Just received the latest special offers and cable-price flyers from BDC.

100m reels, 6242Y (twin & earth):

1.0mm £19.99
1.5mm £23.49
2.5mm £36.99

All plus V.A.T.

It doesn't seem that long ago that 2.5 was selling at less than the current 1.0 price.

I know we have the hikes in copper prices, but looking at the way prices went during the color-code changeover, is anyone else getting the feeling that the "harmonized" cables were also excuse to raise prices even further?



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 10-28-2006).]

Gidday Paul,
I usually use the larger sizes of Copper and above that Aluminium.
Prices are getting rediculous.
An alteration will be happening at work after Xmas where they will be doubling the size of the building, it already measures roughly 80 x 100m.
I told them last week to start saving for the cost of the cables and busbar work needed for a new Distribution Board and a few Sub-boards.

Oddly enough Paul,
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.
MM was taken over by General Cable a few years back and I'm not sure if they have factory tours these days, but it is something to see, the cables that you use being made.
It was an eye-opener.

Hi Paul, the prices you mention are alot cheaper than here in NZ.

Trumpy, I'd like to take our apprentices on a tour through the General Cables plant. I will check to see if they still do it.

LOL! I need to price up a rewire for a local store, nothing like that sort of size but it's still going to cost a fair amount (all will be done with singles in PVC conduit).

(There are the usual "interesting" wiring methods in there at the moment -- Keep a look out for photos coming soon! ).

Paul, I checked with our supplier today and a 100M drum of 2.5mm T&E is NZ$200. and thats about as cheap as it gets. After reading about UK prices I was starting to wonder if it's cheaper to import it from the UK to here !

Yikes! I make that almost double the price at the current exchange rate (£1 = N.Z. $2.84).

As we've discussed before, our T&E has a bare earth, but I hardly think that 100m of green/yellow insulation should make a N.Z. $100 difference!

kiwi,
You aren't talking about that Mitre 10 rubbish are you?.
I was talking to an Inspector recently and he tested 5m of it and it doesn't comply with the 600/1000V voltage rating, although it says so on the sheathing.

No Trumpy, thats the cable price from General Cables in ChCh.

Pauluk, the bare earth TPS cables were in use here in NZ too. Not anymore though. How come the UK still has them?

Paul BDC?

You got a web link to them. Working for the Goverment I can only buy from certain retailers. Unless I can put foward a good case to change supplier. ( and prove I am not getting a bung from them......red tape)

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 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.

http://www.bridisco.co.uk/

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.