Pont Noir

This website already has a lot of faqs and suggestions for further reading. For those who are afraid of several hundred pages of French reading, there is a solution somewhere in between: illustrated website info. Schneider updated their manual this year. The document Norme NF C 15-100 guide 2012 can be downloaded in pdf format. If every picture tells a story, it certainly goes for the illustrations provided, with easy to understand comments. Of course ohers, like Hager (guide d'habitat) also keep their documents in line with recent modifications of the French electrical code. One of these modifications, pour les salles de bains, is explained in more detail on the site of Promotelec. And for those who want to have a closer look at the construction and installation side, you really should read this step by step story. With a lot of photos.



Kind regards,


Robert

These are some useful resources, especially (for me anyway) the first. None are really as good as the book overall, but each adds something, depending on what your prior knowledge is (most are, I would say not for a complete novice). Promotelec is especially useful for an English trained electrician thinking of starting up in France.

And for those without to much technical knowledge, this brochure of LeroyMerlin about the French consumer box belongs to the category easy reading.


Regards,


Robert



Edit 8 Jan 2014

Links come and go: there is now a youtube video of Leroy Merlin. For the traditional tableaux électriques this is a summary by the Consuel organisation. Please keep in mind that for a new build you need a so called GTL to conform to the French electrical code. RA

The French Promotelec organisation, where someone got tired of answering the same type of questions over and over again, has now the most frequent 122 questions on its website. And the answers. And in their 25th edition of Locaux d'habitation you'll find the official regulations explained in 148 pages. With an impressive list of board members, including Consuel and EDF, so you can't go in the wrong direction with the interpretation of the sometimes complex NF C 15-100 regulations.


Regards,



Robert

For those who already have an earlier edition of books like L'Installation électrique, and a bit hesitating to buy a newer edition for the sole purpose of having un update on the regular stream of amendments, this Promotelec information covering amendement 2, salle de bains, should be enough. And after its birth announcement, I tried to get amendement 3 in more detail on my radarscreen, but this was not so easy. It promised us assouplissements pour la NF C 15-100, and more precision on existing texts aux points d’éclairage, au décompte des socles de prises de courant, aux circuits de communication, au tableau de communication. Also to prevent problems on D-Day, when Consuel steps in to control your installation électrique. Leading sometimes to a not so pleasant exchange of different views of the interpretation of specific clauses in the NF C 15-100 code.

Interesting I thought, for a change less, and not more regulations. And not willing to buy the official UTE version for € 79,13, I bought the 25th edition of Locaux d'habitation. Hoping to see some sort of summary of changes, neatly split up in before and after the birthdate of amendement 3. Well, after reading it already a few months ago I came to the conclusion that they have produced an integrated text. So how to decode all these regulations, compare them with earlier regulations, reverse-engineering, in order to produce a few pages for my printer, and to be inserted in my little bible written by mr Thierry Gallauziaux and mr David Fedullo, second edition of 2004? With the help of discussions on French websites I'm almost there. If anyone has the original UTE text, or other authoritive sources, please let us know what should be added to my summary below.

