Inside a modern British home electrical panel.

Large cables are stranded for improved flexibility, but smaller core sizes like 1, 1.5 and 2.5mm tend to be solid.

Big Clive

What about the wires going out to the actual outlets? Are they stranded or solid? In the US system, the power coming into the box from the outside transformer will be stranded but everything else in the box is almost always solid core wire. Our system is much like the Netherlands/Germany buss boxes that Robin described.

See, that! More of that! :D

mikenco

Here in the Netherlands (and Germany/Belgium) our company uses a much simpler system by ABB called busboard where both the neutral and live bus bars are integrated onto the DIN rail. There are versions for single phase split down the middle (for 2 RCDs), 3-phase and other combinations. The breakers connect using a sort of spade connectors on the back, very neat and extremely modular in the field. Also I would never use an unisolated bus bar, always the correct size one without exposed metal.

Earth rods are quite an interesting subject. The main purpose is not just to provide a return path for fault current at a high enough level to trip an RCD (in TT systems) but also to bring the surrounding ground close to the potential of the house metalwork to reduce the risk of shock between them by creating an equipotential zone.

Big Clive

In this series, I'd be interested to hear earth bonding and ground spikes explained in your usual level of depth! Our sparky put an earth spike in the ground near our garage because the one at the front was too far away from the consumer unit in the garage/office.

mikenco

It depends on the system. The most common is a TNCS system where the earth and neutral are combined in a single conductor and then split at the entrance to each home. It does pose a huge risk if the neutral/earth conductor goes high resistance, which can happen at every single splice point. My local system is TT where we just get live and neutral and use an earth rod to provide enough of a fault path to trip an RCD/GFI.

Big Clive

Do you bond Earth and Neutral at the service entrance like we do? If not, I wonder if it's because It's three phases split up to a phase per house. If there's a break on the neutral in a place that still has 2+ houses tied together, you can get voltage potential across the phases through the neutral connecting the houses.

Bill

Just complete isolation and for testing I guess. Even on a three phase DB that looks very similar to yours - but has three phases has the isolation on the neutral. The earth/ground is separate though.

Big Clive

Whats the reasoning for running the neutral through the main isolator? It's not something we do in the USA so wondering why it's done in the UK.

Bill

After trying to get it sorted via phone from Austria before the freezer thawed out, I decided RCBO's would just make life less stressful!

Phil Collins

I've just changed my DB for the same reason. Every so often I'd get a spate of trips that I think were due to insect egress. It's now divided into two groups with the option of further subdividing.

Big Clive

Our tightfisted builders installed one with only a single RCD, so when we got an earth/neutral issue out in the garage, everything would trip, typically when we weren't there. The replacement has RCBO's after that experience. The issue was a small army of woodlice in a junction box in the end!

Phil Collins

“Split phase”

Michael Gilchrest

The center wire is the neutral conductor and the other two are legs of 120v and between the two legs you get 240v.

Michael Gilchrest

I did get an email notification with the link included. Your DBs look like out three phase panels.

Big Clive

Yea, gotta live with it I guess. It seems like it deletes links...

Michael Gilchrest

It used to be a four year apprenticeship with one day a week spent at technical college learning the theory for three of those years. Unfortunately, vested interests including a fake electrical approval organisation (actually a marketing company) have used propaganda to create a protection racket called Part P and push people through training as fast as possible to get as much cash as they can.

Big Clive

Another slight annoyance with Patreon. Auto posting if you accidentally nudge the enter key mid sentence.

Big Clive

I've not worked out why Patreon deletes some posts. If you edit a post it seems to disappear. I've never deleted a single post from Patrei

Big Clive

A dangerous money making scheme that has caused electrical standards in the UK to plummet. The confidence inspired by their instant certificate has resulted in much more than domestic work being done.

Big Clive

The front cover has a notable provision for earthing in the form of bare metal and aggressive spring washers that literally gouge into the metal when you put the cover on. I made the video just before using it to replace my old Wylex fuse box. Also a good opportunity to do some wiring integrity tests.

Big Clive

Clive you started to talk about the 6A lighting breaker on each RCD bus bar. I think you were going to mention having some lighting on one side and some on the other but I think you got side tracked. Maybe you could add that on the end. :-) One other thing.... How does the lid get its earth termination ? I didn't see a jumper wire with a Lucar connector or anything. Is there a screw terminal on the front panel ? If not you only have the screws for grounding the front of the unit.

LOL Dont start Clive and others on part P and 5 days to certified, The whole thing is a total joke. Its just a money making scheme !

Wait, did you say that it only takes 5 days to be "trained" to be an electrician in the UK? It takes 4 years as an apprentice in the US (in my state at least) with many hours of training classes. I am a low volt electrician (telephone, alarm, and audio) and it's a minimum of 2 years as an apprentice for just that.

Brodeur

Do links get auto deleted?

Michael Gilchrest

No requirement of gfci an every circuit, the main switch has over-current protection, and the buss is permanently affixed to the “metal” box. Our standard service is 120/240 - 200 amps.

Michael Gilchrest

People still try to plug heaters into a 20 amp circuit with less than stellar results...

Michael Gilchrest

Here is some US panels “in the wild” for reference:

Michael Gilchrest

Just need to look at some all electric houses in the US. My friends furnace has a 75amp breaker for each phase.

It's quite useful. It lets us have 3kW appliances like washing machines, tumble driers, heaters and kettles that plug into any socket in the home.

Big Clive

In the UK it used to be a four year apprenticeship with day release to technical college one day a week for three of those years. Unfortunately a profit motivated organisation pushed for a licensing system for anyone doing electrical work (they're making millions) and it opened the floodgates for presentations that last between 1 and 5 days and give full electrical certification. Electrical standards have plummeted as a result.

Big Clive

You have some hefty circuits across the pond. The largest breaker in my house is 20 amps, and that's at just 120 volts.

Had to go have a look at my board now... Interestingly it's all the fuses with built in RCD, but only the kitchen and bathroom actually has ground to the sockets and lights (which is normal here in in Norway). The board is only a couple of years old, but most of the rest of the electrical system is original from 1974 so it might have been what came with the board or something. Your British system seems more complicated to learn than ours, yet you need two years of school and two years as an apprentice to become an electrician here.

Thor Syvertsen

Interesting fact, in the Netherlands all fuses (must) have a switched neutral. Thus having an insulated busbar containing live and neutral. In Great Britain you use those distribution blocks for the neutral.

Frank

Now if you had European and American panels to compare, it would be VERY interesting.

Rocco Rizzo

Thanks Clive.

Nuts 'n' Proud

Thanks again great video (s). You should have been a teacher! Cheers mate.

Thanks Clive.

Nuts 'n' Proud

We tend to size our cables here as csa (cross sectional area) in millimetres. Typically for up to a 100A unit it would be around 25mm CSA.

Big Clive

It's grounded to the metal case, but floating in the older plastic cases.

Big Clive

Is the din rail itself grounded or is it just floating?

Lostngone

Canadian standards such as GFCI/RCD may be similar but the panel layouts are considerably different due to the split phase design and twin 120v bus bars. Was interesting looking at a panel in Honk Kong which was the ABB variety. Interesting approach but safe, with the minor annoyance of loosing half the circuits when the RCD trips. A faulty Washing machine dryer heater circuit was a cause of this.

Vaughn B.

Overall not much different than Canadian standards. What gauge is that wire? We would have 10, 12 or 14 gauge solid wire in a panel normally.

Ah, the good old British General consumer unit. Very common because it's the main one that Screwfix sell. It's exactly the same one I used in my workshop.

evilution