I agree preferred when live was red stood out for warning.

I'm literally waiting for him to say wishing you a pleasant flight !!

Yes would agree I was actually thinking about that several videos back I found enough to know the phone a few times a year at least for many years and almost expecting the airline Chimes to be playing in the background here and Aaron video as well. And by the way the meeting of those chimes varies from airline to Airline so if it means one thing if you're on one Airline and may not mean the same on the other to put out the rest people keep asking that and wondering all the time. Also imma dyr that does things to code and I words to byr that knows the trade and jack of all trades that knows the trade although I know my limits and wouldn't do anything I wasn't comfortable doing as well you have to know your limits with certain types of projects in terms of safety and otherwise and legality in some cases it helps to know the regs and codes beforehand also I would never slap something together that should not be done and if I run into things that are not white I like whoever or no that something needs to be done especially if things were extremely dangerous also I Maddie why are that does things to code enough words to be why I are that knows the trade and Jack wall trains that knows to trade although I know my limits and one do anything I wasn't comfortable doing as well you have to know your limits with certain types of projects intercept safety and otherwise and legality in some cases it helps to know the rags and codes beforehand also I would never slept something together that should not be done in and if I run into things that are not white I might whoever know that something needs to be done especially if things are extremely dangerous which I have on acrossed numerous times there's some things I don't even touch when I see it One of the things I always check if there is any fuses in the system first bypassed fuses such as wire going between a fuse and hot second pennies behind Edison screw base fuses and yes seen it plenty of times. Also occasionally I run across this but not very often with cartridge fuses let's just call them battle short fuses military term I know but I'm not military but I know what they are they had a specific purpose look up battleshort you'll see what I'm talking about Wikipedia let you know that. But what I'm referring to is battleshort fuses in this case would be a conductive objects Jeremy light tubing or other things shoved into a fuse holder that's around about the same size and shape as the said fuse. Also including what people would call widow-makers Aka a rifle cartridge in a fuse holder and in the case of small fuses such as the glass or ceramic 1in 1/4 inch by quarter inch fuse a 22 cartridge. I know Jhene Sarah's are going to say if there was an overload it would just damage to wiring nothing would happen with the rifle cartridge well not the case saw the aftermath of rifle cartridge then uses a fuse on severe overload once. It was unknown to the people that stayed there that that was in the fuse box. Kablooey basically there was fragments of everything everywhere. Gerald Lee where I've seen the Widowmaker would be the 22 cartridge in a glass fuse holder in a piece of equipment or Automotive or something like that. Also I've heard people joke about that bass. Battleshort ears as well and yes people in military into doing that in a pinch. But of course not telling anyone. Some even have used a spent cartridge as well. I've just been told this by others so can't substantiate and sometimes they just laughed and said oh what we call battleshort is what you might call Widowmaker joking myself so some of it's probably serious probably so it's not hard to say though. Also with the copper clad wire we have that here in the states as well AKA United States of America United We stand and all that jazz but right now not so much on freedoms constitutional rights imbalance of power if you know what I'm talkin about I was reluctant to say this but it needs to be said!!!! Comment if you have any comments to make will read them may reply.

@@aaronbrandenburg2441 what?

@Ian Mangham That's not for you to know.

+Luke Den Hartog K&T has the advantage that it was done back in the day when people had pride in their workmanship so it's usually well installed :)

Mine still worked to this day without any issues, so I guess it worked (aside from everything in the house using a switchmode supply giving you a tingle)

that is until somebody cuts into it and reverses the polarity and wires it to a 3 prong plug.........

Our terraced house built in 1880 still had lead sheathed cables when we bought it in 1989, also little metal junction boxes that used to spark if you moved them! The incoming supply was also two cores in some kind of woven fabric - it was changed quickly one morning when it started to burn like a fuse working its way to the house. Happy days 🙂

That stuff wasn't that bad when new - but after decades it all dries out and crumbles to dust. Wiring from that era only had a 25 year lifespan, and it was expected to be replaced after a couple of decades.