1) Less sockets in your living room, le séjour. Engraved in granite was the rule: one socket for every 4 m2. For a living room of more than 40 square meters of surface, a total of ten is o.k. now.
2) Sockets and the open kitchen. The french journalist Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber wrote back in the sixties a book entitled “Le défi Americain”, describing the challenge of the US industrial efficiency for Europe. It took regulatory organisations in France half a century to discover the open kitchen, “la cuisine dite á l'amércaine”, and reluctantly accepting another American cultural tradition, and after many arguments between Consuel officials and innocent citizens, they finally decided that it was time for a clarification. There is a standard (forfaitair) deduction of 8 m2 for the open kitchen. So whatever the actual layout, séjour surface = total surface minus 8 m2. Probably room for future clarifications. For your open kitchen the whole set of existing rules pour la cuisine still applies.
3) Communication. Let's stay in the kitchen for a while, have a coffee. And pick up your wireless handset, because the RJ-45 socket to connect your telephone is not longer obligatoire in the kitchen. On New Years Day 2008 the traditional T-type plug of France Télécom has been sent to the museum, although still prolonging its life in many existing installations. For the rest of the house things don't change: un socle de prise de communication doit être posé par pièce principale. There is a minimum requirement of two RJ-45 sockets in the domestic environment, and they should be in the company of an electrical wall socket. In a house with three or more rooms you are allowed to have two “functional” communication sockets, but the other rooms should already be “precabled”.
4) Even more communication: in the modern french consumerbox, the GTL, there are two subboxes: one regular box for your 230 Volts wiring, and a separate little box for your communication connections: telephone, internet, tv. This tableau de communication should as from the 1st of january 2011 provide space for un DTI optique, a point of entry for your fibre optic broadband internet connection. For rural France, la France profonde, this will be in a further future, will take at least ten or twenty years I guess, but every new installation électrique will have to comply. The specifications in amendement 3 also say: pouvant recevoir 4 operateurs, and this coffret de communication should be equipped with a panneau de brassage. And close to it: two sockets, prises de courant. At first sight I was a bit intimidated by all this, but it all boils down to this picture. Simply an additional – empty – DIN rail in your communication box new style. That's all folks, don't start digging yet in your garden to prepare for your fibre-to-the-home connection.
5) Less communication: for the one way traffic of your tv signals in a house not exceeding 100 m2 of surface two coax connections are o.k., if the tv signal doesn't go over your ethernet RJ-45 cabling. For more real estate three will do, and in un petit studio, not more than 35 m2, one coax connection is enough.
6) Circuits specialisés: in amendement 3 there should be somewhere some refinements. I'll ask a local french electrician, perhaps he knows it.
7) Electric heating: a maximum of 3500 watt, using a disjoncteur of 16 amps and wiring of 1 ½ mm2 is allowed.
The GTL has to be accessible, full height. So for the inspired d.i.y.: no nails and glue for your woodpanel construction. The lower limit for a a row of circuitbreakers is now 90 centimeters, used to be 100 cm. Maximum height, taking the centre of a row of disjoncteurs, compteur et le disjoncteur de branchement, is 180 cm..
9) Final detail: L' acces au dispositif de coupure d'urgence ne doit pas être fermé à clef. No key for your consumerbox with the main breaker inside.


Regards,


Robert



Edit 22-5-2011:

Somebody did some reverse engineering, and highlighted the A3 changes using the latest Hager document: three pages.


Edit 9-12-2011:

And also this little reference document seems to have disappeared into thin air. Brings us back to the 84 pages of theHager introduction to the NFC 15-100 electrical code, where these "A3" changes have been indicated with "Attention!" (in orange).

Hager and Schneider have updated their earlier introductions in the French NF C 15-100 electrical code, now incorporating the new elements of the amendement 3. Available on their websites in "real-time", but also in pdf format, much easier to read once you've sent it to your printer. This is Hagers introduction, and this is the intro of Schneider.

Robert

To pick up the issue of the NFC 14-100 code. Last month there was an announcement on the website of Promotelec: there is now an amendement 1. Not too many details, only headlines. In another document to be found on the internet, one of the last annotated concept versions, you'll see what probably is the content of the official version.

The regulations for lotissements (allotment) have been updated, fire security issues identified, definitions rewritten (difference between mode encastré et noyé) etc. Not of interest for the most of us.

More interesting is, as far as I see it, that the ERDF will be supplying monophasé (for new connections that is) only from 3 kVA to 12 kVA. The more powerful 15 kVA and 18 kVA puissances souscrites in monophasé will be phased out, eventually. So you have to go for triphasé if you want more than 12 kVA (60 amps). Or use a system of délestage (loadshedding).

In table 8 “Puissances minimales de dimensionnement à prevoir par local et courant assigné de l'AGCP” you'll find more details. As long as this document is on the internet.

Also some fine tuning for the GTL, the consumer unit modern style. Dimensions are more precise, and you are kindly requested to use 2 plaques de BA13 as support when mounting the panneau de contrôle (compteur + disjoncteur de branchement).

Kind regards,

Robert

Spring has arrived, time to clean the house. The Promotelec organisation decided to revamp the presentation of their publications. One brochure, four themes: Les Mémentos, Les guides, Les Cahiers pratiques and Les Zoom sur.....

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last time, their "Locaux d'habitation" is an excellent summary of the French electrical code NFC 15-100. Other handy booklets: "Ëtablissements recevant du public" and "Diagnostic électrique obligatoire en cas de vente".

Robert

Last week Hager decided that it was time for an update of their introduction in the French electrical code. New layout, updated content.

