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I don;t mind the US 3 wire system at all -works great for me in all circumstances. In any system using a medium or high voltage transformer,center or one end of the secondary needs to be grounded or else capacitive coupling will cause background voltage of secondary circuit to creep up to close to primary voltage and cause big trouble...
 
There are various approaches to it in Europe. Two-wire 230V is normal, but many continental European countries tend to deliver power as four-wire 3-phase for anything even approaching a decent size supply.

Ireland and the U.K. tend to use large single phase supplies and avoid 3P power in residential.

The grounding arrangement isn’t like that either. That looks like an IT supply with an isolating transformer. We use that in very sensitive areas like operating theatres and also for connecting shaver sockets in bathrooms.

A household supply here in Ireland normally has two wires. A live at 230V and a grounded neutral at 0V.

The neutral is grounded at multiple points along its route in the network on its way from the transformer. Then the house has its own grounding system and ground rods. The plumbing is also bonded to the earthing system to create an ‘equipotential zone’

The house grounding system is interconnected to the supply grounded neutral at the meter.

We use single pole breakers and double pole RCDs / RCBOs (GFCI or GFCI/Breaker combined) go on every final circuit in modern wiring.

You also have to add AFDD (arc fault detection) in areas that are at risk of fire - so that includes any building with bedrooms, timber frame construction etc.

But anyway, it’s more complicated and cumbersome than that diagram.
 
@novum- what wire colors do you now use in Ireland?

 

 

I was thinking of two wire cable compromised of any one of the following color combinations to compliment the system-

 

a) Green and Red

 

b) Blue and Red

 

c) Black and Red

 

d) Yellow and Blue

 

c) Yellow and Red

 

 

3 wire cable for multi-way switching as either Blue, Red, Yellow or Yellow, Green, Red.

 

What wire colors would you pick or like to see?

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They’re harmonised EU colours these days:

Ground: Green/Yellow Striped.
Neutral: Blue
Live 1: Brown (single phase uses this only)
Live 2: Black
Live 3: Grey

(Black is is sometimes used to indicate a permanent live with brown on the switched live, for example bathroom fans with overrun timers). We usually wire bathroom fans with 2 lives, one is switched the other is permanently on. When you switch the switch, the fan is started and it will remain on using the permanent life until the internal overrun timer cuts it off. You have to use a second switch with 3 poles that cuts both lives and neutral, so it can be locally isolated for maintenance)

There was an interim 3 phase colour set before full harmonisation. It used the same as the above but with the convention being Red for L2 and Yellow for L3.

For a long while only the single phase colours were harmonised. Then they standardised in grey and black for the second and third phases as the colours clashed with the fewest existing European codes.

The very old colours here were:

Ground: Green
Neutral: Black
Live 1: Red (single phase used only this)
Live 2: Yellow
Live 3: Blue

We adopted harmonised European colours earlier than the U.K. did, but you’ll often find green, red and black in houses built until the end of the 1980s

Appliance flex wiring harmonised sometime in the early 1970s. Before that you often found U.K. colours but you could potentially have encountered quite a few other continental european countries’ colour schemes in flexes, depending on where they were made. Most of them adopted the harmonised schemes a long time ago though.

There are a few differences in cable type used vs the U.K.
For example, you can’t use a thinner ground conductor and it must be insulated. So the U.K. style flat “Twin and Earth” isn’t used as it has a thinner ground conductor that is uninsulated and just sleeved at the fittings.
Increasingly we use NYM-J etc
 
Thank you. I honestly liked/miss the old wire colors. They stood out and made much more sense in that they were primary colors and black was the mix of all 3.  I like the insulated ground being used in Ireland- no need to add sleeving after the fact and no risk of shorts when compacted in a wall box. 

 

 

NYM/NYY cable is fun basically like SWA cable but without the armor. Much easier to strip and terminate I take it.
 
Yeah there are various versions of them depending on the application.
NYM-J LFS (low smoke) is most likely to be encountered. There’s a flat low smoke, halogen free cable with live, neutral and earth which has a similar profile to Romex or Twin and Earth but with the ground of the same spec as the live conductors.

Normal PVC insulation isn’t allowed anymore. It’s all low smoke, halogen free etc etc.

You can get SWA armoured, various exterior, cables etc etc..

You’d also find plenty of special purpose cables eg pink RD415 NHXMH used for smoke alarm wiring etc.
 
Is you're NYM-J LFS rated at 70*C or 90*C? Romex individual wires are rated at 90*C, but code restricts the cable to a 60*C current rating.  So- 2.08mm2 at 15 amps; 3.31mm2 at 20amps and 5.26mm2 at 30 amps. 


