From: smckinty@sunicnc.France.Sun.COM (Steve McKinty - Sun ICNC)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Various national colour code of wires(e.g. earth) for elec. plug
Date: 9 Nov 1992 10:41:23 GMT
Organization: SunConnect
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: hardy.france.sun.com

In article <1992Nov9.002325.1@auvax1.adelphi.edu>, schmidt@auvax1.adelphi.edu writes:
> In article <wai.721266966@phoenix>, wai@socs.uts.edu.au (Wai Yat Wong) writes:
> > Anybody out there can tell me about the colour coding various
> > country use for labelling a wire as active or neutral or
> > ground.
> >  
> > I know that green is obviously earth, but I have this
> > two extra wire; one of them is white, the other is
> > black. Does the white go to the active pin and
> > black go to the neutral pin?
> 
> It's the other way around, white is the "neutral" or in your terminoligy,
> "earthed" current-carrying color (the green, as you stated, is the protective
> ground, connected to the metallic case).  The black, or any other color than
> white or green, the US code only defines the green and white, is the "hot" 120
> volt lead.
> 
> In the case of 240 volt devices, there should be no white wire, two colors
> (usually black and red), and the green safety ground.  Three phase devices
> (nominally 208 volts "Y", or 240 volts "delta" would have three colors (most
> commonly black, red, and blue) possibly a white neutral, if wye connected, and
> a green ground.

In most of W. Europe flexible cords use Green/Yellow striped as protective
ground, Blue for Neutral and Brown for Live (Hot). In the UK (the one
I'm most familiar with) rigid house wiring uses Black for Neutral and Red
for Live, some old flexible cords also used that but most of them will
have been replaced by now.

French house wiring uses different colours for the live depending on whether
it is before or after a switch (well, thats what the wiring code says. It
lists 5 possible colours which can be used. My house uses 7....)

[ other interesting stuff deleted ]


> Somewhere, I have a catalog from a company which makes international cord sets
> which has wiring diagrams for almost every standard in the world.  When I
> visited southern Africa, I bought a copy of the Sowetan, a paper aimed at the
> residents of Soweto, South Africa.  I was surprised to find inside a full page
> advertisement from the electric utility showing how to connect the cord to
> their plug (the same one used in India and numerous former British colonies,
> but not in Britian itself) The plug was "large" like the British one, but had
> round pins where the British one had rectangular ones.  The same one was used
> in Botswana, where I spent most of my time, and, as I remember, in Zimbabwe. 
> My "universal adapter" set wasn't, and I had to go to an electric shop which
> had an adapter to the "British" style, which I then plugged my adapter into,
> which I then plugged my transformer into, etc..   So much for world standards.

Britain used to use the old round-pin plugs, in two sizes. Small ones for
5A table lamp circuits and bigger ones for 15A 'normal' circuits. These
were wired with a separate fuse for each outlet, at the fuseboard. As more
and more electrical equipment came into use this made fuseboards unwieldy and
so a new style was adopted, in the 50's I think.

The new system has the wiring in the form of a ring, looping out from the
fuseboard, serving all sockets on one floor or within a certain number
of square feet, and back to the fuseboard. At the fuseboard there is a
single 30A fuse per ring.

Each plug (all of the same standard 3-pin design) has its own fuse, which
should be chosen to suit the rating of the appliance. It often isn't, the
plugs are sold with 13A (maximum) rated fuse fitted, and people often don't
change it for a lower value when they use the plug for a low-power appliance.
As more & more apliances are being equipped with moulded and correctly fused
plugs as standard this is less of a problem now.


Steve

-- 
Steve McKinty
SUN Microsystems ICNC
38240 Meylan, France
email: smckinty@france.sun.com	   BIX: smckinty