Wouldn't 5 core be better, using the armour only for mechanical protection?

DNO's tend to use cables with copper rather than steel "armour" - so I'd imagined 4 copper (or aluminium) cores for L1/L2/L3/N and copper armour for PE - copper will survive pretty well in most soils (it may well blacken/tarnish on the surface, but the bulk remains in place and conductive). Perhaps not quite as robust as steel wire armour, but given the mechanical excavators that get used these days, steel doesn't really provide much more protection than copper - either way you end up relying on ADS for protection.

   - Andy.

Wouldn't 5 core be better, using the armour only for mechanical protection?

DNO's tend to use cables with copper rather than steel "armour" - so I'd imagined 4 copper (or aluminium) cores for L1/L2/L3/N and copper armour for PE - copper will survive pretty well in most soils (it may well blacken/tarnish on the surface, but the bulk remains in place and conductive). Perhaps not quite as robust as steel wire armour, but given the mechanical excavators that get used these days, steel doesn't really provide much more protection than copper - either way you end up relying on ADS for protection.

   - Andy.