ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades New U.K. color code

Things seem to have settled down O.K. here in the Midlands. One small independant Elec wholsaler I use still seems to have quite a stock of old colours in 6491x but all other stuff is available in new colours. Even managed to get 100mts 185mm x 4core new colours with a next day delivery to site. Pretty good I thought. I travel all over the country from time to time and still find the West Mids on of the best places in the country to get materials quickly. Paul it sounds pretty grim where you operate!

What's happening with our antipodean colleagues? Will Australia, New Zealand and South Africa follow suit?

Four years ago South Africa was still red, white and blue for phases.

I was going to mention this in the Aussie/NZ rules thread, but as it's been brought up here.......



Am I missing something elsewhere in AS3000, or is this the only place where any colors are specified?

Is certainly looks as though the days of yellow phase B are numbered in New Zealand.

What's noteworthy here is that the standard doesn't seem to specify colors for phases. Tne British IEE Regs. have explicitly stated that red/yellow/blue shall be used since 1964 (and red/white/blue before that time).

I note also that the alternate "Euro" standard actually states the neutral shall be light blue, as was the original intention here.

Newsflash: The September BDC catalog has just arrived.

They are now listing harmonized 6242Y (2+earth) and 6243Y (3+earth) cables, but only in 1, 1.5, and 2.5mm sizes, yet all the conventional 6242Y/6243Y is now listed as "Available while stocks last."

They seem to have the full-range of harmonized 2, 3, and 4c SWA (armored) in all sizes up to 25mm though, again with old colors listed as "While stocks last."

Meter tails are now brown and blue only -- They've dropped red and black entirely.

6491X (singles for conduit) is now listed as available in red, black, brown, blue, and green/yellow. Have they decided that nobody is going to wire 3-phase in conduit any more?

I really don't understand how this particular place is going about the changeover. It seems to make no sense.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 09-10-2004).]

One thing about these harmonised colours that bugs me a little is that I have yet to see the relevant colours available in tapes for phasing etc...

One thing at a time I suppose...

Paul,
Not sure if I quite get what you mean?.

Yes, Paul, as far as the PoCo that I work for goes, Yellow is non-existant now with new stuff.
All new mains, feeders and the like, all have the White B Phase.
Cable manufacturers here started using white as soon as they found out that a change was in the wind, in fact even before the amendment to the Regs came out.
Just as a small note too, I have seen over the years here, with older Underground cables, Orange was also popular as the colour for the B Phase too, before yellow, so I am told by older folk at the PoCo.

Sorry, I might have been a little cryptic there. What I meant was that this table is the only reference I could find to color coding, and it doesn't explicitly specify the phase colors. Just red, or any color other than black, blue, green, or green/yellow.

The British regs. explicity state that phases A, B, C shall be red, yellow, blue respectively (or brown, black, gray under the new system).

I think the last part of your post about orange as phase B in some installations confirms that you have no specifically defined phase colors, just an accepted convention. Right?