AC Power Line Color Conventions

"Chris Carlen"

** There is no real distinction ( in terms of electrical safety) between Active & Neutral wires when dealing with the INSIDES of portable appliances. All wires which attached to the incoming AC supply must be treated as potentially LIVE and dangerous - whether nominally Neutral conductors or not.

NEVER get the damn silly idea in your head that the Neutral colour wires inside an appliance are different from the Active ones and hence safe to handle.

It would be CRIMINAL to suggest that same idea to another.

....... Phil

Be careful about the distinction between "grounded conductor" and "grounding conductor". The latter is usually green or bare.

Here you are talking about wiring pre-~1970 when for years the "old good" tradition was implemented partly to get rid of manufactured wires stock.

Are your chromosomes XY? If yes then you are part of the human male population which includes 40% of 'color blind' (partially/totally) members. The 'old' AC wiring was line-red, neutral-black, ground-white. So a color-blind person (like a B/W film) was perceiving the black AND red in the same way. So mistakes happened till the standards organisation issued a new coloring scheme which is recognised by differences on the gray scale so the three wires can be connected by anyone. Brown- line, light blue- neutral and green(with or without yellow stripe)- ground.

Ideal ground is considered zero, neutral is only cirquit completion connection to the source and its voltage to ground can be anything. The 220-240AC are single phase 'active-neutral', no ground involved.

HTH

Stanislaw Slack user from Ulladulla.

230V actually.

Blue ( light blue ) is neutral. However many European countries have unpolarised plugs that allow appliances to be 'reverse connected'.

230V

Yes.

No.

I would.

230V

We don't have '2 phase' here.

Graham

It would indeed.

Only Ground ( green/yellow ) is 'safe'.

However it's far from unknown to find outlets with no ground in some parts of Europe AIUI. In which case, adopt design as for Class II equipment ( double insulated ).

Graham

Not green any more ( for a long time actually ). Green with a yellow stripe.

Graham

I know you mean 0V vs 120V or so, but remember that neutral must only be bonded to ground at the panel. In an appliance, there may be a small potential between neutral and ground. Or if there's a loose neutral in the panel, a LARGE potential...

--
Ben Jackson AD7GD

http://www.ben.com/

Er, no. I know a couple of color blind people, and used to work on accessibility testing for color blindness in software.

What color blind people can't tell the difference between is various shades of (for example) red and green. Bold colors can usually be discriminated (by brightness, or by weak color reception), and certainly they can tell colors from black and white.

To simulate red-green color blindness, modify your color palette so that all red and green channels are replaced with a yellow of similar brightness (leave blue alone). This gives you black, white, blue, yellow, and blends.

One of my subjects joked that he was going to paint his house pink and cyan, because *he* couldn't tell the difference.

They also have trouble with red and green street lights at night; not enough visual clues to tell which light is on.

"Ben Jackson"

** This is VERY dangerous crapology.

In a portable appliance, nominal neutral conductors must be assumed to beat LIVE at *full line voltage* - anytime.

The legal requirements for insulation type and thickness, clearances and creepage distances are the SAME for all AC supply current carrying conductors.

...... Phil

See also the IEC requirements for 'double insulated' AC conductors in equipment.

Graham