Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!cs.uow.edu.au!david From: david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: ANOTHER house wiring question (this one's basic) Message-ID: <1991Jan14.223300.8560@cs.uow.edu.au> Date: 14 Jan 91 22:33:00 GMT References: <1948@umriscc.isc.umr.edu> <5884@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University Lines: 18 bender@oobleck.Eng.Sun.COM (Michael Bender) writes: >anyone know why they choose BLACK for the hot wire and WHITE for >neutral? I always associated black wires with ground. I wondered about that too when I saw some North American terminals over here in Australia. We used RED (now BROWN) = Active, BLACK (now BLUE) = Neutral and GREEN (now GREEN with YELLOW stripe) and all the terminals had neutral and active swapped (presumably when the importer installed the Australian crow foot* plugs). The new colours are the IEC standard. * Active / \ Neutral (facing power socket) | Ground (10 Amp General Purpose Outlet) (15 Amp has larger earth pin) (20 Amp has all pins larger) -- David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au