The rubber insulation crumbled, but the wire nuts were typically just fine (modulo the copper patinating :-)

+DjResR Weird. One would think that this would have been a sort of thing the Soviets would have been really efficient standardizing in. Old Finnish color scheme btw was black (primary), green and yellow for phases, white or gray for neutral and red for PE (usually not used), but things were far from standard. In non-earthed or PEN systems for example, red was routinely used as the third conductor in places like stairway circuits or electrical outlets under light switches.

+Zeal Ashwar Yes they used copper clad steel for the overhead dropwires for phones for years (due to the tensile strength). Nasty stuff to strip because it's quite hard steel (bit like piano wire!). Quite often it's sole job in life is to stab you. The insulation often becomes porous and if the inner steel is exposed due to the copper plating not being complete, you can end up with a rust filled tube of copper foil as your conductor! If you ever get an external line fault on the circuit, make sure they replace it, as the stuff's not even twisted pair (it's usually a figure 8), it will indeed b*gger up broadband.

+TheChipmunk2008 I dream of better broadband. It's 30 feet away beneath the footpath outside my house but they won't complete the faster connection. You couldn't make it up! Cheers for that though. I remember seeing the steel/copper mix many years ago when collecting scrap metal for my dad (I was a child). I gave him some and he swore at it haha!

+Colin Herbert Yes, the earth will only carry current under fault conditions and then only for a very short time, unlike the main conductors which are designed to carry the full current all the time.

Good points on the aluminum and protective earth conductor, thanks. But re "soldering the end of a muticore wire before screwing it into a plug is a very bad move": nope, the screw contacts should be tightened up enough that they bite into the copper (the tin's much softer), and the copper won't creep. Of course, I'm assuming that the wire's (correctly) tinned, rather than that there's a large blob of solder :-)

+9ff70f96 +9ff70f96 The examples were all stripped with a knife, no special tools there. Green slime video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mreWf7t53MuopmQ.html

Tom OConnor depressing other not, at least colour blind people can tell the difference easily enough

jw mentions the brown black and grey being difficult to distinguish in low light but ive found the blue and brown to be equally difficult in low light, they all look the same

@@TheTomco11 That is a myth. Colour blindness was the reason for using a green/yellow earth as green and red look very similar if you are colour blind. This has nothing to do with the other colours.

Not really - 1.0mm² clipped to a surface is rated to 16 amps, and even the worst possible conditions (totally surrounded by thick insulation) would only reduce that by 50%, so it's still well above the 6A circuit breaker normally used for lighting circuits. Voltage drop might be an issue, but the circuit would have to be exceptionally long and with a rather high load - neither of which is likely in a typical house.

That's interesting, it does seem OTT to use 1.5mm then, thanks

+111kenni Obtaining examples of lead covered cable is difficult, because it is over 70 years since it was used.

Haha college question? Look in bs7671 ;)

+Michael Thomas Between 2 and 5, depending on size.

thanks guys... they havent provided me with BS7671 yet, but found out that it's 5kg from 1.0 mm2 to 1.5mm2

I split it into two 16a circuits 👌

Depends on the heater and the function of the black wire - it's probably a control or pilot wire so that multiple heaters can be controlled from a single location. You will need to check the instructions for that particular heater, guessing is not an option.

@@jwflame sadly not an option. If I could send a photo I would.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hZ5ng81e19DVook.html

+meandmymouth Use of the ring final is still commonplace in new installations and it still in BS7671. Radials are used where appropriate.

+meandmymouth Most modern cables are marked with the number of cores and size, but older ones may not be. It's also a problem when you have a short piece as the markings are typically only repeated every metre or so.

in the US a couple NEC revisions ago they started specifying wire size with a color. white=14AWG, yellow=12AWG, orange=10AWG and black=8?AWG. this is mainly to help inspectors verify correct sizes for circuits, however it makes picking wire off-the-shelf a lot easier to ( Or for that matter out of my piled in the basement ).

