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johnc
16th April 2005, 05:14 PM
Hi All,

I know that it is red active, black nuetral and green earth in most wiring. The question is with brown, blue and green, which is active the brown or blue. This will be checked by the electrician in the end but I thought I would look like a goose in front of you lot rather than one sparky.

JohnC

bez
16th April 2005, 05:23 PM
Brown is the active :)

Honest Gaza
16th April 2005, 06:07 PM
I always remember it like this :

Red / bRown = active
bLack / bLue = neutral

Sturdee
16th April 2005, 07:08 PM
......but I thought I would look like a goose in front of you lot rather than one sparky.

JohnC


Why?

There are more of us, and we have long memories, but you would deal with only one sparky. :D :D :D :D


Peter.

Theremin
17th April 2005, 12:34 AM
I remember my physics teacher from high school taught us a good way to remember which colour is the active wire - if you touch it you are in the s**t, and s**t is brown.

johnc
17th April 2005, 10:21 AM
Thanks for the info, and the tips to help remember, something I would not have got from the sparky.



JohnC

SteveAndBelle
17th April 2005, 10:24 AM
One 'oldskool' method my dad taught me was to remember that brown is like a snake ... it you touch it you will get bitten !

zathras
17th April 2005, 07:04 PM
I learnt this one way way back for GPO's, hope it comes out all right on the board.

(f****ng proportional fonts and mindless other problems getting this to work, check the ugly HTML tags if you dare :( )


.../_\ ..|\.|
../...\..|.\|
...... _
......|_
......|_

i.e. you form the letters A N and E from the slots of the GPO, looking from the front, as installed.

Works for me.

zathras
17th April 2005, 07:06 PM
Oh yeah, as for colors

BLack = BLue

The rest are obvious from there :)

capedcrusader
19th April 2005, 01:45 PM
[QUOTE=zathras]

i.e. you form the letters A N and E from the slots of the GPO, looking from the front, as installed.QUOTE]

Dont forget the plug is opposite (unless youre looking at it from the back though)
Active wires are "warm" colours
Neutral wires are "cold" colours

Ziggy
19th April 2005, 05:39 PM
Just a warning -NEVER- assume an active or netural as a particular colour!
For example in 3 phase the active colours are red, white and blue. Also in switching cables i've seen many sparkies use red & black (basically whatever they seem to have on hand).

If your not sure please seek professional advice.

simon c
19th April 2005, 05:59 PM
Just a warning -NEVER- assume an active or netural as a particular colour!
For example in 3 phase the active colours are red, white and blue. Also in switching cables i've seen many sparkies use red & black (basically whatever they seem to have on hand).

If your not sure please seek professional advice.
I remember when I rewired part of may flat in Scotland

They were the original rubber coated single cables - although most had lost large sections of the rubber coating.
It's great fun trying to reconnect your cables when all three coming from a socket are red.