Can we also go back to red & black wires please...

[Dustydazzler]

Brexit: Government to launch study on economic benefits of reintroducing imperial units

<strong>Exclusive: </strong>Business minister mocked for ‘ludicrous’ attempt to quantify ‘Brexit benefit’

uk.yahoo.com

 

[timhoward]

I’d particularly love to go back to red yellow and blue please for 3 phase.
Whoever came up with brown black and grey has never worked in gloomy distribution cupboards.

 

[Julie.]

I vote to go back to the proper colours!

Red, white, blue for L1, L2, & L3
Green for neutral
Black for earth.

Yes, EARTH, none of this fancy "CPC" stuff!

Proper colours I say!

We can then have a proper notice to 514.14

"...This installation has colours to "s*** loads of versions of bs 7671..."

And we should go back to IEE, none of this IET lark...

And don't get me started on the size of "wagon wheels" today, when I were a kid, they were big enough to replace a three course meal...

 

[pc1966]

At first I thought that was a spoof article, or April 1st joke.

Then I realised how much of a joke we all are now

 

[pc1966]

There is an IET article "The history of colour identification of conductors" (google to find it, links borked on this forum) covering the UK history of colours.

It also has a note by someone involved in the decision for brown/black/grey explaining how it was a combination of the Uk being late to the party and then trying to wrangle a least-worst compromise with others in the EU (and wider) where various colours were in use a CPC so effectively forbidden for phase use and a high risk to life if standards attempted to change that.

 

[telectrix]

At first I thought that was a spoof article, or April 1st joke.

Then I realised how much of a joke we all are now

you think that's bad. try googling "woke".

 

[telectrix]

Red/Yellow/Blue.
Feet and Inches.
Pounds and Ounces/ Stones, Cwts.
Rods, perches, chains, Fathoms. 4 rods = 1 chain.
1 Acre is 4840 sq/yards. the area 1 man with horse and plough could turn over in a summer's day provided that the pub was closed.
Gas bills worded as xp /cu.m so we can gauge the cost. maybe converting the meters to cu.feet. is a step too far.

 

[Julie.]

Red/Yellow/Blue.
Feet and Inches.
Pounds and Ounces/ Stones, Cwts.
Rods, perches, chains, Fathoms. 4 rods = 1 chain.
1 Acre is 4840 sq/yards. the area 1 man with horse and plough could turn over in a summer's day provided that the pub was closed.
Gas bills worded as xp /cu.m so we can gauge the cost. maybe converting the meters to cu.feet. is a step too far.

Funnily enough at one point the phases were called
Phase ------------ cable colour
Red (R) ---------- red
Yellow (Y) ------ white
Blue (B) ---------- blue


I kid you not!

 

[telectrix]

strangely though. D.C. ELV is still red/black, so why is FP200 brown/blue. must be a gender (or some other snowflake fad) thing

 

[Dustydazzler]

We should adopt the American phases , black, black with a white line, red & white

 

[Aaron b]

Colours were still red and black when I was in college, it changed the year I left and part p was brought in.

Flex has been brown and blue for as long as I remember so why do we need the label on the distribution board?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Colours were still red and black when I was in college, it changed the year I left and part p was brought in.

Flex has been brown and blue for as long as I remember so why do we need the label on the distribution board?

Because flex isn't generally used as part of the 'fixed' wiring in homes

I was fortunate that I managed to get about 10 years using red and black cores before the powers that be forced us to change

 

[Aaron b]

Because flex isn't generally used as part of the 'fixed' wiring in homes

I was fortunate that I managed to get about 10 years using red and black cores before the powers that be forced us to change

Still odd though that they think a warning was required when we already knew of the two schemes.

Do you generally see the changes in regulations as an improvement in terms of working practices and safety?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Still odd though that they think a warning was required when we already knew of the two schemes.

Do you generally see the changes in regulations as an improvement in terms of working practices and safety?

It wasn't just changing red and black , we also changed 3c phase colours to brown black and grey so we had to de-neutralise the black and turn it blue.
I think the labelling was for unsuspecting plumbers , kitchen fitters and DIYers who had little knowledge of the phase colour changes...

As for improvements , NO not at all. Part Pee , cable changes and metal boards have made little to zero health and safety advances. Its all just been a money spinner for the powers that control us IMO

 

[Aaron b]

It wasn't just changing red and black , we also changed 3c phase colours to brown black and grey so we had to de-neutralise the black and turn it blue.
I think the labelling was for unsuspecting plumbers , kitchen fitters and DIYers who had little knowledge of the phase colour changes...

As for improvements , NO not at all. Part Pee , cable changes and metal boards have made little to zero health and safety advances. Its all just been a money spinner for the powers that control us IMO

Yeah I always have to consider the de-neutralising the black, I wasn't aware of the article for quite some time and thought it was logical to keep it as black.

It's a shame that the iet didn't address the issue that companies like mk produced crap that wasn't fit for ce marking and instead mislead people about consumer unit fires.

I also agree with you on part P not working.

There's been improvements though like the use wago's, rcbos and fire resistant fixings.

 

[Julie.]

Colours were still red and black when I was in college, it changed the year I left and part p was brought in.

Flex has been brown and blue for as long as I remember so why do we need the label on the distribution board?

To be fair, the colours were RYB Black & Green (or Green/yellow) when I started, (new colours for flex), but virtually all the older properties were in previous colours RWB Black, and either bare or Black for earth. No label on cu then!

Also, some were still RWB and Green (neutral), bare earth.

Again didn't need a label on the cu or dist board

 

[littlespark]

You had an earthwire?

We’re going to end up with cyan, magenta and yellow…. Oh… no. that’s taken

 

[Aaron b]

To be fair, the colours were RYB Black & Green (or Green/yellow) when I started, (new colours for flex), but virtually all the older properties were in previous colours RWB Black, and either bare or Black for earth. No label on cu then!

Also, some were still RWB and Green (neutral), bare earth.

Again didn't need a label on the cu or dist board

I wasn't aware of the green neutral, perhaps I just haven't paid enough when stripping things out. Was that at the same time as the lead sheathed flat cable? Or the vrf stuff?

 

[pirate]

Every cloud, as they say...
If we went back to red and black, all those drums of cable in my garage will suddenly be reprieved!
Along with the drum of twin red...yay!

 

[littlespark]

I wasn't aware of the green neutral, perhaps I just haven't paid enough when stripping things out. Was that at the same time as the lead sheathed flat cable? Or the vrf stuff?

The plain green sleeving is from very old installations… 60’s and 70’s. Not quite as old as lead.
Lighting circuits were lucky if they even had a cpc!

It was around the same time frame as the insulation that breaks down over time and becomes “green goo” which ends up dripping out of sockets.