There was a short thread on the IEE Forum a few weeks ago asking about hookup cords for campsite use.

The ready-made leads sold here almost always have orange flex, but I mentioned that when I make hookup leads for myself I've always preferred to use yellow. In fact I've just made up a new 25' cord for my RV project using "Arctic" yellow (blue CEE connectors for 240V, of course).

One person mentioned that to him a yellow cord would suggest 110 volts. Of course, the CEEform connectors, site transformers, and extension leads for U.K. 110V construction tools are indeed almost universally yellow, but I've never automatically associated the color of the flex with the voltage in use.

This has just been bugging me, so I have to ask: Do any of ECN's Brit members associate yellow with 110V to the point where you would consider its use for anything else odd?

Paul,
My understanding of the flex colours was that White was for Light Duty (House-hold) use.
Grey for Ordinary (Office) Duty use.
Orange and Yellow for Heavy (Commercial/Industrial) Duty use.
Just my $0.02 worth.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-23-2005).]

Interesting one that. As one on the outside looking in, so to speak, I would associate yellow flex cable with 110V purely because that is the only use I’ve ever seen them put to. The caravan I’m staying at the moment has a white cable with blue 240V CEE plug and trailing socket and I’ve noticed from looking around the site that the made-up ones tend to be orange or blue cables – not a yellow one seen yet.

Of course the 110V extension leads that are about to be used in South Oxfordshire chez Hutch will be orange with black or orange NEMA 5-15 plugs and sockets on them ‘coz that’s what I’ve got!

Another outside view... the colors don't seem to be international. Light duty cords can have any fancy color. Medium duty cords (PVC sheathed, used for office, work shop, garden, type H05-VV-F) are usually red, orange or yellow, but can be black or white too. Heavy duty construction grade cords (synthetic rubber sheathed H07-RN-F) are always yellow or black.

I associate yellow with 110V, probably because the plugs are yellow too. Orange is often used for 'mower' extension leads, with the plugs being orange as well. S'pose it contrasts well with the green grass.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Certainly I would never associate light-duty appliance cords by color whatsoever, as all sorts of things have been used. For example, I still have a length of 2-core flex with a pink outer jacket in my junkbox, salvaged from an old electric blanket which also had a pink switch to match the blanket itself. And of course, all the old vintage radio gear can have anything from white, to light beige, to tan, to dark brown, plus a few other oddball colors as well.

Interesting the comment about blue cords for campsite hookups, as somebody on the IEE forum mentioned such, saying that it would be a good color. Personally, I would have thought orange, yellow, or even plain white would stand out much better than blue against the ground.

For myself, I tend to go more by the colour/type of end connectors, rather than the colour of the cord itself. I think yellow for caravan/mobile home hookups is an excellent idea, more visible even than the orange.

One thing I noted when in the US is the availability of green cords for garden equipment, which seems odd to me, given that people will then be encouraged to tack it along a fence/wall, or use it for the electric mower/edger and then cut through it because they didn't see it. This seems at odds with UL's and the NEC's practice of discouraging potentially hazardous situations.

Doesn't 110V carry (roughly) twice the current of a 240V circuit?.
As far as a flexible cord goes?.
Mind you, as far as Paul's first post goes, in a campsite, the blue (IEC 309) plugs they are "Standard" for single phase caravans, we even use them here.
Paul,
Yes that was for sure a silly idea, that you base a flexible cord on it's colour, but over here it is a fact, even my friends from Australia would back that up.
Anything Blue here as far as cables go, would be made for low temperatures.
A little off-topic, but we have purple sheathed TPS made for contact with Poly-styrene, for use in Cooler wall buildings.

Excellent point Trumpy, it's not just me then! I read somewhere yonks ago that polystyrene foam should not be allowed to come in permanent contact with pvc cable insulation in a building. Some sort of reaction between the plastics causing degradation of the insulation? In my workshop I have 60mm (2 1/2") P.S. foam/10mm sheetrock as the insulation boards and ran a lap of heavy polythene DPC over the cabling and pvc conduit before fixing the plasterwork, poo-pooed by the Scot neighbour as a waste of time.
Alan

Styrene is a solvent to many other plastics. For example, polyester resin, for fibre-glass etc., in the raw liquid state is dissolved in styrene, and the styrene evaporates off as the polyester cures. Polystyrene gradually breaks back down to styrene.

PVC cables I've seen that have had a long term exposure to styrene seem to go greasy and soft.

I've got a pop-art hair dryer with a pink cord. Cost me €1 at the flea amrket, just bought it for the fun of it. One company used to have sky blue cords for their daylight projectors. Curly Schuko extension cords are available in white, yellow, orange, red, dark blue, dark green, brown, black and translucent.
The scariest lookin thing I've ever seen: US translucent SPT1 zip cord... does make you a little careful touching the cord...

There was a similarly scary-looking cord used here in the past too. "Twisted twin" was common on radios, table lamps, and similar low-power devices:



The one above is plain white, but it was also available with a semi-translucent light brown insulation so you could see the inner conductors to a limited degree, and in a version with completely clear insulation so at a quick glance it looked like a pair of bare stranded conductors twisted together!



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-26-2005).]

in general cord colour's only for decorative purposes. With outdoor hook-ups the only colour that has to be consistant is the CEE plug. I wouldn't worry too much about the colour of the cord as long as it's appropriatly rated for the load that it's supplying.

The only rules I'm aware of on cord colours are for garden equipment. i.e. the use of bright orange cords to ensure that you can see them against vegetation.

Wasn't unusual in the old days to have lawnmowers with home-made hookups with white or even BROWN cord that was semi-invisible on the grass.


Those yellow cords you're mentioning are at least high-visibility.

Yeah the yellow ones are good for high vis. have you seen the florescent green, pink and blue ones. Loud, at least they're easy to see.

Pauluk,
as you are aware, i work within the liesure industy, mostly, and we are currently re modeling a nightclub,
as normal, (on every site i have ever worked on), the only power on site is 110v ac.

all socket outlets/leads/plugs (16amp and 32amp CEEtype are all yellow.

no 230v ac is allowed on site even if it is fitted with an RCD and wired in blue arctic with CEEtype socket outlets.

under the current HSE regs, (as far as i am aware), 230v ac is only allowed within `safe areas` Ie our tea room/site office etc.

we have 2 x 10kw 110v ac transformers on each floor fed via a 3 phase mains panel fitted to the top floor of the building, all feeders to the transformers are SWA 10mm three core (new harmonised cable colours, now thats another subject) tied off to various old ceiling hangers, to ensure least amount of damage by person (s) on site.

the sites a clean and clear site (it should be we have five Polish labourers on site permanantly).

will get some more photos for you so as you can see the progress. its great all cable tray and tubing!!!

Britspark.

Hmmm.... You know I've only just stopped to think about the colors available for Arctic flex. I've only ever seen it in the yellow and blue versions.

Is it usual for 240V extensions on building sites to use the blue, matching the connectors? (The worksites I'm on are usually private or small-contractor sites where -- how shall we put this -- conditions are not always what might be considered as the norm for a full-fledged construction outfit ).

Come to think of it, is there an Arctic flex available with 5-cores and red sheath for 415V applications?

On the campsite application it just seems to me that visibility is the prime concern.

All construction grade 3ph extension cords I've ever seen were H07RN-F 5G2,5 or 5G4 and came in yellow or black, sometimes white (probably not-so construction grade cords made up with H05VV-F 5G2,5).