mapj1

Posts: 12039
Joined: 22 July 2004
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Continental practice varies wildly from place to place, as does collection of statistics and reporting of fires.
It is therefore very dangerous to generalize too much. But I will a bit, so-
However, in countries that you might imagine could be more likely to suffer abstraction (going sort of south and towards the Med) you may see boxed in tails - and company cut-outs pretty tight against meters. Some places that like the stamp of authority have a more regimented set of rules, even 25 years ago the then west Germany had most installations with some sort of pre-fuseboard isolator switch and dire warnings about touching anything but the output side.
In some places a form of cut down PIR is mandatory - I think Switzerland requires this for example, but I can't recall the types of property that this applies to or the testing interval.
The other thing that affects the installation current ratings is the coldness of winter - lower current supplies unsurprisingly in places where heating is not required, or where heating is not usually electric.
There is a larger rented sector, even of more upmarket property, and this leads to a different division of responsibility between building owners, occupants and service suppliers. Usually there is some sort of building service organization involved, and these can be very proactive in, partly as an insurance reduction.
Equally, move to the some scruffier parts of the former eastern block and you will see the roles of neutral and CPC becoming confused, 16A sockets on 20 or even 30 amp fuses, and rurally TT without RCD and all sorts of other potential hair curling stuff. (I recall vividly a Russian style building site supply with a HV/LV TX in the mud and two insulating poles a bit like like a trolley bus, but ending in wrap chains to the overhead wiring, secondary providing 220V or so for power tools. No earthing to speak of unless you think the TX on its skids in the mud is enough. I was told they were not supposed to do it anymore, but to get it done officially was too slow. And only works on bare overheads of course.)
But this is partly compensated by what used to be called civil robustness, in that folk half expect stuff to misbehave, and they are far less careless and more observant, and more likely not to leave something flickering or buzzing without at least shouting to someone else about it than some in our softer minded society .
Anyway, in summary no, UK style DI tails are not the only way, by a long shot.
(Oh and you may be to see thinner stranded cable if 25 or 35mm is needed, 'flexible' is an overstatement, but more like the core of a CY or SY in stranding )
We have a good system, but parts of it could be better.
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regards Mike
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