Cable – A cable is made up of one or more conductors and their insulated surrounding

Twin and Earth (1) - This is the most common cable used in domestic electrical installations, it is a flat grey thermo-plastic sheathed cable. Inside, it has two single conductors of the same size that are both separately insulated, one is brown in colour denoting its intended use as the line conductor, and the other is blue, denoting its intended use as the neutral conductor. A third un-insulated conductor sits between the two and this is used as the Circuit Protective Conductor or ‘earth’ as it is commonly known.

Flex (2) – A flexible cable that has a soft rubber or thermoplastic outer sheath and individually insulated conductors inside it. Each individual conductor is made up of very fine strands of copper to allow the cable to repeatedly flex.

SWA (3) – Steel Wire Armour, this is a cable that is surrounded by a layer of armour made up of steel wire, it is generally used where the cable requires a high degree of protection.  We mainly use FP400 or FP600 in our installation from Sprinklers and Watermist as they offer a 60- or 120-minute fire protection. In our EV installation we mainly use EV Proinstall 5 Core CAT6A LSZH Cable

LSHF (4) – Low Smoke Halogen Free cable is a cable with a particular type of insulation that is designed so that it emits a small amount of smoke and zero halogen when exposed to fire or heat.

‘Singles’ (5) –  A colloquial term used for when a cable is a self-contained single conductor, can refer to any cable that is singular, however in a domestic setting PVC insulated singles are often what is mean by the use of the term.

FP200 Standard or Enhanced (6) - Highly durable and dress-able, easy to terminate and install fire resistant cable. Approved for fire detection and fire alarm critical signal paths to BS5839-1:2002+A2:2008 and voice alarm systems to BS5839-8:2008 in ‘standard’ application areas, and emergency lighting systems to BS5266-1:2011