The different types of electric wires

You have no doubt noticed that there are different types of electric wires for the household electrical installation. Before seeing why such a variety of electrical wires, I will introduce you to those, you may encounter during your electrical work.

A bit of vocabulary: electric wire, electric conductor, insulated conductor, and electric cable

You will hear me (or instead read me) talking about the electric wire in this article, so you might as well be clear. This is a misnomer. Here are the exact terms to use.

An electrical conductor is a material that can conduct electricity. It is characterized by its ability to transport electrical energy, its density, conductivity, resistance.

In electricity, there are two electrical conductors (improperly electric wires) which allow current to be transported in the electrical installation:

•       The isolated conductor
•       Electric cable

The insulated electrical conductor:

The insulated conductor consists of a conductive core and an insulating jacket. The soul is the metal part that allows the electric current to be transported. It is most often made of copper for the wires of the electrical installation. The envelope is made of PVC (plastic is fantastic!) And of a different color to identify the electrical conductors.

The core can be made up of a single “solid” wire or several small wires. This is called a multi-strand insulated electrical conductor.

When I talk about electric wire, I am therefore talking about insulated electric conductor. Below I have stripped to distinguish between the copper core and the blue PVC insulating casing for a neutral wire.

The electric cable:

The electric cable is formed from several electric conductors, themselves under another insulating envelope.

• Why group insulated electrical conductors in an electrical cable? To save time and money
• Why an additional insulating jacket? To insulate (easy) and protect according to uses

Numbers and letters to designate electric wires

A European committee paid by your taxes

I like starting with a title like that. Everyone knows that Europe is a gas machine, so I present a very small part of it to you, CENELEC. It is the European Committee for the Standardization of Electrical Engineering, a sounding name for an organization that must cost us dearly. In short, I am talking about this committee because it is he who established a code to give the characteristics of an electrical conductor. Code that I will explain to you below.

Each electrical conductor is identified by a set of letters and numbers to give a rather barbaric name, like H07V-U.

Case of a single insulated electrical conductor

The first letter gives the national or international scope:

• A designates a national type recognized by CENELEC
• H a Harmonized type
• FR-N a national type with an international designation
• U a national type resulting from the former UTE designation

Simple no ( ironic )?

 This information is not essential to remember, you might as well remember that you are going to use in your electrical installation electrical conductors, which most often start with H and U.

Thus an H07-VU electrical wire is an electrical conductor of the harmonized type.

The second part contains several digits that designate the maximum rated voltage supported by the wire: Once again, for simplicity in the example H07V-U means that the maximum voltage supported by the wire is 700 volts. To find out why they did not choose to put 700 directly. Conversely, there is U 1000 R 2V wire, and in this denomination, 1000 is simply written. (simplicity, when you hold us )

The last two letters that follow indicate:

• The nature of the insulation: may be important, most often PVC or PRC
• The type of the core: Interestingly, this letter gives indications on the electric wire’s flexibility: U and R for the rigid and K for a flexible core.

Thus, this same insulated electrical conductor H07V-U has a PVC insulator – the V – and a rigid copper core – the U.

Case of an electric cable

In the case of a multi-conductor electrical cable, at the end of the code are added additional letters and numbers (again!)

For example, 3G 1.5

• The 3 indicates that the cable contains 3 insulated conductors
• The G indicates that one of the conductors is green-yellow(to be used for the earth wire only)
• 1.5 gives the section of the electric wires that make up the cable

So, which insulated electrical conductor or which cable for my electrical installation?

Are you tired of standards? I understand, but that’s the lot of an electrician. So let’s move on to the cables and electric wires that you will be able to use during your electrical work:

H 07V-U: the best companion for your electrical installation:

It is obviously this electric wire that you will be using the most. This is what we buy on a reel and pass through ICTA sheaths. The most commonly used sections are:

• 1.5mm² sections for lighting up to 16A and controls
• Sections of 2.5mm² for sockets and specialized sockets up to 20A
• Section of 6mm² for devices up to 32A

There are larger sections, but this wire has a massive copper core (the U), and is therefore unwieldy. I will give you an alternative in the case of larger sections at the end of the article (HO7-VK).

The R2V electric cable: A time saver for certain uses:

This is the cable that you can use for lighting, and sockets. It consists of 3, 4, or 5 electric wires and allows you to save time when passing through your networks. The passage can be done under ICTA sheath or not, but this will be the subject of another article.

For my part, I often use it with IRO tubes to make electrical assemblies in garages, cellars, etc.

H07V-K: flexibility in your electrical panel:

This H07V-K electric wire is composed of copper strands, which gives it the particularity of being flexible. It is very useful for making connections in electrical panels when larger sections are required.

The only downside is that you have to use a ferrule with an insulating collar at each end of the H07V-K type electric wire.

Below is a 16mm² blue multi-strand H07V-K wire for the neutral, very easy to handle. I intentionally strip and separate the browns to show the stranded aspect of this insulated electrical conductor.