Probably 1970s, although different manufacturers do make variations of 'standard' cables so it's not straightforward to date things just by their construction. Even today, it's possible to buy things like 2.5mm² T&E with stranded conductors rather than the more common solid ones.

+Graham Langley 4mm can be used on 32A radials in some circumstances (MCB or cartridge fuse). It does not comply on a 30A rewireable fuse.

+Graham Langley That should be ECC of course.

As far as I'm aware, no half-decent manufacturer would use aluminium conductors in flexible cables. Are you sure it's not tinned copper?

Making the colours the same across Europe, and more specifically that neutrals are always blue. The process actually started in the 1970s with appliance flex, but it took several decades before it was applied to fixed wiring.

Bill Carr Hey john its against an electricians nature to ever educate people on electrical systems... But the way I see it creates more work for us lol choc boxes with an access panel , is the cheapest way but you can use any type of joint as long as you can access it . And it will always be regarded as a new point on the circuit.

It was for a few years in the 1950s, although it may have been polythene rather than PVC. There were various combinations such as rubber / polythene and polythene / PVC, with names like Capothene and Ashothene.

Thanks, at least i wasn't hallucinating as everyone else i mentioned this to said there was no such thing.

Yes, available from most electrical suppliers, one example: www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/23827-20a-23swg-fuse-wire-100g 20A is rarely used, as the minimum cable size with rewireable fuses is 4mm², unlike cartridge fuses and circuit breakers which can have 2.5mm² for a 20A circuit.

Not allowed now, and never was.

@@jwflame Thank you.

It's most commonly used for a cable to a switch, which has line and switched line. Cable with two brown cores & earth is available, but it's far more usual to just use cable with blue and brown cores, and put brown sleeving over the ends of the blue core to identify it as the switched line. Regulations require that wires are identified by the correct colour, sleeving is the most common option, although others such as coloured tape are also permitted. It's just a PVC tube of about 3mm diameter, supplied in large lengths and cut to whatever size is required, such as www.toolstation.com/shop/p29947 Brown is the most common, previously it was red for use with black/red cables. Blue is used to identify the neutral where a 3 core and earth cable is used, this is usually supplied with black, grey and brown cores, and can be used for various purposes including line, switched line and neutral for things like extractor fans with built in timer. Black and grey are colours used to identify separate phases in 3 phase wiring, sleeving can be used there if desired although most 3 phase installations use cables/wires with the correct colour already, so sleeves of those colours are rarely used for anything.

Only options are to rewire the circuit to include an earth connection, or replace the metal switches with plastic ones.

OK provided it is just minor damage. Cuts or sliced sections would not be acceptable.

Depends on the property but 16mm and 25mm is common on new installations. Older ones may be smaller.

+Simon Parkinson Do they leave toothmarks on the plastic where they grip the cable? C.K Automatic Wire Strippers 495001 (or similar copies of the same patent) also work very well on flat cables, but they do leave marks. In the videos the cables were perfect so John is clearly using something else.

+stefantrethan Yes a little but they tend to fade. You can make a shallow incision with a Stanley knife around the sheath and with some care slide the blade along the earth stopping just short of the incision. the sheath will then separate cleanly where it has been scored.

If it was all in good condition with no signs of damage or decay, then it could be a C3. However being able to inspect all of it is typically impossible as it will be inside walls/ceilings/floors. Rubber insulated cable had a 25 year lifespan when new, and it hasn't been made or installed as fixed wiring for well over 50 years. Any installation which has significant amounts of it is life expired, and it wouldn't be worthwhile for the owner to pay for an EICR on it - that money would be better spent on rewiring. Installations from that long ago won't have a CPC for lighting circuits either.

