On 30/06/15 16:44, Ash Burton wrote:

It depends on the current rating of the cable as to which fuse/mcb is
selected, you have to protect the cable not the light fitting.


And some absolute limits too...

a écrit :
Both off same fuse? If so I'd investigate more to see if its safe.

Likely/ hopefully they may have used a fused switch for the lighting?

a écrit :
Lights on a 13A fuse is not compliant. If lights are on their own cable you
could fit a 2nd FCU, so 13A feeds the sockets, and a 5A or 3A one feeds the
lights.

They would be, if all the cable feeding lighting circuit were rated for
13amp and the light itself suitable fused.

Andy Wade a écrit :
Yes to both points, also old lighting was commonly in 1/0.044 rather than
3/0.029 (so was single strand).

I found 3/0.029 to be much more common than 1/0.044. The later size was
never installed by the company I worked for, the reason being it was
much more fragile.

Dave Plowman (News) a écrit :
Complicated by the fact that from a quick read I can't see that anyone
has mentioned aluminium cable? Used to have a lot of that here.

Have heard of it but not personally come across it. It wasn't around for
that long.

I thought that period was around late 60's early 70's. Horrible stuff,
forced upon us by the copper shortages/ price, along with a whole new
section in the regs.

ARW a écrit :
Now the intersting thing (at least to me) is that the last lot of red,white
blue cable (no earth) I saw was in white PVC.

It was also stranded. White PVC of that age or indeed any age is rare where I
live.

I do back the regional suggestion.

White outer covering of PVC, was much beloved by the YEB of that era.

Dave Plowman (News) a écrit :
Before about 1970, lighting cable was mostly 3/0.029". Was there an earth
conductor present - and more to the point is it connected at both ends?
There was no requirement for an earth on lighting circuits in those days -
although the cable itself might have had one.

There was, but only usually where flourescent fittings were installed.

Where a normal light was swapped to flourescent, they would run a
separate earth wire - if you were lucky. Many were just installed
without an earth, by bodgers.

In article ,
Harry Bloomfield wrote:
a écrit :
Lights on a 13A fuse is not compliant. If lights are on their own
cable you could fit a 2nd FCU, so 13A feeds the sockets, and a 5A or
3A one feeds the lights.

They would be, if all the cable feeding lighting circuit were rated for
13amp and the light itself suitable fused.

No requirement to fuse individual lights on a lighting circuit, regardless
of the main fuse or MCB etc rating.

The MCB etc is merely to protect the actual wiring - not any fitting. And
even 1mm TW&E will blow a 13 amp fuse in event of a fault, before becoming
a fire risk.

--
*I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
ARW a écrit :
Now the intersting thing (at least to me) is that the last lot of
red,white blue cable (no earth) I saw was in white PVC.

It was also stranded. White PVC of that age or indeed any age is rare
where I live.

I do back the regional suggestion.

White outer covering of PVC, was much beloved by the YEB of that era.


But in this case only the srapper for the landing light was in white. The
rest was in grey.
--
Adam

On 30/06/2015 11:08, Robin wrote:
Complicated by the fact that from a quick read I can't see that anyone
has mentioned aluminium cable? Used to have a lot of that here.

For the OP: you can usually recognise aluminium cable 'cos it ain't
copper-coloured Was used in and about the 60s. Was house built or
required around then?

I just stripped some tinned copper off the side of my house. That's not
copper coloured...

(It was an old mains feed, which no-one had bothered to remove even
though it wasn't used any more)

Andy