ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades UK color-code deadline approaches

My one dis-agreement against authorities mucking around with colour codes, is the fact that some-one will get killed one day.
It's all very well to identify (sleeve) a wire or two at the end of a run, what happens if some idiot tries to splice into an cable that has a different meaning in the middle?.
Your thoughts?.

My feeling is that color code changes should only be required for new construction, or major remodels, but that limited additions to an existing installed system should reflect the code currently in use within that system, especially if old and new codes use the same colors for different purposes.

If the wiring is in cable, it's one thing, since you can tell that the wiring is matched to the new or old code, but in conduit, it's a different story.
It should never be possible to have 2 wires of the same color, in the same pipe, with opposing functions, as that is a recipe for disaster.

That's one of the reasons now with 2 way switching for a light for example it is mandatory to use the correct cable colours R,W,B 3 core TPS.

Green or black are not be used for phases and also not to be sleeved with a phase colour as Mike ( Trumpy ) already mentioned.


POCO's seem to have their own rules and it's very bad to see the black, non colour coded cables in pillars used for phases and green phase wires used as droppers in transformer cubicles.

My penny worth on this topic

Raymond

Or within the same installation in my opinion. Under the "old" system, it was normal to wire all single-phase circuits with a red phase, no matter which of three phases it was derived from. However, a single-phase sub-feeder to another panel could be wired with a matching phase conductor (red, yellow, or blue).

So a 1-ph feeder from phase C under the old colors will be blue phase, black neutral. A 1-ph feeder from phase B under the new system will be blue neutral, black phase.

O.K., a sub-feeder just runs from one panel to another and it should be obvious which conductor lands on the neutral at each end, but I still don't like it.


And that the changes were totally unnecessary. Our system has worked well for decades and there was simply no need to mess around with it at all just so that we have the same color codes right across Europe.

I'm sure that our European friends must also have concerns, e.g. I wouldn't be at all surprised if those in Germany aren't at all happy with gray being phase C now (formerly neutral).

All we've done is create one horrible mess, and we still don't have one standard color code since existing installations are still going to be in service for many, many years to come.

In Austria and Germany there's one big rule... install new stuff to code, but don't trust _any_ old wiring color. Makes for a little more work always checking what you really have, but to me that sounds like a sensible approach. And while fixed wiring is not _that_ bad, old UK flexible cords exported to other countries could have had fatal results! I remember quite vividly having an old UK tape recorder when I was about 8, plug cut off, ends black, green and red... of course we thought black is phase, red ground, so green has to be the neutral. (before I took it apart I didn't even know it was from the UK). Don't wan't to imagine what could have happened with that beast!
So I guess iinternational harmonization is a good thing in that respect, and having two different color codes for fixed and flexible wiring just sounds ridiculous for a non-brit, sorry to say that!

Paul,
Yesterday an Inspector was sent to Timaru to investigate an accident and it involved colour codes.
I'll get back to you when I know more.