@@jwflame yes I agree it's almost impossible to inspect properly for damage. However, based on the default limitation in regards to cables within the fabric of the building, if electrical readings are sound and the inspected ends are in good condition and it's only supplying a single hall socket I think that would be ok, as the EICR is only for stating facts of the condition and I cannot prove it's physically damaged without causing damage to the fabric of the building. I did an EICR recently and it appears that there are bits added and rectified previously. Other than that the only thing I found wrong was the rubber cable.

Yes to 70C thermoplastic insulated, however multiple cores not a single core.

It was fairly common in the 1950s. The earth is most likely tinned copper. Insulation may be polyethylene rather than PVC, various different plastics were used in the 1950s/1960s before PVC became the standard choice.

pilotsmoe for outlets at least, in the UK we use a ring circuit rather than radial. Each ring has a 32A fuse/breaker and the wire is only 2.5mm^2

Yes, I was thinking of that. I grew up in an old house which was full of leaded lighting cables - I remember putting my neon testing screw driver on the casing to see it glow as live - the inner insulation just feel apart as dust if disturbed . I guess the layers of paint kept us from being electrocuted.

Could be either as both sizes are stranded. 16mm² would be an unusual choice for an electric shower, 10mm² is more likely.

Probably an older cable sized in inches, what was described at the time as 3/.036 where 3 was the number of wires and 0.036 was the diameter of each wire in inches. Approximately equivalent to 2.0mm². The earth wire / CPC in that cable was usually 1/.044 which would be a diameter of 1.12mm, however some manufacturers of cables did use other sizes.

@@jwflame thanks for the reply. I bought 2.5mm^2 6242Y cable. Do you have any concerns with using this 6242Y to extend the current cable by 60mm?

+ChompChompNomNom The wires can be extended using suitable connectors, provided there is space in the box behind the socket.

+Andrew Joy Flex was red/black/green, it was changed to brown/blue/greenyellow in 1971. Fixed wiring remained as red/black for decades after that and was only changed 10 years ago.

+John Ward ahh so that's why I had 1970s in my head . I remember in school in the 80s learning BRown BR= bottom right and so on as you still had to lean it in school then I assumed that twin earth was changed at the same time . I wonder if that's why they chose the colours .

+TestECull I believe the theory is the rcd/gfi will pop before the wire heats up. The trade off the wires size is based on heat / resistance. So its probably ok on a rcd protected circuit. Smaller wire = higher resistane = more heat. So you could run 1000s of amps though a small gauge wire for a short time... Voltage drop also happens but wanted to keep it short.

KingOfKYA Might be that I'm from a country where RCD-protected main circuits are abnormal, then. We don't have ring mains or RCDs in our fuse boxes over here so having a hefty ground/earth is pretty much mandatory. It's perfectly plausible that a device could fail internally, in just the right way, where the load dumps its return to the earth instead of the neutral. Such a failure would probably be completely unnoticed as the device would otherwise function normally, wouldn't pop the breaker. We have RCDs, but usually built into the sockets themselves and fitted only where the device plugged in could find itself taking a swim. Bathrooms, outdoor sockets, generally speaking there's no RCD in our walls. Often, bathroom appliances in particular are double-RCD, because there's so many bathrooms lacking RCD sockets in America that they're mandated to be in the plug itself as well. My house is 40+ years old and the sockets in my bathrooms all predate the standard change, so it's necessary for me.

here in the uk twin & earth with a smaller earth than live core has been around long before rcds became common

+David Ellis he said 10.8, :)

Oops! That makes more sense...

David Ellis a shower uses the full power of 1.8kw constantly whilst it's on where as an oven uses around 3kw but over a longer period off time. The oven can be on all day but a shower can't if u want to save electric . I hope this helps.

@@danielmeegan9677 Not really helpful. an instantaneous 1.8 kW shower would be useless, raising the temperature only a couple of degrees. And ovens often stay on for hours at a time (Christmas roast) whereas it would be rare to shower for more than 15 mins at a time.