The first steps to familiarize yourself with the many regs are easy. The same approach as in the earlier Schneider intro: annotated pictures of séjour, cuisine, chambre, couloir, WC, salle de bain et extérieur. They continue this educational effort in describing the regs taking the function as starting point: la norme par la fonction. Lighting, outlets, specialised circuits. And of course all the other topics: the consumer unit (GTL), wiring gauge, the communication network and some example diagrams.

And the good news is that this new document has still the same url as in the past, so existing links still work. They took note of best practices of web design. This is Hager's new document: L'installation électrique dans l'habitat.

This is Schneider's 2012 intro, and an intro by ABB is available for download on this website.

Robert

So many questions about the French regs inside your house, so many websites, forums and books with answers, and sometimes you come across a little document with a nice summary. Have a look at this practical "how to" paper about wiring, only 16 pages.

Outside your house you have to cope with the NFC 14-100 regs, how to get the wiring from the powergrid to your tableau électrique. The so called branchement basse tension individuel. There is of course ERDF's own info, but this paper by Vialis says it all, for professional electricians and the experienced DIY. And a one-page summary.

Best wishes for 2014 to everyone here,

Robert

Department wishing and hoping: perhaps some flexibility in the French electrical code in 2015. As we all experienced: it takes some time to fully understand the regs. The Britons have to forget everything they know about ring circuits and 13 amp fused sockets, the Dutch question the separation between circuits for lights and sockets, the Americans prefer the NEC code. But what all those house owners share is one common surprise: the obligation to install a hard-wired network. This nice coffret de communication inside your GTL and all those meters of ethernet cable going to RJ45 sockets in every room. You must be kidding, you can't be serious.

Back in time, to the nineties when the hard-wired networks ruled the waves, and engineers started preparing a revision of the French electrical code in many workgroups and committees of the UTE organisation. Where soon two blood groups started arguing with each other. The old fashioned electricians with their emphasis on electrical safety issues, and the modernists, advocating home automation. The outcome in 2002 was the obligation to install a communication network (phone, tv, computer) in new builds and in the case of total renovations. Not everybody happy: some Consuel inspectors were of the opinion that this is outside the original mandate (mission creep) and some in the construction industry feared ever increasing building costs. An example is this question in parliament, the French Assemblée. Answer of the minister: I'm going to study this. Afterwards lots of silence and the 2008 financial crisis with an acceleration of the decline of the French construction industry.

Until a few months ago when well informed circles mentioned the outline of a draft revision of the NF C 15-100 regs. Back to basics: obligations only for electrical safety issues, and the rest under the umbrella of "confort". Implication: telecom infrastructure facultative. A smile for some, alarm bells for others, who wrote an open letter to the French Prime Minister. And underlined their position on the frontpage of their website. Another summary here.

So far no new government decision. Let's wait and see who wins this new years battle in the corridors of power in Paris. Or perhaps yet another compromise.

Robert

What’s new? Amendement 5 to the French electrical code NFC 15-100 has been published 30/6/2015. After the government promises of a simplification of the construction regs – to get things moving there is now a special committee. Announced December last year already, now official thanks to a special décret a few months ago by la ministre du Logement, Sylvia Pinel. If you read this you'll get the picture, the promise of real soon now is in the fridge: Un nouvel organe pour rélancer la réforme des normes de construction. Le Conseil supérieur de la construction et de l’efficacité énergétique est créé dans le but de mieux associer les professionnels de l’immobilier aux réformes.

The AFNOR / UTE guys just continued doing what they have done for many years: step by step upgrades. You can buy your personal copy in the AFNOR boutique, only € 150.50. Or read it online, free, costs you nothing. Impossible (for me) to print or do something clever with print screen utilities. Inscription needed and a recent version of Acrobat Reader plus a plug-in by the name of File Open. For some or other reason their website had problems when trying to “consulter” this new amendement A5. This afternoon the skies cleared and I had a look at the 120 pages now available: the 10-inch screen size of my netbook was not very helpful. Only a few remarks and several links to information from a French electrician, Carminas, who managed to copy several pages of the new regs. Perhaps he bought the rather expensive paper or digital edition in AFNOR's bookshop.

