Just found almost a full reel of 6mm twin & earth in my garage, it is the old RED live & Black neg type.  Can I still use this in our proposed new build??

You'll be meaning neutral not "neg".....and line not "live" if being pedantic! 

Not if you want to be legit and comply. BCO likely won't be impressed either. The reel could be 20 years old already.

If I were you I'd sell it on eBay. You'll be able to get enough back to buy a reel in new colours and have cash left over! 

Sell it and fit new. . 

the scrap merchant I visited yesterday said he'd take all old cable, as long as plugs are removed, £1 per kg.  OH is now searching the sheds for all the old cables he has squirrelled away.

Have a look on eBay at the silly prices red & black is up for. Pretty sure there was some 6mm on there for eight quid  a metre!

 

I guess you could use it eg for a non-grid connected solar setup.

But it is pushing it now.

Ferdinand

Don't  forget some smaller t&e had what is now considered an under size cpc. Out it and fit new.

OK guys I get the message, off to the scrap yard it goes along with the old bits of brass fittings, copper pipe off cuts etc. found in those rarely visited corners of my garage.

 

Ian

The reason that people want the red and black is that if they make a small change on the QT, then they can claim that the work was done before the new regs came.  Before this your work only had to comply with electrical regs.  After this, all electrical work at a minimum has to be certified by a "competent person" (that is an electrician with the appropriate ticket), so the general rule is new colours and you must have a certificate.  Hence the high prices on the second hand market for RnB cable. 

Edited July 19, 201610 yr by TerryE

33 minutes ago, TerryE said:

The reason that people want the red and black is that if they make a small change on the QT, then they can claim that the work was done before the new regs came.  Before this your work only had to comply with electrical regs.  After this, all electrical work at a minimum has to be certified by a "competent person" (that is an electrician with the appropriate ticket), so the general rule is new colours and you must have a certificate.  Hence the high prices on the second hand market for RnB cable. 

Indeed. We got a pallet of old colour stuff with a job lot of car stuff. It was like a stampede when it went on Ebay. Shame i haven't got a few containers of it! 

I think that on the back of Brexit we should go back to the old colours.

BROWN FFS? Up in a loft, inside a jb and brown covered in dust looks almost cuddly. RED just screams DANGER at you!

Even 3P now; brown, black and GREY! GREY, what could look less threatening, John Major?

Don't get me started on the colour of 3c&e cables.

WHY can we only buy 3c&e with three phase colours?  Can someone please show me an installation where it has actually been used as 3 phases (3 phase supply with no neutral)? I don't think it ever has.

It's usually used as live, switched live and neutral, but there is no neutral coloured cable, so we have to invent one and sleeve it appropriately.

Now for some reason, it was okay with the old red, yellow blue cable, to use the blue core as neutral, even though at the time, blue was a phase colour. But now it is frowned upon for us to use the black as neutral, even though most electricians who have been in the business more than 10 years would find that logical.

Why can't we buy 3 core & e cable as say brown, blue and grey? For domestinc work that would make a LOT more sense.

I'd say you can't buy it because there isn't the demand. I work on very large projects and we regularly use 3c&e with no neutral for supplying motors. Also I've used it quite a lot on floodlighting schemes.

 

The main demand for swa etc is commercial and industrial who buy in thousands of meters at a time.

Yes but I'm taling of flat 3 core and earth. I bet you don't see many industrial motors connected with that?

Don't scrap the drum of 6mm! Put it on eBay on an auction and let the fur fly   Nothing more entertaining than watching people scrap over your unwanted crap  

That sounds like a plan, I will give it a go.

Thanks every one,

Ian