed..
there is so much work here its untrue...

message for paul,, yes i know goonhilly, worked there for a couple of days in the visiter centre,, fixing there show,,

Hello Paul,
Welcome aboard! What is the standard voltage in homes in England. Do you follow the National Electrical code there, or do they have their own?

hello sjt... we always say our voltage is 240.. but they are trying to harmonize with europe.. so we have dropped to 230v and they have gone up to 220v ( i think ) thing is when you put you voltmeter across the mains it still seems to read 240v..

we have our own regulations,, BS5371.. thats british standard.. written in gobbely gook..

cable colours are.. live red... neutral.. black... earth... green and yellow

in flex they are live.. brown..blue...neutral,,, earth... green and yellow

Greetings Paul from Harold in New Jersey. I think my state was named after a British Island named Jersey.

It's actually BS7671, IEE Wiring Regulations.

SJT,
Nominal voltages for residential single-phase used to vary between about 220 and 250V depending upon area, but it was all standardized at 240V by the early 1970s.

Now, however, the U.K. has officially adopted the new "Euro-standard" of 230V, but it's more political than practical as yet. Have a look at this thread in the non-U.S. area.

whoops your right,, i think i must have had to much lager before i wrote that,, only been doing the job for 25 years...

Is that 224-240 across 2 hotlegs. Is it 110v from one leg to ground?

Nope, 230V to ground. 400V phase to phase. (3-phase is the only system used)

Hi, not a sparky myself in the USA. But I've heard some descriptions of wiring in the UK, something to the effect that a house is wired using a loop of wire. And that each outlet has a switch and a fuse. And that the total current allowed by the fuse or circuitbreaker is about twice that of the ampacity of the wire used in the loop. Idea being that each outlet "sees" a pair of sets of wire back to the source. Like a 40 amp breaker protecting a loop of AWG 12 gauge wire. The NEC code says no using parallel wires. Like what happens if there is a break in the loop, and an outlet pulls 35 amps (the remaining wire will get roasted).

Or do I have it wrong?

You're quite correct. The standard "ring circuit" here is protected by a 30 or 32A fuse or breaker, and is generally wired with 2.5 sq. mm cable -- That's just fractionally larger than #14 AWG. There's some more information here:
Rings circuits UK style
Ring circuits revisited .

Feel free to come on over to the non-U.S. area and start a new thread if you wish.


You will actually find a few single-phase transformers in rural areas where there are just one or two houses standing on their own. But yes, as soon as there's any sort of group of houses you'll see a 240/415V 3-phase 4-wire wye distribution system.




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-20-2003).]

How are the methods in England? Do you use romex, and BX cable? Is coduit ran in the walls?

Sorry about the way I spelled Conduit. Slip of the key

SJT,

I've started a new thread in the non-U.S. electrical area of the forum. Just click on this link:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000346.html