Wiring Standards

Just thought I would start a thread to expand all our knowledge of electrical regs around the world.

In Australia (and NZ):

230V / 400V 3 phase supply Multiple Earthed Neutral system
L1 - Red in colour
L2 - White in colour
L3 - Blue in colour
Neutral - Black in colour
Earth - Yellow/Green striped in colour

Main standard is AS/NZ3000:2000 The Wiring rules

To become a qualified electrician 4 year apprenticeship, 3 years of classes 1 day a week. No formal progression past a generic electrician. What is called and 'E' Class).

Things are different 'Up here' as opposed to 'Down Under'!

Interesting that you use Black for Neurtal, and we (in the US) use White! Here black is never used for a neutral conductor at any voltage level.

Our 3-phase conductor colors are Brown (L1), Orange (L2), and Yellow (L3).

Earth Ground is Green or Bare (no insulation).

What does "Multiple Earthed" mean? It sounds like that the system is grounded at more thatn one point?

To expand on Lancie 1's comment:

Primary current is usually 480 volts.

120 VAC circuits:
L1=red
N=white
grnd= green


24VDC
+=blue
-=blue

Sorry to say Corkers, but you are actually out of date.
I found this out to my embarrasment a short time ago when I was explaining the wiring rules to some international suppliers.

AS 3000:2000 actually states:

Active: Red
Neutral: Black
Earth: Green/Yellow

Other phases, any colour except green, yellow or black. Must be consistant.

The Red, White Blue was actually in the previous version (1992 or 1994, can't remember which).

Of course, RWB still actually meets the standard.

I am just waiting for the next standard to see if they change it to Black active and White neutral

Doug

Check out this thread
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1415

There are others, do a search on the subject here.

Re: Things are different 'Up here' as opposed to 'Down Under'!

Lancie1 said:

Interesting that you use Black for Neurtal, and we (in the US) use White! Here black is never used for a neutral conductor at any voltage level.

Click to expand...

Not even on DC? I could swear I've seen that.

Doug well spotted im letting convention get in the way of fact ...

Multiple Earthed Neutral, the neutral is attached to earth at every installation's main switchboard (ie if the board is attached to an earth stake/grid, the neutral is bonded to earth.)

Multiple Earthed Neutral, the neutral is attached to earth at every installation's main switchboard (ie if the board is attached to an earth stake/grid, the neutral is bonded to earth.)

Click to expand...

Sounds dangerous to me.. Ground to neutral voltages must be high.

Gary

The National Electrical Code in the US states only 4 colors – white, natural gray, green, and orange. This question has been on every master electrician test I’ve taken.

Ungrounded Conductor (Hot) – Any color other than white, natural gray, or green.
Grounded Conductor (Neutral) – White or natural gray.
Grounding Conductor (Earth Ground) – Bare, green, or green with one or more yellow stripes.
4 wire delta-connected secondary (High Leg) – Orange

Although orange isn’t reserved for a delta high leg, I don’t use orange unless it is on a delta high leg.

On 3-phase I use Red (L1), Black (L2), and Blue (L3), unless it’s a delta with a high leg then I use Brown (L1), Orange (L2), and Yellow (L3).

corkers said:

Multiple Earthed Neutral, the neutral is attached to earth at every installation's main switchboard (ie if the board is attached to an earth stake/grid, the neutral is bonded to earth.)

Click to expand...

This sounds like what we do in the US, at the service entrance the neutral is bonded to earth, from that point the neutral and ground are on seperate conductors.

Here in England, some buildings are supplied by the electricity company by what is called PME (projective multiple earthing)
This is where the armoured sheath of the main supply is used for earth and neutral.

It must have been done originally for cost saving (one less copper core cable)

I, as part of my job, do hazardous area installation testing. This includes garage forecourts.

It was discovered that if the earth rod on PME systems fails or goes high resistance the neutral current will travel through the path of least resistance which in many cases is the buried petrol tanks. (Yep, the buried petrol tanks in many garages in England have a current travelling through them.

Nobody seems to know what to do for the best. I have to write a separate report on each garage that has PME and monitor the current going to earth. That’s all, just monitor it. Even though some results have shown 20 amps are travelling through the petrol tanks. That must be enough current to warm them up a little eh

Hello,

In Europe (Belgium) is an global rule.
240V/400V

L1,L2,L3 is free the chose but green, yellow is not allowed. Normaly the power cables have 2 black, 1 braun and 1 blue wire inside.

Neutal is blue
earth green/yellow stripped

We've several kinds of elektrical nets but the most common is TNS

We start with an TN-net

TN you got the three fases and the earth but in most cases is the earth devided in two => Neutral and the earth and then its called TNS

So with TNS (s stands for seperated) you got the three fases, the earth and the neutral are seperated.

black as neutral

5 volt dc use black as neutral red as +5 volt yellow +12 volt white -5 volt blue -12 as blue. this is usually the color code coming off computer power supplies

Interesting... Here computer power supplies are +12V yellow, +5V red, common black... Don't know about -5 and -12, never had a reason to figure it out.

When it comes to wiring machinery in the US the proper guide is NFPA 79. It states:
Green : with or without yellow stripe(s) shall be used to identify equipment ground.
Black : Ungrounded line, load and control conductors at line voltage.
RED : Ungrounded AC control conductors at less than line voltage.
BLUE: Ungrounded DC control conductors
YELLOW: Ungrounded control circuit conductors that remain energized wiht disconnect in OFF position.
White or Natural Gray: Grounded circuit conductors.
White with Blue Stripe: Grounded (current carrying) DC circuti conductors.
White with yellow stripe: Grounded (current carrying) ac control conductors that remain energized when disconnect is in OFF position. For additional circuits powered from different sources that remain powered with disconnect OFF striping colors OTHER than GREEN, Yellow, or BLUE shall be used for the identification of the grounded conductors.