- I've got breaking news for you
this morning as a result of a message we had in
from Andrew in Cambridge,
who's a keen follower of the channel
and always an active contributor.
Makes a few mistakes now and again,
but we'll not hold that against him.
There is a brand new cable standard
coming in next year, BS 12712:2024.
It does apply to England and Wales
for all residential properties.
Scotland, as they do, they always like to plow
a slightly different furrow up there.
They're gonna go down a different route,
which we'll come back to later in the video.
But you've had a sneak peek
of this cable in the wild, Gary, haven't you?
- Yeah, under an NDA, I got to go out
and see a whole housing estate being wired with this cable,
and it was mentally refreshing to see it going in
because of the features it's got.
- Yeah, and the first thing that people will notice
compared to a standard BS6004 cable
is that the earth wire in there
is now fully insulated in this new cable.
- So those people on Instagram that love a little bit of
baggy sleeving are gonna be groaning,
because the earth is already covered in its PVC.
What else has happened to that earth?
- Yeah, so they've beefed it up, Gary.
It's the same size as the live conductors.
- Okay, so I'm cheering now,
because that means no more adiabatic equation
to work out whether you can carry that fault current.
- Yeah, and if you spot it here-
I mean, you can see it here,
there's the fully insulated there.
So yeah, none of that sleeving, and it is that full size.
Now, the other thing, this white cable,
doesn't mean it's the old ones.
Used to be in the past, when you used to see white,
you used to think DIY,
didn't you? - B&Q.
- [Gordon] Yeah, B&Q.
It's actually because now
all cables will have to be low smoke and fume,
which we've had in Ireland for a while.
But now, obviously, as we get more harmonized
from our friends in Europe, who we still do speak to,
it's now fire that makes a difference, doesn't it, Gary?
- [Gary] It does and I was down at Doncaster Cables,
and I did that in a different video,
and sneaky people might have just worked out
what I was doing down there.
We were actually doing it as part of the trial here.
You could clearly see the gray stuff
gives off that black, dense smoke,
but the non-halogen stuff, obviously,
that we're now moving towards doesn't.
- Yeah, and obviously we're getting more fire aware.
Some of the subtle differences in the standards here
become harmonized with Europe.
In Europe, you can't get a one millimeter twin and earth
and that's been rolled into this new standard,
which I was a little bit disappointed on,
'cause I think lighting loads are going down
and yet now we've brought in-
the smallest cable you'll be able to get in this
is a 1.5 millimeter squared.
- Yeah, but if you think about it
and look at those conductors,
strictly speaking, after we've had many conversations
with people in higher positions than us,
that all the conductors should be
classed as live conductors.
We know how much current is being carried
by the protective conductor, hence the insulation.
But of course, that raises the temperature of the conductors
and therefore increases the conductor size,
hence the one mil's gone.
- Yeah, and just to chip back to those baggy sleeving fans,
just because it's a fully insulated earth wire,
you can't sleeve it over with a different color
and use it as a phase conductor.
Just put that one out there.
I can see people already starting to think about that.
The other thing, obviously, one hand takes away,
another hand giveth back.
There is now also a 25-millimeter squared
twin and earth cable.
- [Gary] And that makes logical sense.
How many times have we opened up those meter cabinets
and we've seen in there an isolator and switch
because, obviously, the consumer unit, fuse board,
distribution board, whatever you wanna call it,
is, say, in the middle of the property?
And, obviously, that cable,
we've seen long tails going out there.
Can't be longer than three meters.
They're breaking those rules.
16-millimeter squared twin and earth cables,
but now we've got the luxury of having 100 amp
and the 25-mil.
- Yeah, now, obviously, the thing people think,
"Ooh, that extra wire, it's gonna add some
additional dimension to the cable."
Now, it might do in the 25-millimeter one
'cause number one, it doesn't exist at the moment.
But when you look at the conventional cables,
you know, we've got a six-millimeter one here,
comparing it to the existing BS6004 cable.
They are very dimensionally similar
and that's because the outer-
the insulation on the inner conductor is XLPE,
so it was a little bit narrower, actually.
So I think when you add that across the cable,
it doesn't make a huge difference.
- But what- I know you'll jump straight into the comments.
We've gone to XLPE.
That means we've raised the conductor's
operating temperature to 90 degrees C from 70 before,
which means, obviously, we can carry more current.
But then, of course, the keen people,
all those people in those electrical forums,
are gonna be saying,
"The equipment that we're connecting to is not rated at 90."
Hence, I think we've got a one-year lag lead time, isn't it?
- Yeah, so that's gonna come in-
Yeah, obviously, accessories-
if there's no rating on there for the terminal temperature,
you have to assume a 70 degree C.
I think manufacturers are gonna be
increasingly rolling out 90 degrees C.
Conduct a termination point on there.
So again, that's coming in because, obviously,
a lot of this cable ends up, as we put more
insulation in the buildings,
you're gonna need higher conductive temperatures
and that lets you get around and up the cable size.
- But the other thing that we all struggle with
low smoke cable is, obviously, stripping it
and we've found it incredibly easy to strip
with our twin and earth strippers here with a Rick Hack.
They were very easy in order to strip it
and I found a little personal hack.
When you take that earth conductor on the low smoke,
when you start rolling it with a pair of croppers,
it actually is incredibly easy to strip,
so that myth's gone. - All right, so that's for
people who don't like using automatic strippers,
that we were surprised how well it actually works.
It's for those people who just like to
rip the earth wire down the original, the older,
BS6004 twin and earth.
This new one, yeah, big difference.
And you found another installation advantage,
Gary, didn't you? - Yeah, so I'm here,
we've got a new build here.
So, of course, we're gonna be using that cable
as part of the process here at Longside Studios.
Obviously, when you've-
you know, you have that little accident, don't you?
Maybe now and again, you might catch it
with a screw, a clip, a nail.
The customer often does when they're buried in the wall,
but now you've got two insulated conductors side by side,
the earth and, say, the line or the neutral.
You've got another chance of making sure that
now it goes through and doesn't damage the insulation on,
say, both of them.
Only damages one, whereas before, we had a bare earth,
didn't we, so we had to have a fault.
- That's good, yeah. - That is a top moment,
that is. - And that can easily happen
when you use new tools like this Milwaukee cable stapler.
- [Gary] Absolutely, if you're a little bit clumsy.
- Yeah, a little bit of the rough installer
can help you out there.
Now, just for clarification,
BS6004 will be withdrawn next year,
so you'll only be able to use this new low smoke and fuel
with a fully insulated earth cable from the BS 12712:2024.
Comes in on the 1st of April, 2024.
So let's just repeat that there. The 1st of April, 2024.
But Scotland, Gary,
obviously we said at the start of the video,
they're taking a different route.
It doesn't apply up there?
- No, it doesn't, and you can just see behind me-
yeah, we've had it in shot the entire time.
They've gone for a full mineral-insulated
in their domestic dwellings, removing low smoke altogether,
which I think, again, some people always like to take it
to another level, especially at this time of the year.
- Yeah, well that's good news for those people
who thought the industry was being dumbed down.
MI is back.