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BS7671 Rant and Recomendations
Former Community Member
Hi, I'm about a quarter way through reading BS7671 and not impressed at all. I've been studying daily for months now. It's written in a way that makes it very difficult to understand. Long complicated sentences that make you loose track of what's being explained. Repetition. Poor headings and formatting. References to other BS7671 regulations and other BS every few lines. If you want electricians to work safely then make clear and concise safety instructions. I'm guessing most people skim over it. I'm struggling to stay awake reading it. I have started reading a few of the IET guidance notes. They are better but still poorly structured and there's repetition and nonsense. Does anyone know of any better books to learn from that are clear and concise and well structured? Thanks.
Well, BS 7671 isn't meant to be read as a guide or tutorial for budding electricians - it's meant to be a standard: for example the sort of thing that might end up being used in a trial to help decide whether someone should be convicted of manslaugher or similar. So it reads more like an act of parliament than a friendly guide.
Having said that, there are definitely some poorly worded sentences, badly-titled section names etc. This is partly due to the fact that it has a 100 year revision history, plus being merged into an IEC standard, which is pulled back into an EU standard, then back to a UK standard. With a desire not to gratuitously reword and reorder everything between editions - which would make it a lot harder for existing electricians to keep up to date ("Which bits have changed? Everything!").
Well, BS 7671 isn't meant to be read as a guide or tutorial for budding electricians - it's meant to be a standard: for example the sort of thing that might end up being used in a trial to help decide whether someone should be convicted of manslaugher or similar. So it reads more like an act of parliament than a friendly guide.
Having said that, there are definitely some poorly worded sentences, badly-titled section names etc. This is partly due to the fact that it has a 100 year revision history, plus being merged into an IEC standard, which is pulled back into an EU standard, then back to a UK standard. With a desire not to gratuitously reword and reorder everything between editions - which would make it a lot harder for existing electricians to keep up to date ("Which bits have changed? Everything!").
