Single cores outside enclosure

To me accessible has everything to do with it, as it relates to risk of some one shock the person has to actually be there and be in contact. Hence skeleton live bus bars in a locked substation are a lot less icky than the same thing would be if it was left in the open. Perhaps the room or the building void is the enclosure…

Further,  to get a shock off LV  at 50 and 60Hz you need to be in contact with both sides, so L and E or L and N. Notwithstanding Tom and Jerry electrocutions in films, it does not leap out and get you with one point of contact only, unless we are talking RF, when body capacitance will complete the path.

I'm a lot less worried about the letter of the regs than some  on here, in my view they are sometimes neither necessary nor sufficient (sometimes even both at once) to guarantee proper electrical safety, and can be also far too intolerant of properly engineered alternatives, while having gaping bind spots in other areas.

Consider the humble batten lamp holder, as seen around mirrors in theatre dressing rooms since the year dot, or on kids bedside tables.  Clearly not as safe as the same holder on a drop cord from  a ceiling rose, but regs wise, ignored, while an insulated but not sheathed wire 8 feet up is always a disaster waiting to happen ..

Mike.

To me accessible has everything to do with it, as it relates to risk of some one shock the person has to actually be there and be in contact. Hence skeleton live bus bars in a locked substation are a lot less icky than the same thing would be if it was left in the open. Perhaps the room or the building void is the enclosure…

Further,  to get a shock off LV  at 50 and 60Hz you need to be in contact with both sides, so L and E or L and N. Notwithstanding Tom and Jerry electrocutions in films, it does not leap out and get you with one point of contact only, unless we are talking RF, when body capacitance will complete the path.

I'm a lot less worried about the letter of the regs than some  on here, in my view they are sometimes neither necessary nor sufficient (sometimes even both at once) to guarantee proper electrical safety, and can be also far too intolerant of properly engineered alternatives, while having gaping bind spots in other areas.

Consider the humble batten lamp holder, as seen around mirrors in theatre dressing rooms since the year dot, or on kids bedside tables.  Clearly not as safe as the same holder on a drop cord from  a ceiling rose, but regs wise, ignored, while an insulated but not sheathed wire 8 feet up is always a disaster waiting to happen ..

Mike.