International Basis

All electricians are aware of 'The Regs'. For well over one hundred years they have provided the rules which must be followed to make sure that electrical installations are safe.

A publication such as 'the Regs' must be regularly updated to take account of technical changes, and to allow for the 'internationalisation' of the Regulations. The ultimate aim is that all countries in the world will have the same wiring regulations. National differences make this still a dream, but we are moving slowly in that direction. The 15th Edition, when it was published in 1981, was the first edition of the IEE Regulations to follow lEC guidelines, and as such was novel in Great Britain. It was totally different from anything we had used before. The 16th Edition has not come as such a shock; certainly there are changes when we compare it with 'the 15th', but the two follow similar paths to reach the common destination of safety. Any electrician who has come to terms with the 15th should have little difficulty in working to the 16th.

A word is necessary about the identification of parts of this Electrician's Guide and of the IEE Regulations. In this Electrician's Guide, Regulation numbers are separated by a hyphen and indicated by placing them in square brackets. Thus, [514-06-03] is the third Regulation in the sixth group or subsection of Section 4 of Chapter 1 in Part 5. To avoid confusion, sections and sub-sections of this Electrician's Guide are divided by full points and enclosed in curly brackets. Hence, {5.4.6} is the sixth sub-section of section 4 of chapter 5 of this Electrician's Guide.