Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!adrian From: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: ANOTHER house wiring question (this one's basic) Message-ID: <1994@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> Date: 16 Jan 91 11:16:31 GMT References: <1948@umriscc.isc.umr.edu> <5884@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <1991Jan14.223300.8560@cs.uow.edu.au> Sender: news@cs.hw.ac.uk Reply-To: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland Lines: 59 In article <1991Jan14.223300.8560@cs.uow.edu.au> david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) writes: >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) ... Right, let's have some confusion. Here is what our booklet on safety regulations lists for international "standards": ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 wire cable 3 wire cable Live Neutral Live Neutral Earth Great Britain Brown Blue Brown Blue Green & Yellow Canada Black* White or Black White or Green & Grey Grey Green Yellow Denmark Black* Blue Brown or Blue Green & Yellow Black Finland Black or Blue Brown Blue Green & Yellow Brown Greece Anything Grey Anything Grey Yellow except except Grey, Grey, Yellow Yellow or Blue or Blue Japan Black White Black White Red Poland Black* Blue Black Blue Green & Yellow Switzerland Anything Anything Brown Blue Green & Yellow except except Yellow Yellow and Blue and Red USA Black* White or Black White or Green or Grey Grey Green & Yellow *Black for live in 2 core cords is now being replaced by Brown. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My list doesn't include Australia, who being upside down use black for neutral, because it isn't in our book. So much for our book. Note that Japan is listed as using red for earth! Also note that Switzerland's entry for 2 wire cable looks nasty - taking this list literally, they could quite happily use black and white for live and neutral in any way they choose. In general, black or brown seems to always be live (except in Australia); blue, white or grey is always neutral; green, yellow or a mixture is always earth. "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott Adrian Hurt | JANET: adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk