Irish Electrical Epiphany

[the doctor]

Hello All.....

It has been a long journey as an electrician, almost 33 years unbroken....I moved to Ireland two years a ago now and started all over again.  I had to get an Irish regs book and go through a bit of a learning curve to follow all the little differences...Anyway that is not what tonight's post is about.

All the years I was at home in blighty, I would come across the rare job that was a death trap, warranting a pontificating moment down the local cafe or pub.  However, my eyes have been opened since my arrival in the emerald isle :innocent    I work for a firm in the North and in short the electrical installation standard there is dire.  I come across TT jobs with no RCD and bare parts, endlessly.  If you thought that was a bad, a small jaunt into the South opens up a fresh can of worms. Here, more or less every job is unfit for purpose.  Farmers have a habit of tagging shed onto shed and stating that the electrical work is 'barely worth paying for'

I have become a one man public avenger on the situation here.  On the plus side of working in Northern Ireland  there is one big advantage.  There is no Part P and no obligatory licence system like the South so I can operate legally as the Part P Doctor without an NVQ :B-

 

[steptoe]

doc,

I could take you to a wrap joint I done well over 20years ago that still serves an outside light perfectly well,

was done on a new build where one of the fire exits was moved a few feet, [and shoved up inside a cavity above a lintel]

 

[steptoe]

Is that some sort of drug term ? or place ?

its a well proven tried and tested method of jointing cables in a commercial environment in norn iron

 

[Andy™]

closest ive came to irish wiring is the NIE depot in craigavon....

 

[the doctor]

I shall go shopping now, but upon my return will regale you with the main differences between the installations (when the job is done properly that is)....

 

[the doctor]

OK, I am back :innocent

So, the differences and the list is not exhaustive.

Main switch must be single pole which makes IR testing to earth a hardship in respect of neutral disconnection...

There must be a main fuse in the board which is a german neozed or diazed 'coke bottle' type

Every house is 'neutralized' or in old money, has the main earth and neutral connected together like TNCS BUT must also have an earth electrode as well.

You cannot sleeve switch wires so twin brown is the order and so you cannot buy three core and earth here.  As a consequence of this, everyone wires two ways in the conventional way and do not know the conversion or chinese method...

If a lighting circuit is on an RCD you have to have an emergency fitting in the bathroom

All wiring must go in conduits down the wall

They frown on ring  circuits.... :facepalm:

1.0 mm twin and earth is banned 

There, let be enough for now!

Alan

 

[Sidewinder]

This is "down South" Doc?

 

[NozSpark]

IIRC my sister in laws husband (sparks in Eire) told me that they're only allowed something like 4 double sockets on a radial circuit,,, and yes, no rings

 

[the doctor]

This is "down South" Doc?

Yep, three miles up the road from me is the north and their work is as the UK.

 

[steptoe]

Opp north when I was an apprentice switch wires had to be twin red also, and all 2ways were wired conventionally, all drops in conduit too, council work specified big earth 1.5, ie. 1.5 cpc, no 1.0mm allowed.