While the creation of a safer domestic electrical domain will be good for the cable industry, wire is not the only beneficiary. In many instances, the provision of suitable earth leakage protection (with RCDs) and over-current protection (with correctly sized fuses and circuit breakers) provide relatively cheap means of ensuring basic electrical safety. The need for new wires to ensure basic safety really comes into play only where there is clear evidence that existing wires are deficient. This is the case where there is physical deterioration of older wires or symptoms of severe over-loading, with overheating and burn marks being apparent.

Wire takes more of a centre stage where the issue of functionality is considered alongside that of safety. An installation that has less than ideal wire size may be made safe by installing better circuit protection, but a circuit that cuts out when put under stress is hardly fully functional. A system that has insufficient wire length may be intrinsically »safe« within its design limits, but if its functional use then means the use of many adaptors and trailing extension cords because there are too few sockets, higher-grade wiring is clearly needed. Take this alongside the growing requirement for better power quality resulting from the pervasive use of electronic equipment in modern homes we can then see a real need for a greater length of wire in more circuits, improved in both conductor and neutral sizing. Whether this need will be translated into practice remains the question.