ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades International Wire Colour Codes

Question for US members: I saw that UL now mandates green/yellow for flex cords. Has this begun to catch on yet?

Paul
Good idea, but I feel that I have posted this topic in the wrong area.

Trumpy,
I'm guessing that you asked for e-mail notification of replies and then followed the link in the e-mail back to this thread. If you look more closely you'll see that Bill has already moved the thread from the general area into the international section (at my suggestion).

By the way, anyone know what the old color code was in France? I've not been able to track that one down.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 10-09-2002).]

I did a google-search for old French colour codes and came up empty handed. Try asking in a French forum, like the fr.rec.bricolage NG.

I found some more information on the colour of the protective earth conductor.
(For Sweden)

Prior to 1960: No rules
1960: Red for cables; red or g/y for flexes
1968: g/y for both cables and flexes (transition period until 1972)

I have no idea why they didn't go for green/yellow only in 1960.

paul — In the US NEC, "green with one or more yellow stripes" [or bare] for equipqmnt-ground conductors has been around since at least since "...the sixties."

The green/yellow earth wire has been recognized since the 1960s here as well, although only for the EGC in a cord.

The 1966 IEE Regs. specify only plain green, but the green/yellow was added as an amendment sometime later. The 1970 revised edition specifies green/yellow as being the only acceptable colors for a cord EGC, along with brown & blue in place of the old red & black for line & neutral respectively.

I've seen a few appliance cords made probably during late 1969/early-1970 period which actually have red & black along with a green/yellow ground. I'm not sure if these were British-made, or possibly Continental done for the U.K. market.

a universal system would be nice

Well, Sparky, let's see if we can make one. It's not that hard!

For earth there is only one choice: Green/Yellow. It is already in universal use.

But what about the rest of the conductors?

Colours to choose from:

Blue, Brown, Black, Red, Orange, Green, Yellow, Pink, Purple, White, Grey

You shouldn't have "light" and "dark" of the same colour used for different things, as it will result in mistakes. But, you can specify that a colour should be dark or light to avoid confusion with another colour.

Green and Yellow can't be used since they can be confused with earth.

White and light Grey can be confused when the wires age. White OR Grey is a better choice.

If you use pink, red should be slightly dark to avoid confusion.

It's probably best to use light blue to avoid confusion with purple.

This leaves us with:
Light Blue,
Brown, Black, (Dark) Red, Orange, Pink, Purple, White OR Grey

(8 different colours)

Brown is as far as I can tell used for line everywhere: Thus, it seems like a good choice for first phase.

Purple and Pink are like brown always used for line. Also good choices for line.

Orange can be confused with brown, but it otherwise a good line colour.

Black is used for line in continental Europe and the US, but for neutral in the UK. Therefore, it can't be used for neutral. If used for line it should be second or third phase, since the cable will then contain a brown wire, which warns a UK electrician that it is not to the UK colour code.

Red is used for line in both the US and UK, but not in continental Europe. It was used for earth in Germany and "Germanic" countries (and Japan?). Therefore, it should not be used for neutral or first phase.

Blue is used for line in America and UK, but neutral in international flexible cords. It can't be used for line.

Grey and white are neutral in America but used for line in continental Europe. (The IEC was upset when CENELEC choose light grey for line last year) It seems like it's best to avoid these colours altogether.

The IEC recommend brown and black for line.

This leaves us with:

Earth: Yellow/green

Line: Brown, Orange, Purple and Pink

Line under certain conditions: Black, Red

Neutral: ???

It seems best to choose light blue for neutral, despite the risk of confusion with line in America. Since a cable will contain green/yellow earth and brown as line, the electrician is at least warned.

Here's my suggestion:

(L1/A, L2/B, L3/C, Neutral, Earth)

Brown, Orange, Purple, Light Blue, Green/Yellow.

If you more than three lines, next colours in line are: Black, Pink, Red

Opinions?

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 11-18-2002).]

I would suggest dark brown, so any confusion with orange is pretty unlikely.
Red as line lets the hairs of any central european electrician stand straight up, because it was used as ground, and has been completely outlawed in the early 70ies. You can't buy red wire here, even if you want! If I ever get to Britain (before standardization catches) I'll sure enough return with at least 300m red 1.5 mm2 wire, just for nostalgia.