electrical laws

[ColJack]

it's everything to do with joining europe..

if we didn't join europe, all these foreign electricians wouldn't be free to come and work here and there would be no confusion over colours..

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Look at a map or a globe - you'll find that we are joined to Europe - we didn't have to do anything, it's the way the land masses are organised.

But I repeat - CENELEC is not an EU institution, and it has member countries who are not part of the EU. And I don't think that harmonising standards is done to make life easier for migrant workers.

 

[JonoPashley]

My map shows a piece of open water called the English channel between us and Europe. If some idiots hadnt created the chunnel we would have 0 connection to Europe.

 

[ColJack]

last i looked at a globe we were an Island BAS... well ok there's the chanel tunnel but that's easy enough to fill in....

every english sparky out there knew what colours we used and liked them..

they say it's for colour blind people to tell the difference.. but no one colourblind should be a sparky anyway.. that's like a person with no sense of smell being a gas fitter....

and as pointed out, in low light or with certain cables even in reasonable light, the difference between brown and grey is hard to tell...

did you also know that the suicide rate for panel wirers has gone up since the change? ( ok so that might be bullshit but it's certainly a lot more depressing looking at dull colours all day rather than nice bright primary colours.. )

 

[RF Lighting]

Who has made a mistake as a direct result of the wire colours changing?

I haven't, and have no issue with the new colours.

I wear an LED head torch for 8 - 10 hours a day. I don't get headaches, but then I have a decent one with a fresnel lens so there is no bright spot (unless you hinge it away)

 

[DeadJoe]

Not a sparks, so could be way out of line, but...

If red and black were used to indicate positive and negative in a d.c. circuit, maybe it would be a good thing that a.c. circuits use a different colourway - it would serve to underline the fact that they are not the same thing. But I've just looked it up, and the scheme for d.c. was also changed, and includes brown...

Does anyone know, were the new colours just plucked out of the air, or were they in use in Europe for some time before they were generally adopted?

I have to say, I don't have any particular preference, but then, I haven't been working with red and black for years and years like some of you...

 

[sparkysm]

spot on coljack...

RF lighting what a hero you are..everyone makes mistakes and one day you will superman..

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Does anyone know, were the new colours just plucked out of the air, or were they in use in Europe for some time before they were generally adopted?

http://www.theiet.org/publishing/wiring-regulations/colour/col-impact.cfm

http://www.theiet.org/publishing/wiring-regulations/colour/col-harm.cfm

 

[RF Lighting]

spot on coljack...

RF lighting what a hero you are..everyone makes mistakes and one day you will superman..

What's with the attitude?

Of course I make mistakes. I doubt there is any one who doesn't.

I was saying that I have not made a mistake as a direct result of the wiring colours changing, and I am not aware of any of the electricians I work with having done so either.

I asked the question to gain a general concensus of the users of this site to see how detrimental the colour changes have been to others.

 

[Zambezi]

Notice I have not bothered to respond to a certain somebody trying to say that it is ok for a person, doing DIY electrical work in their bathroom, to do so without using an RCD to protect the circuit. We all know that there is more than 1 way to skin a cat but as far as I am concerned the person asking the question would need to use an RCD on their circuit as a bare minimum.
As for the racist blah blah, go and hang around in the GD forum until you feel you can contribute useful advice that does not confuse or mislead Joe Public...
I thought the idea was to provide solutions to peoples problems/issues not confuse them and bamboozle them with technobabble they don't understand? KISS - keep it simple stupid

 

[JonoPashley]

Most apprenticeship providers request a full colour blindness test before your allowed onto a course if you fail you dont get in.

 

[ColJack]

how did this deteriorate into a slanging match about racism when all I said was that the colours were harmonised to make it easier for foreign electricians to work on our systems?

 

[sparkyspike]

how did this deteriorate into a slanging match about racism when all I said was that the colours were harmonised to make it easier for foreign electricians to work on our systems?

You didn't. You said that

if we didn't join europe, all these foreign electricians wouldn't be free to come and work here...

which is completely different. And you wonder why there was such a response from BAS? You don't even realise you're doing it.

I seem to recall that flex has been blue and brown for quite some time.



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