French wiring confusion! (heated towel rail)

[mattiej]

Hi there,

In france, have just bought a heated towel rail and was about to wire it in:

Wiring in wall terminal: green/yellow, blue, brown.

On the towel rail, we have grey, black, brown (are these new harmonised colours?)

If you could kindly tell me what goes to where as we dont want to kill ourselves with a live towel rail

Many, many thanks!!
Matt.

 

[breezer]

since you have it and i dont what do the instrutions say?

 

[mattiej]

"go on the internet, find a forum and ask how to wire this appliance in"


No instructions matey - we bought this from a 'closing down' kind of shop minus all the packaging

Have never come across the afforementioned coloured wires before, hence why it threw us a bit.

 

[solair]

All of those colours you have described are European Harmonised colours, but I would wonder why a heated towel rail has a 3-phase cable connected to it.

European harmonised colours are as follows:

Earth - Green & Yellow Stripes
Neutral - Blue
L1 - Brown
L2 - Black
L3 - Grey

Your towel rail should have Earth, Neutral and Live (L1 brown) only. It seems a little odd to have 3-phase core colours in the cable. It's also odd to have no earth present.

I would be very careful about hooking that device up without seeking advice from the retailer. It's possibly a bit dodgy.

Check the rating plate to see if it is 230V (Single phase) or 400V (three phase)

NB older appliances would be rated 220V or 380V (pre-harmonisation)

If it's 220V, the wiring colours are certainly a bit odd.

 

[mattiej]

Hi Solair,
Thank you for the advice - much appreciated

I've spoke to a few electrical-minded folks now and it seems of general opinion that it needs testing before a final wire in.

We also noticed yesterday in our local Brico that all their towel rails are 2 phase - so,..something is wrong, somewhere.

Oh, had a look underneath the unit and it says 230v?

 

[plugwash]

does the flex go into some kind of terminal box that can be easilly opened? If so then there may be some clues in there as to which wire is which.

 

[mattiej]

Hiya Plugwash,

I've just had a look and sadly its a sealed unit - no screws, nothing.

Cant even seem to track down the manufacturer. On the back it says Poseido-2-fp, but I've been googling for a while and cant seem to find anything - even in French.

Bunch of arse isnt it?

 

[solair]

It sounds very odd anyway, I would suggest that you seek local advice from an actual electrician.

It's quite possible that someone's used the wrong 3 core cable i.e. the type of three phase cable that's used for a motor connected without an earth and neutral.

If that is the case, you could be in serious trouble if you don't know which colour's been used for earth ...

The colours should be the same as normal appliance flex i.e. blue, brown and green/yellow.

 

[plugwash]

does the thing have a metal body, if so then test each conductor in turn to the metal body with your multimeter. If one and only one of them has continuity to the case then it is almost certainly the earth.

 

[Longprest]

Fitted a French towel rail myself in October, bought it from 'Leroy Merlin'

The wiring code was:
Brown = Live
Blue = Neutral
Black = had a label saying 'Pilote' you can either insulate and ignore this and just use the controls on th towel rail (if there are any!) or connect it to a seperate programer/timer

Would think yours is the same as all other ones I looked at had same colours

Good Luck!

 

[BLX]

This is a common source of worry, but.....

The "grey"wire is actually a very pale blue & is the neutral.
The brown is live.
The black, as the previous poster says, the "fil pilote" & is the optional remote control wire.

This knowledge comes from first hand experience of fitting these things.

The appliance is double insulated, hence the lack of an earth wire.

 

[cch]

Hi there,

In france, have just bought a heated towel rail and was about to wire it in:

Wiring in wall terminal: green/yellow, blue, brown.

On the towel rail, we have grey, black, brown (are these new harmonised colours?)

If you could kindly tell me what goes to where as we dont want to kill ourselves with a live towel rail

Many, many thanks!!
Matt.

The wiring is correct and this is very normal for fixed heating appliances in france. 4 wire system for fil pilote (cental programmer).
fil pilote is black and is live if used for programmer, if not connect as follows: brown is phase, Grey is neutral and yell/green is earth. leave black not connected.

 

[chopinsmith]

just to agree with the last three posters.
this wiring system is pretty much standard on electric heating in france.