M.I.C.C. in House. Why?

In one of my relatives business premises there was mostly singles in metal conduit and some surface PVC T&E  but the sockets under the bar were all on MICC and there was one socket that had single in one side and MICC out the other think it was all down to the brewery electrician

Kelly Marie Angel: 
 

In one of my relatives business premises there was mostly singles in metal conduit and some surface PVC T&E  but the sockets under the bar were all on MICC and there was one socket that had single in one side and MICC out the other think it was all down to the brewery electrician

In the 80's I wired / altered their wiring in lots of pubs… all the wiring had to be in MICC

Unfortunately the hidden beauty M.I.C.C. that I came upon is run down from the ceiling in an airing cupboard extreme right and out of sight in a corner. So sad.

Z.

our school was littered with the stuff, I always found it hard to comprehend someone screwing it every 12", considering the school was ¼ of a mile long and built from red and glazed brick

Still see loads in pubs, for hand driers etc. I wonder who came up with that idea

and its ubiquitous in churches where it blends in perfectly with the stone when unsheathed MICC is used 

In the days before nationally harmonised building regulations, many local authorities specified it for public buildings. Given the alternatives for low current cables at the time the specs were written, of rubber that perished, and cotton that gets eaten, it probably sounded like a good idea for village halls, schools libraries, in fact anything you may want to be still standing and fire proof after 25 years.  And plenty made it out into private installations. I have seen it run in the joints of brickwork to outside lights, and it can be almost invisible.

Mike

Agree. We used to run it everywhere for heat treatment gas furnaces, and it was de rigor for fire alarm systems in the office block. No doubt someone got some ‘from work’ and fitted it for the immersion supply.

There is a major issue with MICC

The old pyrotenax, basically the same stuff, is/was rated at 750 or 1kv depending on the type.

In reality it is the ends and termination creepage distances that limit performance - the magnesium oxide is good for a lot more - several kV.

The strange thing is that when it is made, it is assembled short and fat, with essentially wires and insulator beads in a chunky tube and then crushed and pulled to size, and the insulator and the cores remain very much in proportion as the cross-section is progressively reduced.

The chaps in Wrexham use split MgO blocks, as they can make a continuous length, but this MICC vidoe shows the process for a fixed length tube.

In the NAPIT museum, aka a cupboard in a training room, there was a hefty bit of MICC that survived a fire in Hull docks, which is did successfully.

and its ubiquitous in churches where it blends in perfectly with the stone when unsheathed MICC is used

I've carried out many quinquennial EICRs for churches  and MICC can suffer badly with corrosion to the extent that the outer sheath has completely been “eaten” away on some of the stonework.

Grey PVC sheathed MICC is preferable and even less visible.

Regards

BOD