"Old" electric cable

[AJC5001]

I am in the process of moving home. Amongst the 40-year accumulation of 'useful' stuff in the garage is a quantity of 2.5 T&E and 1.0 T&E left over from rewiring the current house. This is the old standard red & black cable. The new house is 15 years old and therefore wired in blue and brown new standard cable.
Is there anything I can do with the old cable other than take it to a scrapyard?

Adrian

[mc2fool]

Keep and use it for whatever you'd use a new colour cable for! If you want to be pukka about it then sheath the ends with new colour sleeves when you use it.

[AsleepInYorkshire]

I am in the process of moving home. Amongst the 40-year accumulation of 'useful' stuff in the garage is a quantity of 2.5 T&E and 1.0 T&E left over from rewiring the current house. This is the old standard red & black cable. The new house is 15 years old and therefore wired in blue and brown new standard cable.
Is there anything I can do with the old cable other than take it to a scrapyard?

Adrian

If I recall correctly the cable will not be safe to use now. I recall cable life is 25 years (ish)

Chris will know

AiY

[jfgw]

Prysmian reckon 25 years continuously at maximum load, and maybe over 40 years if loaded 8 hours per day. I didn't see any indication of a shelf life. https://uk.prysmiangroup.com/media/news/cable-design

Different manufacturers may use different ingredients.

There are probably pre-rubber cables still good. I think I have some (salvaged) paper-insulated cloth-covered stuff somewhere (and a little bit of lead-sheathed).

If you still have some rubber-insulated cable installed, keep the fire brigade on standby.


Julian F. G. W.

[csearle]

I am in the process of moving home. Amongst the 40-year accumulation of 'useful' stuff in the garage is a quantity of 2.5 T&E and 1.0 T&E left over from rewiring the current house. This is the old standard red & black cable. The new house is 15 years old and therefore wired in blue and brown new standard cable.
Is there anything I can do with the old cable other than take it to a scrapyard?

Adrian

If I recall correctly the cable will not be safe to use now. I recall cable life is 25 years (ish)

Chris will know

Well if you ask four electricians you will probably get four different answers.

Personally I would just take it to the scrappy. You get a bit of money depending upon the price of copper and you clear space in your garage.

Twin and Earth cable degrades over the years, hence the need for re-wires. Usually one of two things happens with PVC cables (rubber has by now perished and needs either not-even-moving-a-mm or replacing): either the plasticiser in the PVC has split from the rest and run down the sheath (usually into the boxes behind the accessories manifesting itself as an eerie green ectoplasm), in which case the sheath becomes brittle; or, rodents eat it, often exposing bare conductors.

Just like you wouldn't normally choose to buy second-hand provisions for your larder, you also don't install 20-year-old cable in your modern home. It could well be safe, but for how long?

Chris
PS If you have shed-loads of time on your hands you can get much more for the copper if you strip all the insulation from it. For me though life is too short.

[88V8]

This is the old standard red & black cable.
Is there anything I can do with the old cable other than take it to a scrapyard?

There is a market for it on eBay.
One of many examples https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265485678152
Can't say why anyone would want it of course, but if one lives in an old house....
I have a few reels in the shed

Our house was largely rewired in 1972, with residue from the 60s. The only slightly degraded cable I have found is one end of a run to a storage heater - run in the wall, no conduit, as is all our SH wiring - where the insulation was hard but not yet brittle.
On the whole I suspect that if not overloaded the pvc will comfortably outlast me.

V8

[csearle]

Can't say why anyone would want it of course...

I can think of two related reasons:

1) to carry out electrical work without the ability/knowledge/test-equipment to provide the required certificate whilst at the same time making it look like nothing has been done (recently), and

2) To carry out a shameful bodge but make it look as if you¹ were not involved.

It is perfectly normal to use new wiring colours in installations with old colours. There is simply a requirement to affix a mixed-colours warning sticker at or near the origin of the installation.

C.
¹ not you personally you understand

[88V8]

Can't say why anyone would want it of course...

I can think of two related reasons:
1) to carry out electrical work without the ability/knowledge/test-equipment to provide the required certificate whilst at the same time making it look like nothing has been done (recently), and
2) To carry out a shameful bodge but make it look as if you¹ were not involved.
¹ not you personally you understand

No, not me, my bodges are of excellent quality, after all I have had 45 years of practice.

There is a rather good bodge thread on PH, you may have seen it, there are one or two electricals there for you to gnash your teeth over
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp

V8

[Maroochydore]

There is a rather good bodge thread on PH, you may have seen it, there are one or two electricals there for you to gnash your teeth over
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp
V8

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 68033&i=20 is the full link although I wouldn't recommend anyone of a nervous disposition to view them.

[bungeejumper]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=1868033&i=20 is the full link although I wouldn't recommend anyone of a nervous disposition to view them.

LOL, I loved the shower modification. It will probably last its owner for a lifetime.

BJ

[staffordian]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=1868033&i=20 is the full link although I wouldn't recommend anyone of a nervous disposition to view them.

LOL, I loved the shower modification. It will probably last its owner for a lifetime.

BJ

Yes, a shockingly short one though.

But how useful to be able to plug in an electric fire to keep warm whilst showering

[NotSure]

...But how useful to be able to plug in an electric fire to keep warm whilst showering

And dry your hair while washing your face........

[kiloran]

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=1868033&i=20 is the full link although I wouldn't recommend anyone of a nervous disposition to view them.

LOL, I loved the shower modification. It will probably last its owner for a lifetime.

BJ

Yes, a shockingly short one though.

But how useful to be able to plug in an electric fire to keep warm whilst showering

A bit of lateral thinking suggests that it might not be a power outlet. Maybe it's a power input to the shower, with power provided by an external 13A plug

--kiloran

[GoSeigen]

There is a rather good bodge thread on PH, you may have seen it, there are one or two electricals there for you to gnash your teeth over
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp
V8

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 68033&i=20 is the full link although I wouldn't recommend anyone of a nervous disposition to view them.

OMG wasted half an afternoon looking at that thread. Splendid entertainment. Plenty in our current property to challenge the best in the thread.



GS

[csearle]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. Just so long as he doesn't spray the water at the socket outlet, put one hand on the water falling off it, whilst holding on to some earthed pipe or other with the other he'll probably not suffer any consequences. C.

[jfgw]

I agree, what's the fuss? As long as there is an rcd.

(I would probably go for a 10mA one, just to be safe.)


Julian F. G. W.

[bungeejumper]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. Just so long as he doesn't spray the water at the socket outlet, put one hand on the water falling off it, whilst holding on to some earthed pipe or other with the other he'll probably not suffer any consequences. C.

Hmmm, that's the theory. It can look a bit different to a landlord. One of our tenants mounted a brass vintage wall lamp about two feet above the washbasin taps in her bathroom, and we weren't too happy about that. She'd supplied the lamp with a bit of two core flex that ran through the wall to another newly-fitted power point, that also shouldn't have been there.

Yep, the plug had a 13 amp fuse. She said that she'd tried using smaller fuses in the plug, but they'd kept blowing.

BJ