This regulation came into force on the 1st July 2017, with respect to electrical cables in fixed building installations.
In the simplest terms this regulation involves the following:
- The regulation is to test cables performance under fire conditions
- This includes having transparent labelling, traceability and an assured approval system to classify this performance in accordance with CE marking
- Only cables classed as ‘permanently installed in a building or civil works’ are included
- These cables have to be tested by an independent approved test house i.e. BASEC
- Currently fire survival cables FP etc. are not included as these have their own test procedures and classification
- Only cables placed on the market place after June 30th 2017 are included, cables before July 1st 2017 do NOT have to follow CPR requirements
- All cable has to be clearly marked with correct labels and a DOP (Declaration of Performance) must be available for up to a 10 year period
- Importers and distributors (including wholesale) are responsible for ensuring the product is compliant
What does this practically mean?
- All
drums of cable must now carry the correct label and have correct
traceability back to the factory or importer with a DOP available
- This means any cuts MUST have the same label as the original drum
- DOP only has to be available on request, it does not have to be provided with every drum
- Generally no cable designs have changed, all have just been classified to give the end user a choice of fire requirements
- Cable doing the correct job before can still be used in the same way
- Be aware CPR is not just a compliance, however within compliance there is a range of classification from Aca to Fca and the end user has to decide which is best for their purpose