80s house wiring guide

RurtBeynolds

Doing odd jobs around the house and having consulted YouTube I was expecting to find nicely colour coded wires. I've opened a couple of light switches and see all red wires in grey sheathing. Pendant lights have all black wires.

The house was built in 1987 so I guess it's just wiring of the time? I read that there's likely no earth wires in this case, a 2 gang light switch corroborated that as it had 4 wires. But then I opened a 1 gang switch which had 3 wires, one going common and both the others going to L1. What's that about?

Is there any guide out there for this version of wiring?

10-10-20

It was red for live/line and black for neutral. Earth was uncommon alright.

Not sure about the particular switch mentioned, but sounds like it was just a loop of sorts with neutral at the lamp holder.

smuggler.ie

Is there also three "black" wires in the block? Potential two lights operated from one switch.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120155562#Comment_120155562

Back in those days it was an odd earth(CPC) at lights where needed , usually none at switches

Antenna

1987 ?

Is it not the case that the wiring colours in ROI had already changed for some years before then ?

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161437#Comment_120161437

Don't think so

Girl Geraldine

Sure it was the 80s and there was no enforcement of anything, even less so than now. Probably fellas getting reels of old obsolete colour wire for cheap and wiring it up any way that got the job done. Nobody gave a shít about anything in those days. Building control didn't exist except on paper and even if it did, everything was a corrupt nod and wink culture to a staggering degree. And everyone was permanently drunk.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120165351#Comment_120165351

I would assume" building control" is still bad

Not that long since dodgy apartments were built

There's all the cheap electronics these days which is yet to be regulated

80s wiring was definitely red and black. The fixed wiring changed sometime in the 1990s.

Lighting usually didn’t have any Earth connections available unless they were specifically needed. Also light switches were assumed to be plastic so it’s rare to have earths running to those either, but people tended to swap them out for fancy looking metal ones which is where you get serious dangers.

I’ve noticed back boxes in the 70s and 80s seemed to be a bit hit and miss when it came to light switches anyway.

That era was a bit of a low point in building standards. There were a few housing booms before the recession and the standards really aren’t great.

I’ve noticed 50s and 60s wiring (and even older stuff) as obsolete and dangerous as it might be because of deteriorating materials, always looked like it was done with a lot more care and attention to detail, except for DIY hacks, which can be scary looking.

Wiring and plumbing during the 70s and early 80s seemed to just be done quick and cheap.

kirk.

The 80s main board and wiring wasn't a bad setup apart from the immersion

A lot of the fuses were upped to 63amp on the 50 amp boards

Like you say chrome and brass switch upgrades were often added with no earthing present

Enforcement and testing was often non existent pre-reci.

You can argue either way about self certification.I wouldn't touch a house now if I re-registered . Minefield of regulations involved in the work

One thing I don’t get with Irish 1980s wiring is why a lot of installations were still using Diazed fuses (with an RCD), while others were all MCBs. Seems like there were plenty of new Diazed fuse boxes going in well into the 1980s when MCBs were long established.

Was that just a cost thing? I assume fuse holders were probably cheaper, or were some electricians of that era just very, very stuck in their ways and didn’t trust MCBs for some reason ?

I also moved into a 1980s house in Dublin that had 3 individual 16 amp radials and 15amp round pin sockets behind the dryer, washing machine and dishwasher. Everything else was on 20amp radials with normal double socket plates. Was that a regulation somehow or someone just going off on their own tangent?

It wasn’t old wiring - all the fittings were late 80s and the round pin stuff was the same era of MK or similar brand sockets. I just swapped them for normal 13amp sockets rather than messing around replacing plugs.

The only reason I can think of is maybe they’d an older continental spec dryer that was designed for 16amp plugs and drew more than 3kW.

Just seemed a bit overkill.