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I have 3 grey cables, each has a red, a blue and a yellow, not yellow and green wire.
I wish to wire up a new double socket where there was previously just a hole in the wall with these 3 cables poking through.
The location is where there was previously an Emerson heater that has been removed.
The double socket is needed to power a vented dryer and a washing machine that are being plumbed in next week.
I am totally unfamiliar with these colours and not sure if it is appropriate to use these cables to for this purpose.
If it is of any help at all, the house was built in 2000 and has a modern fuse box with RCD
If it is appropriate to use these cables, I am assuming I only need 2 of the one for each of the sockets then I would appreciate some advice over which coloured wire goes to which socket terminal.
I assume red is live, blue is neutral and yellow, NOT yellow and green, is earth bit I am not confident in this assumption.
Your expert help and advice is much appreciated
 
Or do it without guessing. Also, put some pictures up.
 
Thank you. Yes, you are right, I will probably have to get a professional in if no one here has the information needed. This is a colour combination I have never come accross before, I was expecting either black, red, yellow and green or blue, brown, yellow and green combinations which are combinations I am comfortable with.
 
I have just posted a picture but it is awaiting moderator approval.
 
You can't use that for a socket outlet.

Those cables were likely used for an old boiler system.

I'm guessing your house now has a combi boiler, but when the house was built it had a standard/system boiler with a hot water cylinder.

You need an electrician to fit a new socket safely.
 
Are these cables even live? Those colours would normally indicate the old three core and earth which would normally be used for lighting or something else, not sockets. Is there a separate earth possibly cut off there? Where do those cables come from?
 
No offence mate, and usually happy to help, but your 'assumptions' are entirely wrong.

Those 'grey cables' have the old red-yellow-blue three phase colours, but they were also used for two-way light switching, and where multiple cores were needed for central heating controllers and suchlike.

In a domestic setting, they are almost certainly flat 'three core and earth' and will have a fourth bare copper conductor which is then sleeved and used for earth.

They also probably have a maximum cross-sectional-area of 1.5mm2 which is inadequate for the new devices you want to power. To do this properly, you absolutely cannot wire a socket to them, it needs a new heavier cable run in.
 
The problem is that the wiring is non-standard, so no-one on an internet forum can give you any accurate advice. You should find that red is live, but what is neutral and what is earth is anyone's guess.

Even if you determine how the circuit is wired at the consumer unit, you can't be absolutely sure that colours have not been swapped at an earlier accessory or junction box. If the installation was properly inspected and tested when it was installed, the wiring at the consumer unit should feed through to all the accessories, but it's not guaranteed that the installation was inspected and tested properly. It's not worth trying to move forward unless you have the expertise and testing equipment to determine how the circuit is wired. Better to pay an electrician to investigate and document the installation, then add the socket you wanted.
 
The double socket is needed to power a vented dryer and a washing machine that are being plumbed in next week.

Apart from all the information you have been given I suggest you use two single sockets. Double sockets are rated lower than two singles (typically 20 amps rather than 26) and two high power loads like that could overload a double.
 
Thank you all so much for the information and advice, the only course of action for me is to get an electrician in
 
If it is appropriate to use these cables, I am assuming I only need 2 of the one for each of the sockets then I would appreciate some advice over which coloured wire goes to which socket.
I assume red is live, blue is neutral and yellow, NOT yellow and green, is earth bit I am not confident in this assumption.
Your expert help and advice is much appreciated

You need to stop assuming mate...... especially when it comes to electrics. You never heard of '--- out of U and ME'?
 
If that was an airing cupboard I would have thought there could be a redundant D.P. switch for an immersion heater that could have been converted into a socket?
 

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