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A Friday Debate

Sergio Fernandez

Should older or earlier versions of BSI standards be made freely available on the internet?

Consider for example
BS 7430:2011+A1:2015. Code of practice for protective earthing of electrical installations being the current version


BS 7430:1998. Code of practice for earthing Published:15 Nov 1998 • Withdrawn: 31 Dec  2011


Or maybe

BS 7671:2018+A2:2022. Requirements for Electrical Installations. IET Wiring Regulations being the current version

BS 7671:2008+A3:2015. Requirements for Electrical Installations. IET Wiring Regulations Published: 31 Jan 2015 • Withdrawn: 29 Jun 2018


These could be published in a PDF format with a watermark on every page stating that this is not the current or latest version and for the current version can be found on the BSI web site.  This then allows people to look at the information from older versions and allow them to use it for research or for study purposes.  If you take BS7671 as an example has over 60 Normative References to other BS standards like BS 5839 which in effect is a whole suite of standards.  Sometimes people are unsure if that publication will satisfy their requirements.  

As a scenario BS7671 makes reference to BS7430 and BS7430 makes reference to BS7671

As always please be polite and respectful in this purely academic debate.  The concept of this idea is to help educate future generations of engineers by allowing them to access historical information from past achievements and standards.

Come on everybody lets help inspire the future.

Parents
  • John Peckham said:
    It is irrelevant if an installation of a piece of equipment complied at the time, the important issue is does it comply with the current standard.

    I disagree with this. Legislation isn't generally "retrospective" and standards are the same. Only a court can decide what precedence is an issue.

    I do, however, agree that, for continued service of workplace equipment, the duty-holder may need to make decisions about a product or installation vs current standards (risk assessments have to be reviewed when legislation and standards change).

    John Peckham said:
    I have to ask why you want copies of withdrawn standards other than for historical interest?

    Ongoing (sometimes very long-term) projects, where standards change from the dates for standards and legislation baseline agreed in the contract.

    Also experts looking at legal cases which must consider standards in force at the time in question, or changing over time periods in question, in the case.

  • in reply to gkenyon

    It is irrelevant if an installation of a piece of equipment complied at the time, the important issue is does it comply with the current standard.

    I'm not so sure. Say you were inspecting an old installation that had say BS 3871 MCBs. Do they meet current standards? - almost certainly not, but an EICR is more than that. The real question is are they safe for continued service - e.g. will they meet modern disconnection times in the situation you find? Where better to find that data than from BS 3871 itself? Even though it was withdrawn years ago. (OK, you could refer to some other text that has a copy of the same data, but doesn't that amount to the same thing, in principle).

       - Andy.

  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    Afternoon Andy

    For BS 3671 circuits breakers much better to look in the IET On-Site Guide which has a table for BS 3871 max values of Zs without needing to calculate the value from the BS 3871 standard itself.

    JP

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  • in reply to AJJewsbury

    Afternoon Andy

    For BS 3671 circuits breakers much better to look in the IET On-Site Guide which has a table for BS 3871 max values of Zs without needing to calculate the value from the BS 3871 standard itself.

    JP

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