swa harmonised colours

[BasementJack]

so does the grey become the cpc conductor with green/yellow pvc tape indication, black become neutral with blue pvc tape indication and brown phase conductor..??

 

[plugwash]

this is a tricky one

the niceic reccomend brown-live black-earth grey-neutral (with appropriate sleeving)

while this makes sense from a cable jointing point of view where both single and 3 phase are present (as it gives the same mapping from old-new as when using the colors for 3 phase) it is also very unintuitive and likely to confuse diyers the combination you suggest being the one likely to be obvious to them

let the flamewar begin

 

[andy]

this is a tricky one

the niceic reccomend brown-live black-earth grey-neutral (with appropriate sleeving)

i would not use the black as the CPC. i would use the grey

 

[ryanj]

i would not use the black as the CPC. i would use the grey

At first, I'd have agreed, as black being the previous neutral colour.

But, in the previous arrangement, the second conductor (yellow), was always the protective conductor.

 

[plugwash]

exactly

there are strong arguments both ways
which means that both will likely end up getting done

sleeving and testing will become more important than ever

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You'd think, wouldn't you, that Europe-wide there'd be a large enough market for single-phase 2- and 3-core SWA for it to be made with the same harmonised colours as T/E and flex - Brown/Blue and Brown/Blue/G-Y.

What would be wrong with that?

 

[Lectrician]

You can get single phase armoured - but look at the price and availability

It's not worth the wholesalers stocking - its just more stock to take up room

 

[plugwash]

while im not sure if there are any regs explicity prohibiting it, it is definately very bad practice to use a green&yellow core for anything other than earth even if you do sleeve it at the ends

given that wholesalers (and indeed the sparkys themselves) only want to stock one code of 3 core swa it therefore obviously makes more sense to stock the brown/black/grey variety than the brown/blue/green&yellow

 

[Lectrician]

There is a reg stating that the colour G/Y shall be reserved for earth only, and I've always taken this to include sleeved cores.

 

[securespark]

Yep. So that you don't tap into an "earth" and find it a phase.......