SWA Cable colours (grey, black, brown)

[diyfiesta]

Hi All,

Is this normal? Seems strange colours to me!?

http://www.bs5467.co.uk/ says its ok but what about the new colours and having to have the standard colours?

Cheers

View media item 12023

 

[Taylortwocities]

Where have you been???
Those aren't new colours, They've been around for 4 years and are the standard "harmonised" colour scheme.

Edit: I thought that you were getting an electrician in... //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1220173#1220173

 

[sparkyspike]

All new wiring is done in harmonised (brown/black/grey etc) colours.

When you are adding new wiring to an installation with old wiring, then you need to attach a notice (available at electrical suppliers) at the fusebox explaining that two colours are being used.

When combing old and new wiring in one location, such as a switch, then mark old phase/line cables with brown sleeving and old neutral cables with blue sleeving.

With single phase SWA, the black cable is marked green and yellow and used as the protective conductor. The grey is marked blue and used as the neutral conductor.

In two way switching, the COM connection would be black (marked brown), the L1 connection would be brown and the L2 connection would be grey, marked brown.

Confused? You should be!

 

[diyfiesta]

Guess this answers my question http://www.voltimum.co.uk/news/9164/s/Snag-52-Identification-of-conductors-in-a-swa-cable.html

Yep, I am getting a sparks in but as this is a *DIY* forum, I thought I'd ask about, er, doing it myself.

I know about new colours for normal (internal twin and earth, ie brown, green/yellow and blue as apposed to red, yellow/green and black) but my question above was really about the 3-core SWA colours not being consistent / what to sleeve up as what.

 

[diyfiesta]

Confused? You should be!

Thanks for the tips, yep, I'm very confused :S

I'm just doing a "first fit", so will be getting a pro to check all this as the more you do the more complicated it seems to get

 

[sparkydude]

Standard colours would be brown as live, black sleeved as earth and grey sleeved as blue as neutral. Your sparks will probably take exception to you deciding to use brown as an earth as would most competant people.

Nick

 

[oharaf]

I don't know if there is a formal way of using the cores. But, I use the brown as live (obvious really) Black sleeved blue for neutral and Grey sleeved green/yellow as earth.

 

[sparkydude]

There is no law dictating what colours to be sleeved with neutral and cpc, but both the NICEIC and ECA recommend the black be the cpc and the grey be the neutral, this is to disassociate black with being neutral in the new harmonized colours.

Nick

 

[sparkyspike]

I think practically everyone uses Black as CPC when using SWA 3-core with single phase. I'm just used to it now.

 

[jockspark]

I think practically everyone uses Black as CPC when using SWA 3-core with single phase. I'm just used to it now.

hi this and your post above. this is the way i do it
and seems to be standerd now. i just wish they could
have inlcuded this in the regs

 

[Taylortwocities]

i just wish they could
have inlcuded this in the regs

Didn't you read Appendix 7 then?

I know its hidden away and the title is rather obscure:
"Appendix 7 - Harmonized Cable Core Colours"

The Appendix is "informative" but Table 7A does give pretty firm guidance.

 

[Spark123]

The fact that it is a 3 phase cable is the reason it isn't cast in stone as to which core does what - maybe not DIY but where I work if I see this cable I think it is 3 phase unless indicated otherwise.
Sometimes people use 3 core SWA to avoid having to calculate the minimum required size of the circuit protective conductor (using the adiabatic) as using 3 core will automatically comply with table 54.7 in the regs.
As for convention, when using a 3 phase cable the adopted scheme tends to be the old for new colours i.e.
red - brown (line)
Yellow - black (earth)
blue - grey (neutral)
All cores sleeved appropriately.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I know about new colours for normal (internal twin and earth, ie brown, green/yellow and blue as apposed to red, yellow/green and black) but my question above was really about the 3-core SWA colours not being consistent / what to sleeve up as what.

They are not in the slightest bit inconsistent. The fact that you think they are shows that you don't even understand the difference between line (or phase) and neutral.

 

[Taylortwocities]

It gets even worse when you look at how the connections have been made.



View media item 12022

 

[Lectrician]

How have you connected the earth under the locknut?

What are you containing that lot in?