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Thickness of 13 Amp Cable (UK)


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Hello Guys,

 

Quick question regarding cable thickness over here in the UK

I recently bought a Heavy Duty 13 Amp extension cable "Standard Domestic 3 Pin Edison Plug" or Stinger over there in the US, Despite looking for a Heavy Duty cable it's still not as thick as the cable attached to any of my 2K ARRI Lights nor quite as rubberized or flexible.

 

Question:

So I'm curious for safety's sake and just pure interest, should normal 13 Amp cable be extra thick if you intend to run 12Amp through it continuously and if so is there a place I can buy thicker more rubberized/Flexible 13 Amp cable that is designed for motion pictures use over here in the UK?

 

In case your curious the make of the cable I got is the popular amazon 10m Master Plug 1 gang.

 

Cheers

-Samuel

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A 13 amp cable will be fine to use with your 2kw lamps, which only draw 8.5 amps at 240v, so there is plenty of headroom. It's the thickness of the copper wire that's rated for 13a, not the rubber outer of the cable.

Thanks a bunch for your reply!!

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Thanks a bunch for your reply!!

 

Out of curiosity, how is the jacket marked? Type S or SO cordage (600VAC) will have a jacket that is nearly twice as this as SJ (S junior, 300VAC).

Edited by JD Hartman
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The rubberised cable often used for extension leads and equipment captive cables is H05RN-F, which is a polychloroprene-sheathed type described as "Medium duty cable designed to withstand light to medium mechanical stress." It's available in various sizes from six amps up and in various core counts to suit grounded, non-grounded and multi-phase applications.

 

Domestic extension leads are less likely to use this cable type as the neoprene outer makes it expensive. Instead they'll likely use a plastic coated cable which is probably less tough but also easier to clean.

 

The principal difference between professional/industrial and domestic power hardware in the UK is that domestic supplies will use the typical BS1363 connectors with three large rectangular pins, whereas industry uses IEC60309 "ceeform" connectors with round pins. These are preferred for their enormous physical toughness, water resistance, and availability in multi-phase and high current varieties. They are also colour coded; blue generally means single phase 230V, red means three phase 415V, and yellow means 110V used for safety in the construction industry.

 

P

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Cable gets abused in location work, so we prefer heavier H07RN-F. Titanex brand is popular for both stingers/extension and HMI feeder cables. Of cheaper cable, General Cable (Italy) and Elpar (Poland) seem to be OK, haven't had problems so far. Look at the cross section of the cable, not the amp rating, which can be sometimes, well, "optimistic". 2,5mm2 is the smallest gauge used in film here in Europe and more than enough for 16A.

As to connectors, on small lights we sometimes leave factory Schuko plugs, but almost everything (except 250 and 400A runs) uses CEE.

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Thanks everyone for all the replies!

 

Out of curiosity, how is the jacket marked? Type S or SO cordage (600VAC) will have a jacket that is nearly twice as this as SJ (S junior, 300VAC).

 

No idea, it has SV on the cable, I'm not a gaffer by work but live on camera instead.

 

extension leads and equipment captive cables is H05RN-F

 

Thanks for that Phil.

 

we prefer heavier H07RN-F. Titanex brand is popular for both stingers/extension

 

Thanks for that, Yes the cable being used is actually marked as H07RN-F Titanex 1.5G, the "1.5G" meaning 1.5mm Guage I'm guessing.

 

Overall the H07RN-F seems pretty expensive cable, is it worth changing any extension I buy to the stuff, Is it actually safer to work with over the pretty solid cable It's already got?

Edited by Sam Bignell
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