Wiring PIR sensors, Extractor fans, LED panel lighting, overide switch. In one circuit

I wondered at the time why fixed wiring colours were remaining unchanged but nobody seemed able to answer that question.

My guess would be that the change was driven by European trade requirements - manufacturers wanted to be able to sell the same (esp single phase domestic) appliance across Europe (single  market and all that) - each country having its own flex type makes that painful for the production line and distribution. (In those days of course they didn't have to fit an appropriate plug). Fixed installations were much less of a trade issue - they didn't move about so much - and more complicated to solve as it had to address various 3-phase requirements too - so that problem got deferred.

 

Can anyone else remember the proposal for white, and why it "gave way" to black?

Probably because most of the continent already used black (or combinations of black and brown) for line (phase) - and white (well officially cream, but usually very white looking in practice) was already established as a functional earth. The continentals really weren't bothered about a third colour - they tended not to preserve phase rotation in wiring - often L1/L2/L3 were brown and two blacks or two browns and one black - that way they could reverse one pair at the motor to ensure correct rotation without anything looking wrong. It was the UK that insisted on a 3rd colour and I gather once you'd eliminated all the colours that had been used for something else in recent history across Europe (the Germans used to use red for earth for example) you were left with only pink or grey. They picked grey.


   - Andy.

I wondered at the time why fixed wiring colours were remaining unchanged but nobody seemed able to answer that question.

My guess would be that the change was driven by European trade requirements - manufacturers wanted to be able to sell the same (esp single phase domestic) appliance across Europe (single  market and all that) - each country having its own flex type makes that painful for the production line and distribution. (In those days of course they didn't have to fit an appropriate plug). Fixed installations were much less of a trade issue - they didn't move about so much - and more complicated to solve as it had to address various 3-phase requirements too - so that problem got deferred.

 

Can anyone else remember the proposal for white, and why it "gave way" to black?

Probably because most of the continent already used black (or combinations of black and brown) for line (phase) - and white (well officially cream, but usually very white looking in practice) was already established as a functional earth. The continentals really weren't bothered about a third colour - they tended not to preserve phase rotation in wiring - often L1/L2/L3 were brown and two blacks or two browns and one black - that way they could reverse one pair at the motor to ensure correct rotation without anything looking wrong. It was the UK that insisted on a 3rd colour and I gather once you'd eliminated all the colours that had been used for something else in recent history across Europe (the Germans used to use red for earth for example) you were left with only pink or grey. They picked grey.


   - Andy.