NF C 15-100

France’s residential electrical standard. What NF C 15-100 covers, how French regulation gives it statutory weight, how the CONSUEL Attestation de Conformité works, and what WireSketch does — and doesn’t — model for French installations.

What NF C 15-100 is

NF C 15-100 is the French national standard for low-voltage electrical installations. The currently relevant text is the 2002 base edition together with the 2005 update and amendments A1 through A5. It is published in the AFNOR ecosystem and developed under UTE conventions, and it transposes the HD 60364 family that the rest of the EU shares — with substantial French-specific overlay on socket density, mandatory circuit counts, and special locations.

Crucially, NF C 15-100 is a voluntary standard that French regulation explicitly hooks into. The Arrêté du 3 août 2016 (JORF n°0183, NOR LHAL1522022A), at Article 4, grants presumption of conformity to residential installations “conçues et réalisées selon les prescriptions du titre 10 de la norme NF C 15-100 de 2002, la mise à jour de 2005 de la norme NF C 15-100 de 2002 et ses amendements A1 à A5”. The same arrêté references NF C 14-100:2008 for the connection works between the network and the installation. That “presumption of conformity” mechanism is what makes NF C 15-100 the de facto binding standard for French residential design.

Who NF C 15-100 applies to

All low-voltage residential electrical installations in France. The standard is what a French electrician designs to, what an inspector checks against, and what CONSUEL signs off on before Enedis will energise a new connection.

The enforcement model: CONSUEL + Attestation de Conformité

The French model centres on the Attestation de Conformité, a pre-energisation conformity attestation that CONSUEL visas before the distribution network operator (Enedis) will connect a new installation. CONSUEL received official agrément on 17 October 1973 under Décret 72-1120 to attest conformity of interior electrical installations. The Attestation de Conformité is legally required before definitive energisation of any new installation.

The legal frame around the regime has evolved. The original Décret 72-1120 (14 December 1972) was repealed by Décret n°2015-1823 of 30 December 2015 and recodified into the Code de l’énergie — so any current legal citation must point to the codified provisions rather than the 1972 decree itself. The operational regime continues unchanged, and was further modernised by Décret 2024-1122 and the arrêté of 4 décembre 2024 to enable electronic transmission of the Attestation to Enedis.

The practical implication for any planning tool: the compliance artefact in France is the visa’d Attestation de Conformité, issued downstream of the electrician’s work and CONSUEL’s inspection. WireSketch’s planner output is a design and discussion artefact only.

Key requirements

NF C 15-100 transposes the HD 60364 skeleton and overlays France-specific rules. The baseline that is shared with the rest of the family:

• Bathroom volumes 0/1/2/3 in the IEC 60364-7-701 model, transposed for French use.
• RCD protection for socket and bathroom circuits, with French-specific scope and type rules.
• Selection and erection of wiring systems per HD 60364-5-52 as transposed.
• Special locations from the HD 60364-7 series — bathrooms, swimming pools, EV charging (IRVE), photovoltaic.
• Initial verification against the standard, with the CONSUEL visa as the regulatory layer on top.

France-specific deltas — mandatory circuit counts per room, socket-density rules, the well-known requirements around the tableau électrique — live on top of that baseline. WireSketch’s research did not surface a verified primary-source enumeration of every NF C 15-100 socket-density and circuit-count rule, so this page does not invent them. A French electrician will know them; this page acknowledges the gap.

What WireSketch models from NF C 15-100

Honest answer: WireSketch does not yet model NF C 15-100 as a separate region. The closest selector is DIN 18015 / VDE 0100 (Germany) as a generic HD 60364 baseline. With DIN selected in France you get:

• IEC 60364 wet-room Zone 0/1/2 in bathroom mode — the underlying model NF C 15-100 transposes.
• Type A RCD as the default main protection — a reasonable residential baseline; the French text has its own scope rules.
• Kitchen-rule dedicated circuits for heavy appliances — sensible everywhere in the HD 60364 family.
• Generic installation-zone overlays drawn from DIN 18015 — useful as a planning aid; they are not French conventions and do not encode the NF C 15-100 socket-density rules.

What WireSketch doesn’t model

• NF C 15-100 French-specific socket density and circuit counts — the well-known minimum-equipment rules per room are not enforced by the planner.
• Tableau électrique conventions — the French distribution-board layout rules (reserves, organisation, GTL) are not modelled.
• CONSUEL Attestation de Conformité format — the legal artefact is not produced by the app.
• Pre-Enedis-energisation workflow — the app does not interface with the French connection-acceptance process.
• NF C 14-100 connection works — the standard covering the network-side connection is separate and not modelled.
• Amendment-A5 IRVE specifics — while WireSketch can plan EV-charging fixtures, the French A5 EV-charging rules are not encoded.

Practical tip

If you are a homeowner in France planning a remodel or new build: use WireSketch with the DIN 18015 selector to capture the layout you want, generate the Renovation Brief PDF, and give it to your French electrician. Be explicit that you understand the binding standard is NF C 15-100, that the electrician will design to its socket-density and circuit-count rules, and that CONSUEL will visa the Attestation de Conformité before Enedis energises a new connection.

If you are a French electrician, treat WireSketch as a layout and client-communication tool. Translate the layout to NF C 15-100 conventions in your own design package, route the Attestation de Conformité through CONSUEL, and use NF C 14-100 for the connection works.