Those who know me will know I am prone to go and stick my nose in whenever something interesting is happening, and a few days ago I had the chance to be a nuisance to some chaps installing a cluster of car chargers in a car park.
Ignoring their use of twin wall duct at a depth under kerbside turf of about 8 inches in places, I felt their choice of cables was interesting - from the origin of the supply to the breaker cabinet was as I would have specified in their boots, namely 4 core plus earthed armour SWA. (95mm2 of it so no slouching here.) But the cable in the thinner ducting from the cabinet to the individual chargers was 5 core NYYJ - single solid 10mm2 copper cores in Bn/Bk/Gy/Bl/GnYw and no armour, just the 5 circular cores in a bedding that looked not unlike white bathroom mastic. Having pinched an offcut it seems about as flexible as the average poker, i.e not really, and so I imagine it is no fun at all to install, and without armour, I struggle to see how penetration would be sure to operate ADS in the traditional way, but perhaps they rely on RCD operation.
Now it is really nothing to do with me, and it is now all lit up and working fine, and I'm sure will now work for many years, and in any case I'm sure the cable is pre-chosen by someone back at head office, but would many of us here be happy with such a cable choice? After all the single phase near-equivalent of burying arctic flex or twin and earth in a duct would be looked on as inadequate I think.
Mike.