 

 

Here is what a North American panel board looks like with all 2 pole thermal magnetic breakers as it would in a 2 wire system.

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The maximum operating temp is 70°C but they’re designed to withstand a short circuit temperature of up to 160°C. In normal circumstances that shouldn’t ever happen.
 
2 Pole Panel

Not bad. THHN-THWN-2 wire is rated 150*C short circuit. I still prefer 90*C rated wire for attics and light fittings.  That and NM-B (Romex) being slightly larger for the same current carrying capacity as twin and earth wire.

 

 

Here is an old Bryant panel with all 2 pole breakers for an all electric heat strip home next to a garage door. The breakers with the silver box ties on the handles are quad breakers- 4 poles but from a 2 inch space. 

 

Next pic is a 16 space Murray panel, showing the large clean interior and gutter space.

 

Next is a panel with with all shared neutral or 240 volt circuits- showing what a 2 wire panel might look like minus the white neutrals and bare grounds.

 

Last 3 pics are  US style Westinghouse brand 2 pole breakers.

 

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They’re all standard DIN rail breakers, RCDs, RCBOs etc mounted horizontally here.

The boards are metal enclosed or fully non combustible in the current regs and now must have a metal door. They’re almost always white.

In new build the panel is usually recessed into a wall if possible.

Linked a Hager brochure, would give you an idea of what’s used.

Hager, ABB, Schneider (Merlin-Gerin), GE, Siemens and Garo are most likely to be encountered.

Main isolators and main over current are double pole, but we normally use single pole MCBs (breakers) on the basis that the neutral is fully grounded and the wiring and connectors are all fully polarised. We have a main circuit breaker, often located in the meter cabinet outside which is rated at the maximum load of the panel. This sits after the meter on the end of the customers tails. There’s then an isolator switch owned by by the power company, which is sealed with a tamper tab. This is only used for the when a contractor connects or disconnect the installation. In normal service it’s got a tamper tag sealed by the power company then you’ve the meter and ahead of that there’s a cut out, which is a sealed fuse owned by the power company. The only permitted ground to neutral interconnection is done here by the power company.

Basically if you were to look at it from a plugged in appliance it’s like this:

(fused plug 3-13 amps) ==== (20 or 32amp breaker & RCD (GFCI)) ==== (Main Overcurrent Device & isolator) ==== (demarcation isolator) === (Meter) === (power company fuse / cut out with neutral-ground interconnection) === (drop connection usually fused in a cabinet or on pole) ==== multiple grounds en route === (distribution transformer) ===< to 20kV or 38kV network>

Urban supplies are usually on 3 phase pad mounted transforms covering a whole street or a housing development, but most homes take a single phase connection. Rural supplies can often be a pole mounted transformer servicing one or a small number of homes. In some rural supplies 3 phase isn't available as the MV link is single phase 20kV (originally 10kV)

It’s all CENELEC and IEC harmonisation inspired.

https://www.hager.ie/files/download/0/750154_1/0/IS10101 Bitesize Guide.pdf

https://www.mwel.ie/electrical-consumer-units

Old wiring here used Diazed screw in fuses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60269

British type fuses weren’t used.
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Whoa, nice. I like the empty consumer units which can be populated with double pole breakers. I'd put a 63, 100 or 125 amp type D main MCB with 16, 20, 32 and 40 amp type C branch MCBs.  Only thing I dislike is the limited wire bending room and gutter space compared to US equipment. I like long flowing sweeps of wire.  

 

In parts of France and Belgium they still have (or had) 3x230 pas neutre which is my favorite system of all time- particularly when its of the TN-S but without the neutral distributed flavor. I am personally not a fan of TT earthing though it has many, many legit merits such as neutral to earth voltage mitigation on farms where the supply network is TN-C-S or MEN.  Older installations in Norway are IT, but they screwed it up in 2 ways:

 

1) They only had a local earth rod for the grounding system. There was no 4th wire to provide a low impedance bond between the earthing system of each structure. So A phase might fault in one structure (making the network fundamentally TT) and B phase latter in another structure. Due to the high earth soil resistance diazed fuses would not always blow resulting in two separate structures energized at 230 volts opposing potential between them. Overtime this resulted in many fires and is now being mitigated via RCDs.

