I think i've flipped up
I was under the impression we use the Brown Blue and Green/Yellow help with colour blindness (most common green and red)
I know it's to bring UK in line with EU. But why did EU use them colours.
Because I understand green earth (CPC)
Red Live (line) [hot colour]
(Forgive any misspellings Dyslexic and hard to see , also miss out works as forget to type them)
The formal answer is because of IEC 60445:2021 https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/66712 and before that IEC 60445:2017 and before that .... along with the general duty-of-care requirement based in UK common law to accommodate applicable standards to engineering work on pain of accusation of negligence or (worse) gross negligence for not having done so.
Nowadays electrical kit is made all over the world and is not country-specific. That leads in todays electrotechnical world inevitably to an international standard of wiring colour codes.
Nowadays electrical kit is made all over the world and is not country-specific. That leads in todays electrotechnical world inevitably to an international standard of wiring colour codes.
Definitely true, and something I support fully. It's ironic that the country in which the only participating teams of the "World Series" of a certain national sport only come from that country, is also one of the countries that is resisting IEC harmonization in respect respect of the Neutral (and some other international standards in the electrotechnical arena). Basically, US uses White for Neutral and Green for PE, Canada and Japan use Grey ... but to be fair, these differences are actually documented in Annex B to the standard, so at least it's open for global manufacturers to see.
The formal answer is because of IEC 60445:2021 https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/66712 and before that IEC 60445:2017 and before that
Just a point of order, that BS EN IEC 60445 is not a Harmonized Standard for the purposes of the Low Voltage Directive ... or for the UK a Conformed Standard for the purposes of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations. Rather, the standard is to be used mainly by Committees drafting product and installation standards, as a core standard for basic safety considerations to be considered for the purposes of safety according to IEC Guide 104 and ISO/IEC Guide 51. In the Scope of the standard (Clause 1) is the following statement:
It is not intended for use by manufacturers or certification bodies. One of the responsibilities of a technical committee is, wherever applicable, to make use of basic safety publications in the preparation of its publications. The requirements of this basic safety publication will not apply unless specifically referred to or included in the relevant publications.
I prefer the new colours. For SP, the colours are all clearly distinct. For TP, all the line conductors have a common theme (a lack of a strong colour), but are still distinguishable, while they are all very clearly distinguishable from N and E. The old colours made no particular sense and only seemed to make a sort of sense because people were taught and became familiar with them. They made up neither the additive primary colours (RGB), nor subtractive primary colours (CMY). Given red, green blue, yellow and black cables in a 1960's DB, it would be logical to expect that the R,G and B cables are the three phases and the yellow and black are something else, likely N and E.
Hmm, interesting wallywombat. My take was Red Yellow Blue being 3 vibrant of those six primary colours and Black a more neutral colour (absence of any colour in the additive world) and G/Y a grassy type of colour and being two colours more easily distinctive than the old green. I find the Brown Black Grey combination a bit wishy washy meeself. Not sure what the consensus might be by the various colourblinds and I`ve not met anybody who had totally monochronic vision as far as I`m aware
I think I remember something about the UK being a main party in making the now accepted choice of colours, having seen a compromise that seemed not too offensive to anyone.
Probably I'm just liking what I was used to, but I also thought our old choice was better, for the reasons ebee gave.
The French appear to have done a good job of ignoring the new prescription. See e.g. Youtube for almost any video about "TABLEAU ÉLECTRIQUE" (meaning CU). They use blue neutrals and red phases. Perhaps they'd claim the red is a sort of reddy brown.
I do see what you mean - perhaps they got the colour balance wrong. I could just about get the gist of what is going on here, but orange and violet cables! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98F_l8onjik
I cannot imagine that a CU change is cheap!
It's just weird to see how different the solution can be to "design a CU" just because you're 20 miles across the Channel. No backplate, no main switch, no non-combustibility, funky covered bus bar, terminal block for the L feed, screwless E bar and breakers (all type C), socket outlets on the bus bar, and - assuming it's not just for the video - non-insulated screwdriver and not a torque setting in sight!
The French appear to have done a good job of ignoring the new prescription. See e.g. Youtube for almost any video about "TABLEAU ÉLECTRIQUE" (meaning CU). They use blue neutrals and red phases. Perhaps they'd claim the red is a sort of reddy brown.
As I recall, the French interpretation is Blue for N, G/Y for PE and anything else for L. That makes a lot of sense for them as they tend to use conduit a lot (including in domestics) and can then have different colours for different L functions - perm L, SL, strappers, two different switch Ls from a 2 gang switch and so on. Arguably a lot more 'workman like' than sticking bits of tape or sleeving on the ends, and still not being able to tell one SL from another.
I think most do use brown for perm L these days - but their old tradition was red for L (like the UK) - so a lot of the old timers might still prefer to stick to that and of course it'll be what's in older existing installations.
- Andy.
It's a poor example to say we must follow everyone else... I read somewhere that they thought that some UK sparks would die because of the colour change, (night changeovers etc), but, either way it's just a farce! If you're working abroad, and how many do, then you'll use their system!
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