New regs for the volumes in the salle d’eaus, for the liaison équipotentielle supplémentaire[/url], max number of sockets (12 for 2.5mm² wiring), max of 8 disjoncteurs for an Interrupteur Différentiel (RCD), changes in the circuits specialisés, clarification about wiring size from AGCP to distribution board and much more. The communication network is still there. And the GTL has been embedded in a more general concept called ETEL: Espace Technique Electrique du Logement. I’m afraid this is typical French: the GTL concept can only be O.K. if there is a firm (?) foundation in some sort of philosophy.

Voluntary compliance till the end of this year. Obligatoire in 2016. Changes still possible if the competent minister decides to modify the regs: "...comme le prévoit le ministère du Logement, ce dispositif est modifié par un nouvel arrêté publié d’ici là". And finally the icing on the cake: publication in le Journal Officiel.

To my surprise no announcement so far from Promotelec: here is our new edition of Locaux d’habitation. Last year they skipped their usual annual update because of the announced simplification. The 2013 edition is still available in their bookshop.

Because Promotelec’s website in their recent press releases (actualités) only mentions one of their new labels (Découvrez le Label Promotelec Habitat Neuf, 12/05/2015) and some Oscar awards in the electrical domain (Trophées Promotelec 2015 : les 12 nommés dévoilés, 10/07/2015) and nothing about this new Amendement 5 or a new edition of their summary of the French electrical code, I’ve just phoned them.

Answer: a new edition of Locaux d’habitation early next year. In other words: the fight about the simplification of the French electrical code continues and Promotelec (and others) are not going to publish anything in print until everything has been agreed, signed, sealed and delivered.

I'm impressed with your tenacity....this whole electrical code issue reminds me that 'bureaucracy' is basically a French term.

This simplification exercise as announced last year by president Hollande has one weak point: how to define the rules of engagement, what set of criteria do we need to see what can be binned or not in this mountain of laws and regulations. You need new regs and committees to get rid of the old ones.... A former French Prime Minister, Jacques Chaban Delmas wrote this about the French bureaucracy: < Et quand on les alimente, elles grossissent et donnent naissance à d'autres structures. Les textes aussi se reproduisent et se démultiplient, car il faut bientôt des protocoles pour appliquer les protocoles >. Mid sixties of another century.

Typical French? No. Ask Jamie Oliver.

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, so I thought: simplification, less regs, more flex. True and not true for counting the sockets necessary to conform to the new regs. Minimum number of sockets for living room and chambres etc. At first sight you might think: 12 sockets allowed under the new amendement 5 is more than the 8 we took for granted with 2.5 mm² wiring, the same for 8 instead of 5 for 1.5 mm² wiring. It could have been so nice if the so called décompte rules were still there, but they have been deleted, quote from amendement 5:

10.1.3.3.2. Nombre minimal par pièce.
Le décompte des socles de prise de courant se fait socle par socle que ce socle soit integré dans un boîtier simple ou multiple

So the counting has been simplified, one socket is one socket. At the expense of the maximum number of sockets: under the old décompte regs: using "double" boîtiers (counting for only one) you could have 16 sockets (2,5 mm²) or 10 (1.5 mm²) using one circuit. More circuits and more copper from now on I'm afraid.

What took them so long? Promotelec finally published a summary of the A5 changes in the French electrical code.

Anything new about the communication network: in or out? No, somewhere next year, the competent authorities in Paris are still busy, from meeting room to meeting room, from pause-café to more than one pause de réflexion. Listening to the several lobbying pressure groups. Optical fibre should be made obligatory, otherwise France is doomed. It should be in every house! To quote Promotelec: ” En parallèle, les pouvoirs publics travaillent à une nouvelle architecture réglementaire visant à préciser les éléments permettant de répondre aux politiques publiques de sécurité et de déploiement du très haut débit. Les arrêtés devraient être publiés en 2016 pour préciser notamment les éléments relatifs aux réseaux et tableaux de communication à installer obligatoirement dans les logements neufs."

It's not only France....we just arrived back in California, where (possibly relating to the relatively vast territory), internet connections are somewhat spotty. Our little community on the north coast, about 150km north of San Francisco, has been trying to get fiberoptic cable for literally decades. It's in the bureaucratic hopper still.

Today November 27 2015 the start of the new Amendement 5 regulations. Legrand published this morning a summary and something for easier reading. See also this Promotelec information and updates by Schneider and Hager.

Say it with flowers on Valentine's day. Or with pictures as the French magazine SystèmeD did this morning, sending their loyal readers a summary of the articles they published the last years about le tableau électrique, or whatever you call it: consumer unit, distribution board etc.