Firstly, If you look at the very first post that i posted it was me that received a lot of insults,abuse whatever you want to call it, It was never my intention to come on this forum and give abuse but i was just reacting to the hostile reception i received, I post on several other forums and have never encountered such behaviour before and wasn't prepared to just accept people talking to me like that as a newcomer to a forum.
anyway all i'm trying to say is this is a technical forum and is there to answer technical questions , a lot of people that ask seem to be inexperienced or untrained in electrics and having dabbled are now in a desperate situation hence their posts, although i agree that they shouldn't dabble in things that they don't understand I don't take the line of condemning them, as It's not for me to tell them if they can or not but merely advise after all isn't that what forums are for, to pass on knowledge, advice? Whenever i reply i'm not reading up somewhere but usually answer from my memory,experience unless i can't remember or i am not completely sure if the advice i'm giving is accurate.
Anyway i apologise for my strong post and hope that i can beg to disagree sometimes without having to endure insults etc
I did mention before in a post that if I felt someone had put me right about something and i agreed, I would hold my hands up and accept it
I agree what you are saying about the flash test that manufacturers have to comply to the BSI and it is my belief that the flash test amongst others is carried out before the item leaves the factory and the approval sticker then covers this item for a given period thereafter In the Pat test courses i have attended the advice from the lecturer(and this was a shock to me when first told it as we had adopted it as practise at work and were flash testing as a matter of course)was that the flash test because of it's nature should only be used after the item has aged beyond it's specified lifespan or if it was suspected that the insulation may not be up to specs maybe due to the fact say that a pvc lead had been left in a sunny location and might have degraded naturally or if it has had to be rewired due to damage each test has a significant degridation on the insulating properties of the supply cord and premature ageing of the cord could ensue.