3 Core SWA - Usage Of Core Colour Question

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by J.P., Jul 7, 2011.

  1. J.P.

    J.P. New Member

    Afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Just a quick question as follows..

    3 core SWA has the following core colours - Brown, Black and Grey.

    I envisage carrying out the following over-sleeving where necessary.

    1 - Brown = Phase (no oversleeving)

    2 - Black sleeved Blue as Neutral

    3 - Grey sleeved Green/Yellow as cpc

    Your comments on the above would be most welcome, and thanks for any replies which may ensue..:)
     
  2. a1colly

    a1colly New Member

    Personally for me its;

    1 - Brown = Phase (no oversleeving)
    2 - Grey sleeved Blue as Neutral
    3 - Black sleeved Green/Yellow as cpc
    This is just the way I was taught when the harmonization was bought in, NICEIC registered inspector advised us.
     
  3. J.P.

    J.P. New Member

    Many thanks a1 for your elucidation.
     
  4. sinewave

    sinewave Screwfix Select

    Colly is correct JP.

    Black is always a Phase or an Earth sleeved Green & Yella

    Grey is always a Phase or a Neutral sleeved Blue
     
  5. seneca

    seneca Screwfix Select

    Agreed Colly & Sine, that is the accepted way these days.
     
  6. J.P.

    J.P. New Member

    Many thanks guys..reason for asking as that I will be whipping some SWA down to my summerhouse (when it arrives and is erected) and wanted to know correct way of doing things with respect to over-sleeve colour general practice. Great stuff and all logged.
     
  7. seneca

    seneca Screwfix Select

    It's only in the past couple of years that i've forced myself to use the black for earth JP, I still think black should really be neutral (and red live) but we have to 'go with the flow' don't we!
    Btw, my big green book has just arrived!
     
  8. wally

    wally Screwfix Select

    And don't forget to earth the armour JP even if you use the black oversleaved g/y
     
  9. unphased

    unphased Screwfix Select

    S'funny how I keep coming across installations using black as the neutra thenl. It is because black used to be the neutral thats why so many sparks still do it that way. To me that is the very reason it should not be used as a neutral. Grey is neutral end of. But so many sparks still don't do it.
     
  10. wally

    wally Screwfix Select

    Thats the problem un, everyone should use the recognised colour scheme, it makes it that much simpler for everyone where mains voltage is concerned.    
     
  11. sinewave

    sinewave Screwfix Select

    If over paid dicks were not in charge of our industry then the reast of Europe should have been made to comply with our old colours.

    Easy to see in a dark panel and bloody well make sense as well! 
     
  12. a1colly

    a1colly New Member

    spot on, we had it right the first time
     
  13. proper spark

    proper spark Guest

    Could never understand why it was changed. Id have said red is the best colour for danger for people doing diy work. I wonder how many shocks have resulted from the colour change. Its always nice when you have to change a under ground resin joint because waters got in it and find you have new colours going out and old coming in. Its surprising how many sparks don't know that red is the brown line, yellow is the black line and blue is grey.
     
  14. wally

    wally Screwfix Select

    When the new flex colours first came out quite a few customers thought brown was the earth.   Quite understandable when you think about it, the earth in the ground is brown.   
     
  15. Matt Dow

    Matt Dow New Member

    There alot of people out there that call themselves Electricians that get the neutral and cpc (earth) confused when it comes to harmonised colours.. Very few who are unsure take the time to ask..  If you want to know what size armoured to run, see the voltage drop calculator link below..

    http://www.pandpelectrical.com/mpm/firevoltdrop.htm

    There are lots out there... This one works the best for me..
     
  16. sparky Si-Fi

    sparky Si-Fi Screwfix Select

    Oh and thats another daft question enquired JP.
     
  17. Lectrician

    Lectrician Screwfix Select

    I go along with black with earth, and as I have said before, L1, L2, L3 was always RED, YELLOW, BLUE.......so now BROWN, BLACK, GREY.  Therefore, YELLOW is BLACK and BLUE is GREY.  We always used to use yellow as the earth and blue as the neutral, so this transposes just fine.

    As a side note, with smokes, use the grey sleeved blue as the neutral, using the black as the interlink.  No need to sleeve the black with brown sleeve - the interlink is an ELV signal, not mains.  Think how the interlink works when the power is off.
     
  18. Russ59

    Russ59 New Member

    Why not use 2 core and cpc via armour sheath? There are tables available to check the csa for steel wire attributes vs copper equivalent
     

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