On Tuesday, 21 October 2014 20:26:00 UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/10/2014 20:13, Uncle Peter wrote:



A woman just told me she had her house rewired because it hadn't been

done for 30 years. Have you ever bothered? I mean if it works, why not

just leave it? Wire doesn't rot.



The copper wire might not but the insulation around it certainly does -

Yes, and the rated lifetime of PVC cable is only 20 years - when run 24/7 at max load, and at rated ambient temperature. Unsurprisingly, it lasts quite a lot longer in normal conditions.

http://www.basec.org.uk/News/Basec-N...ancy-of-Cables

I replaced my old fuse board with a new CU/RCD/MCBS a few years ago. The wiring was nearly 30 years old, the IR was fine, and there were only two things wrong: a broken ring main CPC, due to a loose terminal in a socket (had probably never been done properly), and the undersized CPC - it was 1mm, which happens to be fine with MCBs, but doesn't satisfy the adiabatic eqn with rewirables.

That's the wire. I replaced plenty of socket fascias.