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IP2X inside enclosures

Generally these days everything live(*) inside an enclosure like a CU (accessible only with a tool yada yada) seems to be IP2X - e.g. recessed terminal screws on MCBs, busbar covers, etc.


Is there anything in BS 7671 which enforces this? Or product standards like BS EN 61439? Or is it just down to good practice by the manufacturers?


(*), well, line anyway.
Parents
  • I think you are heading in a direction that will lead to madness here. If you need a tool to open something, surely there is actually no need to insulate anything? Take a typical busbar chamber. Are you trying to say that the busbars must be insulated (particularly where cables attach with bolts and nuts)? I think that this regulation applies to fuseboxes where there is an external door, and inside the breakers, mounted through a metal panel which is fixed with screws (say a Wylex 3 ph board). The idea that the inside should all be IP2X or whatever is daft, there are always slightly exposed bare wires and clamp terminal ends, whatever the screws are doing, and what about the neutral bar? Consumer units do have clip-on covers over the phase busbar, but they are pretty ineffective against a determined finger. Once you need a tool you bypass all IP ratings anyway, following this OP idea, nothing is safe at all! Trying to protect idiots from themselves (a common modern idea, perhaps "woke" for "accidents") is always impossible, someone will find a way someday. A long time ago many fuseboxes were interlocked with the switch lever and cover, and even some CUs. This idea has faded out, I have no idea whether it made a proper difference to accidents, probably not.
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  • I think you are heading in a direction that will lead to madness here. If you need a tool to open something, surely there is actually no need to insulate anything? Take a typical busbar chamber. Are you trying to say that the busbars must be insulated (particularly where cables attach with bolts and nuts)? I think that this regulation applies to fuseboxes where there is an external door, and inside the breakers, mounted through a metal panel which is fixed with screws (say a Wylex 3 ph board). The idea that the inside should all be IP2X or whatever is daft, there are always slightly exposed bare wires and clamp terminal ends, whatever the screws are doing, and what about the neutral bar? Consumer units do have clip-on covers over the phase busbar, but they are pretty ineffective against a determined finger. Once you need a tool you bypass all IP ratings anyway, following this OP idea, nothing is safe at all! Trying to protect idiots from themselves (a common modern idea, perhaps "woke" for "accidents") is always impossible, someone will find a way someday. A long time ago many fuseboxes were interlocked with the switch lever and cover, and even some CUs. This idea has faded out, I have no idea whether it made a proper difference to accidents, probably not.
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