[SML] wire colors

[e-mail frank.wood95]

It would be very good if there were some degree of uniformity in the
colour coding for mains wiring. The UK and Europe are as bad as
everyone else. Long ago, flexible cords used to be RED(live);
BLACK(neutral); and GREEN(earth). The earth colour was changed to
green/yellow stripe to make life easier for those with
colour-defective vision. A live-neutral cross is seldom of much
consequence, unlike live-earth and neutral earth.

Then came the EU. The standard is now BROWN(live); BLUE(neutral); and
green/yellow for earth. Interestingly, fixed wiring in tube or
trunking retained the old red and black.

Three-phase wiring used to be red, yellow(or white), ant blue for the
three phase, with black and green/yellow for neutral and earth. Now it
is grey(slate), violet(purple), and a third colour that I cannot
remember for the phases. This has led to older installations carrying
labels warning of mixed colour codes on switch gear and distribution
panels.

All I know about US codes and practices has been gleaned from this
list. I know that they tend to treat Neutral and ground with a
disturbing degree of interchangeability, which would lead to the
wholesale condemnation of whole installations by an UK inspector.

Before the EU, some continental countries had strange codes. We once
had a piece of gear come in from Germany with the power cord in red,
black, and white. Instead of opening it up and checking, our
technician took a guess. Red was obviously live, black neutral, so
white must have been earth. WRONG!!! Red was earth, and white live, as
he found the hard way. Fortunately, both he and the gear
survived.Nowadays, I can understand the white(live) and
black(neutral). But the RED earth? No way!


On 28 June 2015 at 02:33, Jerry Durand via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> I was just looking at the wiring diagram for a new cooler for the
> office.  Hookup is pretty standard but the wire colors...
>
> RED
> BL
> Blue
> Wite
> Palm
> Pa
> Yellow
>
> Um, what color is Palm?
>
> --
> Jerry Durand, Durand Interstellar, Inc.  www.interstellar.com
> tel: +1 408 356-3886, USA toll free: 1 866 356-3886
> Skype:  jerrydurand
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
> Stagecraft mailing list
> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net



-- 
Frank Wood