Mains Cable Colours

Just opposite to the existing colour scheme.

Mains cable colours. The harmonized cable core colours and the alphanumeric marking of the following standards. Old cable colour code. Brown orange and yellow are used for 480 vac. Obviously millions of existing cables had the existing red black and yellow green colours installed and to limit the number of installations where new circuit additions would mean mixing the colours it was agreed that even though the new regulations did not become compulsory until 31st march 2006 from 31st may 2004 the new cable colours could be used.

It s important that properties get their wiring checked to see if the wiring colours are out of date have deteriorated over time and to check if they comply with bs 7671 wiring. From 1 mar 09 onwards all new electrical installations including addition and alteration to existing electrical installations may use new colour cables of brown black grey for line. Tv aerial cables do not carry any voltage but many are brown in colour the same colour as the new live wiring in the uk. Hd 308 s2 2001 identification of cores in cables and flexible cords bs en 60445 2000 basic and safety principles for man machine interface marking and identification of equipment terminals and of terminations bs en 60446 2000.

Iec dc power circuit wiring color codes. What colour are the wires in an american mains lead. In the new cable colour code the colours of blue and black are used to identify neutral and phase conductors i e. In 2006 amendment 2 of 17 th edition bs7671 wiring regulations saw a change to harmonise the uk colours with the european cable colours for consistency and to avoid confusion.

Standard multi core lines are available with 2 cores 3 cores 4 cores or 5 cores however some manufacturers offer rubber flexible cable variants with up to 19 conductive cores. The uk s new cable colours for plugs are now harmonise with europe s power cable colours for ac dc. 2004 amd 14905 to bs 7671 2001 implemented the following. Such change may cause confusion to electrical workers.

New vs old wiring colours. In the old cable colour code the colours of blue and black are used to identify phase and neutral conductors respectively. Black live white neutral and green earth. The iec color standard for dc power cables is listed in table below adapted from table 2 cook.

Dc power installations for example solar power and computer data centers use color coding which follows the ac standards. Australia also have a different wiring colour standard. Typically single core mains cables are used for higher current ratings as one line will be used for each of the three phases plus neutral and earth. Other cable colours to be aware of.

Just to confuse matters there are other cables in the uk that have similar colours to the mains electrical wiring.