Electricians working in your home should be aware of electrical wiring regulations, but what are the types of electrical wiring and how can our phase marking cable ties make your electrical work tick all the boxes?
What are the Wiring Regulations?
In the UK, the Wiring Regulations – usually known as the ‘wiring regs’ or the ‘regs’ – are the standard that lays out requirements for safe and proper practice of fixed cabling installations in a building. The Regs also cover the testing of wiring.
What are the three core electrical cables in the UK?
The Live wire – colour-coded brown, this carries the power in a standard domestic electrical installation.
The Neutral wire – colour-coded blue, this is the power carrying wire.
The Earth – identified by a green and yellow stripe, this is the safety wire.
These mains cable colours were standardised in 2006 for compliance with international standards IEC 60446 and BS 7671, and consistency in wire colours ensures safety by avoiding confusion. The wire colour regulations enable different wires to be identified easily during electrical work and the set wire colours should be maintained at all times.
What are phase marking cable ties?
Phase marking cable ties are nylon 6/6 cable ties that have been hot foil printed. Marked with industry-recognised notations – N, L, L1, L2, L3 – phase marking cable ties are used by electricians carrying out metering and electrical installations, to identify the different cables. They are secured around specific cables for easy recognition during fitting and future maintenance and, in the UK, they are an approved method of electrical identification.
The benefits of phase marking cable ties
In addition to ensuring your compliance with the Wiring Regulations, our phase marking cable ties offer the following benefits:
Hot foil printing is ideal for high definition graphics and gives excellent character legibility.
Economically priced per bags of 100, our phase marking cable ties measure 200mm x 4.8mm, the standard industry-approved size, and are fully compliant with, and approved by, all UK energy companies.
They are available in the industry-recognised colours of brown, orange and blue, as well as silver and black.
The printing is carried along the length of the cable tie to ensure visibility from all angles.
With all the tensile strength expected from a nylon 6/6 cable tie (see our blog How strong are cable ties? for more information about this), our phase marking cable ties offer strength, weather resistance and long lasting durability.
As well as our phase marking cable ties, cableties-online also supply printed utility cable ties printed with ‘Water’ and ‘Gas’.
If you need any help or advice as to which cable ties you need for your project, our friendly staff is available via phone on 01623 706241 or email at sales@cableties-online.co.uk
