November 2009

Make life that bit easier - keep to the regulation height

Any new domestic installation in France has to comply with the current "normes française" or regulations for domestic wiring - NF C 15-100.

Part of the normes that pleases me greatly is that all distribution boards/consumer units/fuse boxes (known in French as "tableau de repartition") must be mounted with the bottom no lower than 1m & the top no higher than 1.8m from finished floor level. Actually, those measurements apply to the centre (pivot point) of the switches in the bottom or top row; however, if you stick to assuming that it's the box edges that matter you are unlikely to be caught out by the later additon of a laminate, or even board, floor.

They also must not be mounted on the inside side of a cupboard or alcove as that would prevent direct easy access/vision.

The advantages of this are fairly obvious; any testing, fault finding or wiring additions are going to be very much easier to achieve when the main point of connection is easy to work in & around. It's also much easier for a householder to reset or switch on/off things as & when the need arises.

So, no more inaccessible boxes mounted over doors or under worktops - great!