 

2) Many pole mounted units were/are wired wye ungrounded primary -  wye ungrounded secondary but with one catch. The secondary neutral point is brought out of the can and run through an isolating nullpunktsikring before being connected to ground:

 

 

  https://www.el-tjeneste.no/download/2851777/Bruksanvisning-Nullpunktsikring-01-A3596.pdf

 


 

This worked until the nullpunktsiring became permanently shorted to ground for various environmental reasons while there was already an existing phase to earth fault out on the LV network. (Most IT networks serving residential customers have protracted or standing ground faults- who knocks on their neighbors doors to deliver the message 'hey you have an electrical earth fault somewhere on premise'.) With the neutral isolater shorted this was electrically equivalent to taking one secondary of an LV phase and directly connecting it to the secondary (X0) neutral terminal of the transformer. Because zero sequence current from the ungrounded wye primary has no place to go the entire voltage vector of the 3 phase connection shifts upward resulting in 400 volts between each LV phase and turn subjecting 230 volt customer loads to 400 volts line to line.

 

The IT system in Norway was a brilliant idea begotten from the heart but unfortunately due to poor implementation (stemming from past ignorance about the theory behind grounding and bonding that was present in every corner of the planet) became one of the most dangerous systems in the world resulting in many fires.   

 

 

Personally I would have grounded the HV/MV transformer's secondary neutral at the substation, run an MV multi grounded neutral  and grounded the primary neutral point (H0) on the pole mounted transformer (not always possible because Norway wants to operate its MV distribution system as IT ie ungrounded or resonant grounded) or used a delta primary on the pole transformer; permanently bypassed the nullpunktsikring; run a 4th wire out with the LV secondaries at not less than half the equivalent cross sectional area of the phase conductors; calculated I2R short circuit heating not exceeding a final conductor temp of 250*C to blow an LV network Lucy fuse or MV cutout; required that each structure take in a 3rd or 4th PE wire connected to the main earthing terminal; and stipulated all the following be met at the consumer's building 1) a maximum external earth fault loop impedance not exceeding 0.8 ohms, 2) a perspective fault current of not less than 250 ampers L-PE at the point of any incoming supply, 3) a perspective earth fault current not less than 5 times the non residual trip current rating of the main disconnect as measured or calculated at the main disconnect enclosure, 4) A L-L and L-L-L perspective fault current of not less than 4 times the trip rating of the main disconnect as measured or as calculated at the main disconnect enclosure, 5) Residual current protection shall not be used as the sole or primary means to achieve required disconnection times of mains supply exceeding 55 volts AC between conductors in any part of a consumer installation when supplied by an externally operated public network.       

 

133/230Y or better yet 145/250Y (I wish LOL), TN-S but without the neutral distributed.   

 

This system is the best system and a win win for power providers in that by connecting all loads phase to phase load current will not be placed to the primary neutral of a 3 phase wye gorunded - wye grounded transformer bank. This means that the issue of ferroresonance in single phase switching of cutouts can be mitigated allowing for distribution voltages of up to 34.5kv, not having to deal with neutral to earth voltages which present themselves in connecting customer loads line to neutral in conjunction with a wye-wye bank, and being able to set 50/51/67/32N feeder ground pickups at a lower value without having to account for load current on the multi grounded neutral.

 

Which, speaking of 34.5kv, running a distribution system at 33kv can allow for a utility to bypass the entire 11kv system and its associated intermediate substations. Higher feeder coverage exposure and more customers per circuit compared to 11kv can be mitgated via recloser auto-loops, distribution automation, tree wire and spacer cable.

 

Ie, 3 radial 11kv feeders serving 1,250 customers operating at 300 amps (500 amps rated emergency switching) supplying 5.7 MVA of load can be consolidated into a single 33kv feeder at 300 amps 3,750 customers. The larger load size per feeder mitigated by dividing each feeder into 3 parts via 3 reclosers- feeder, midpoint and tie such that a fault in any section results in no more than 1,250 customers being effected as originally. Each segment or 1,250 customers at 33kv pulls 100 amps of load. A worse case fault in the first zone A of line between the bulk HV/LV substation and feeder recloser drops 1,250 customers at lockout, the remaining 2,500 customers in healthy zones B and C being a total of 200 amps transfer to a neighboring feeder also running at 300 amps but rated 500 emergency by opening the feeder recloser and closing the tie into the neighboring feeder. 2,500 customers are restored, and 300 + 200 = 500 amps the rating of the neighboring feeder.  Voltage drop taken into consideration of course but typically a much larger deviation is permitted during contingency switching.

 

Although an interesting note- at 230/400Y you can supply many more customers with a single MV/LV trafo- larger units and having dampening load can actually mitigate ferroresonance too. Interesting to think about.   

 

Which speaking of bypassing intermediate stations that is what is being done where possible at many utilities. 10kv distrbution and 30kv sub-transmission is being phased out for 20, 22 or 23kv distribution across the globe. 

 

   
 

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