Tim S wrote:
Andrew Gabriel coughed up some electrons that declared:

In article ,
Tim S writes:
I've just cut off and made safe a bit of T+E dangling between the trees,
feeding some gate lights.

I would estimate it to be about 10-15 years old. It wasn't brittle but
the sheath was noticably harder than it should have been. Don't know how
much longer it would be before it became dangerously hardend, but it was
well on its way.

The PVC round conduit on the last leg to the bulkhead fittings shattered
when I touched it with the strimmer cord (hence the urgency in
disconnecting the circuit) - that was very very brittle.

So yes, sunlight does very much affect PVC, from first hand experience.
I've known a number of lengths of PVC T&E exposed to sunlight,
some of them older than me and dating back almost to the introduction
of PVC wiring. None have deteriorated noticably (unlike me).


Wonder why the variance?...

My PVC was white, whatever difference that might make...

There are numerous makers of PVC cable, and they are not all then same
even when new. Some are much softer to strip and cut than others for
example. Most of them are affected by sunlight in some way, but to what
extent varies. Very few will harden so much as to become brittle enough
to shed insulation all by themselves, however after prolonged exposure,
they may become more succeptable to damage when hit or bent. Some will
basically remain as they were when new and just get a bit stiffer.

The main problem with T&E outside is it is not strong enough to bury
directly, and is not that well suited to hanging from a support wire.
Running it in conduit (even plastic) is fine in many cases. It will
usually be ok clipped to a wall on its own.

What you need to watch is that inappropriate use of it is not also an
indication of a lashup in other respects - like inadequate earth fault
protection, or exporting a house earth in inappropriate circumstance.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/