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| Nominal Animal:
This stuff is seriously weirding me out. It's like overhearing someone tell how they were flipping through the morning newspaper with their left hand, munching on a breakfast cookie in their right hand, and petting their treecat with their gripping hand. |
| TimFox:
I always wondered why those colors were chosen (white for neutral and black for line). I asked a professional electrician, and he replied "black means death", but I think that is just what he was taught as a safety mnemonic when an apprentice. As I understand the US code, white (rarely grey) is reserved for neutral, green and green/yellow are reserved for protective ground, and any other color (typically black, red, and blue) can be used for line (especially in three-phase power). The normal European code has blue for neutral and brown for line, with green/yellow for protective earth. Could be worse: in some European countries years ago, the color for protective earth (ground) was red--go figure. |
| fourfathom:
On boats (and cars, I suppose) black was for battery(-), usually ground, and red was for battery(+). When a boat also had shore-power AC wiring then we had a potential problem where a black wire could either be DC ground or AC hot. Yellow is now more commonly used for battery (-), but it's hardly consistent. Is anyone seriously suggesting that we change color codes and wiring practices, or are we just riffing? And I hope you noticed my clever play on words above. |
| SkyMaster:
--- Quote from: james_s on July 14, 2020, 10:28:42 pm --- --- Quote from: coppice on July 14, 2020, 04:39:52 pm --- --- Quote from: GeorgeOfTheJungle on July 14, 2020, 04:25:43 pm ---And why is GND always black and has a lower potential than any other colour? --- End quote --- In US mains cables white is neutral and black is live. --- End quote --- Typical terminology here, black is "hot" and white is "neutral". --- End quote --- Canadian and American electrical codes are racists. Both codes have to be rewritten, and all wires shall be grey in colour. Tracer will be used to differenciate the wires, but the tracers shall be grey in colour. :) |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: TimFox on July 14, 2020, 11:01:49 pm ---I always wondered why those colors were chosen (white for neutral and black for line). I asked a professional electrician, and he replied "black means death", but I think that is just what he was taught as a safety mnemonic when an apprentice. As I understand the US code, white (rarely grey) is reserved for neutral, green and green/yellow are reserved for protective ground, and any other color (typically black, red, and blue) can be used for line (especially in three-phase power). The normal European code has blue for neutral and brown for line, with green/yellow for protective earth. Could be worse: in some European countries years ago, the color for protective earth (ground) was red--go figure. --- End quote --- The precise reasons may well be lost to time. Perhaps looking back to the original materials used for wire insulation will provide clues? Natural rubber for example is black, so maybe they first insulated live wires with rubber? I really don't know, but either way they had to choose colors at some point and no matter what they chose somebody is eventually going to wonder why. |
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