I've always looped at the ceiling but was recently replacing a switch where the loop was done at the switch. In this configuration, is the cable in L1 known as the "Switch Live" and should it therefore have a brown/blue sleeve to denote this like we do when looping at the ceiling?
Switched Live sleeving when looping at switch
- Thread starter Jupiter01
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The 'switched live' is already brown, so obviously does not need brown over-sleeving. Brown over-sleeving is only needed when (as with the switch drop from a 'loop-at-ceiling' rose), a blue conductor is used as a ('switched') live.
Kind Regards, john
No, the 'requirements' only relate to indicating that a conductor is 'live'/line (of any sort) when it does not have brown (or, in old colours, red) insulation. One is, of course, free to mark/label/oversleeve it in some way to identify it as a switched live. On the fairly unusual occasions on which I think this might be useful/helpful, my personal habit is to use a small bit of yellow sleeving for the S/L, but that's just me.
Kind Regards, John
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Yellow sleeving wouldn't comply with BS7671 which states that a line/phase conductor in a single phase installation is brown.
There's nothing in BS7671 of which I'm aware which says that one can't add "a small bit" (which is what I said) of yellow sleeving (or anything else) to a line/phase conductor which is 'obviously' identified as such by brown insulation.
Kind Regards, John
Fair enough, but I doubt that many UK electricians (and, even less, non-electricians) are aware of that, so it doesn't really make much difference what colour one uses. My 'little bits of yellow' are, in any event, only really for myself, since no-one lese would know for sure.
Why yellow (for me)? I think it's probably because, in the old-colour days, when I used red/blue/yellow 3C+E in situations which and L and S/L were needed, I used to use the red as permanent live ('obviously'), blue (ideally sleeved black) as N and yellow (ideally slightly sleeved with red) for S/L - so that latter association in my mind between S/L and yellow probably stuck in my mind subsequently.
Kind Regards, John
Given that a small bit of brown/black/grey/blue sleeving can be used to identify conductors it's hard to see how you can argue that a small bit of yellow sleeving wouldn't imply that the conductor was being identified as yellow rather than brown.
The point (and one of the reasons why I use yellow) is that, in contrast with the situations with small bits of brown/black/grey/blue, is that a small bit of yellow cannot possibly be thought to be 'identifying' the conductor in the BS7671 sense, since yellow has no 'identification meaning' (with harmonised colours) in relation to either single-phase or 3-phase wiring.
Kind Regards, John
What purpose does this serve. You sleeve the blue conductor, when it is the S/L to show it is effectively a brown conductor. When looping at the switch the S/L is already brown. Brown sleeve on a brown conductor is redundant. Blue sleeve on a brown conductor is wrong, as blue signals a neutral conductor.
As has been said, you could with brown, but not blue - since it would not be permissible to put blue sleeving on a live conductor. However, even if the brown sleeving on a brown conductor was 'noticeable', it would have no meaning to anyone but you.
If you really want to identify one of the browns as being a 'switched live', in a manner that you (but no-one else) would understand (if you remembered), you could just tie a bit of cotton or thin string, or something like that, around it - but I really doubt that there would be much of a point in doing that.
Kind Regards, John
If you are going to do this sort of thing, I think it would be more appropriate to identify the permanent line(s).
I just used to use a permanent marker.
Use 1 small 5mm wide Ring of Brown on the Live and 2 small 5mm Rings of Brown on the switch live, (ie In and Out) its not a Reg but helps distinquish
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