Red or Brown....

[Beefcake daddy]

So.....with the new harmonised colours coming in does that mean we should be starting to mark say, switched lives with brown sparks tape or stick with the red? Just a point that came up in the office as we while away this sunny afternoon...

 

[plugwash]

whilst i don't know of any official guidance i belive its generally accepted that amrking of switched lives should be done with the live color from the same color scheme as the cable itself.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

So.....with the new harmonised colours coming in does that mean we should be starting to mark say, switched lives with brown sparks tape or stick with the red?

Neither.

You should be using sleeving.

 

[mapj1]

That is brown sleeving on new istalltions, and red on old ones of course, uless you print off and fit the 'mixed colours' notice to the CU, in which case brown and red sleeving can be safely mixed !

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Here's an interesting one.

Does the ban on the use of old colours on existing installations after April 2006 apply to sleeving?

If. next year, you were replacing a light switch on an installation with old colours but no red sleeving, would you sleeve the black wire with red, or brown?

 

[Big_Spark]

BAS, so long as you clearly Identify all conductors to indicate their status you will comply, however you can use Electrical PVC tape to Indicate the Phase Conductor and as such if you came across an Unmarked phase conductor in an installtion using the old scheme, then you are obligated to indicate is as such and this should be done using the colour Identifier for the scheme the installation was originally installed using..ie RED.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Well that seems the most sensible idea.

But then if you were extending the cable so that you could move the switch, IMHO the most sensible idea would be to use red/black, not brown/blue to do this, so clearly the regulations aren't all based on what is most sensible...

 

[mapj1]

As always, when you open it up, if its not absolutely obvious you will work out the true meaning of the colours with a meter, as we do now for 2 way switching etc. Fortunately the electrons are disspassionate about colour scheme.
I await a NIC directive that all red wires should be sleeved brown, and all black wires sleeved blue, as they now expect all green sleeve to be updated to green-yellow. It will remain a '4' or 'no immediate action required' in my book.