Historical Wiring.

Then our three phases all became Brown, Black, Blue

Eh? I thought they went from red/yellow/blue to brown/black/GREY with blue for N.

Most of Europe used various combinations of brown and black for line (they'd had brown in flexes for years too) - by and large they didn't bother much about preserving phase rotation in fixed wiring - just swap a couple of wires around at the load if it turned the wrong way (thus having two lines the same colour made a certain amount of sense).

Having a distinct colour for L3 was, I'm told, a UK suggestion - and the only colours off the standard list not already used by somewhere in Europe for something else was grey and pink.

  - Andy.

Then our three phases all became Brown, Black, Blue

Eh? I thought they went from red/yellow/blue to brown/black/GREY with blue for N.

Most of Europe used various combinations of brown and black for line (they'd had brown in flexes for years too) - by and large they didn't bother much about preserving phase rotation in fixed wiring - just swap a couple of wires around at the load if it turned the wrong way (thus having two lines the same colour made a certain amount of sense).

Having a distinct colour for L3 was, I'm told, a UK suggestion - and the only colours off the standard list not already used by somewhere in Europe for something else was grey and pink.

  - Andy.

Sorry Andy, my bad, a typo I`m afraid. Yep Brown Black Grey, a combination of the worserest colours in my view. Nice bright sparkly healthy colours for an N I would prefer (Red, Yellow, Blue are good uns) , duller types for N , and green/yellow for earth would all do me and, I think, within the K I S S range of things. 

If no colour coding existed before today then which colours might be most popular folks? 

ebee said:

If no colour coding existed before today then which colours might be most popular folks? 

Perhaps a new thread with a Poll?