I've no idea how to wire up a plug (EU related)

Factual Questions
1

Well, ok, I do sort of. Its just I have to check first which wire inside a plug goes to which terminal instead of knowing it off by heart. Perhaps I should be ashamed (like these folks ), but it just seems to me that the colour of the wires is illogical. Plugs in the past (in the UK) used to be coloured sensibly, with black, red and blue/green IIRC.

So, who decided on the current colour scheme for plug wiring and why? Would (in the EU) yellow and green not be more appropriate for live instead of brown? :confused:

2

Surely introducing anything green to live wiring is begging for lethal confusion?

Re. brown wires - I’ve seen old old appliances with such colouring. And I suppose brown is kind of close to red, particularly if vivid colouring of plastics wasn’t always as cheap and easy as it is now.

Possibly the problem with black is that in a dirty environment, all the wiring ends up looking black. So you need to be able to scrape off dirt and see a colour underneath (otherwise you’ll just keep on scraping!)

3

A quick Google didn’t turn up anything definitive, but the reason for the slightly counter intuitive colours is that they have to be distinguishable by people with colour-blindness. Red/black/green wouldn’t work for example.

4

I don’t have an answer, but thanks for starting this thread. I had no idea there was such a thing as “changing a plug” until I read the linked article and asked some British friends about it. Fascinating!

5

The colour code has changed and, in the opinion of many, not for the better.

http://www.iee.org/oncomms/sector/letters_wiring_colour_change.cfm

The big problem is in 3 phase systems, where in the old code, each phase was red, yellow or blue, with Black as neutral/neutral earth and green as earth.

The new code has each phase as being Brown, Grey, Black with Neutral as Blue.

Thus there is the obvious chance of error of mixing up Black, which is now one part of the live circuit, with Blue, which used to be part of the live circuit.

http://www.iee.org/oncomms/sector/letters_wiring_colour_change.cfm

http://www.mra.org.mt/Downloads/Publications/Harmonisation_of_wiring_colour_codes.pdf

If you look at the link above, you can see how obvious the old scheme was, why the hell they changed ? To harmonise with Europe, which should have changed to meet our better standards, our UK standards have tended to be higher than Europe generally in my opinion, especially when it comes to earthing arrangements.

The changes to single phase - domestic systems are reasonably ok to understand.

http://www.iee.org/Publish/WireRegs/IEE_Harmonized_colours.pdf

The colour changes are alleged to have been originally adapted to suit a particular from of colour blindness, but I doubt it, it seems to have a touch of the urban legends about it, because the type of colour blindness supposedly addressed would prevent such a person from becoming an electrician at all, therefore the change to assist them is irrelevant - they still couldn’t take up the profession as there are lots of other things in the electrical/electronic trade that are colour coded, and those colour codes are industry standard across the world, no way on earth they would change.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter what I think, the changes and the legislation is in force, something I’ll just have to work with.

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~uncletony/mains%20stuff.htm

The decline in trade skills crosses almost all areas, from joinery, electrical, building trades, through to fabrication, plumbing, welding, to almost anything that had a full appretenticeship.

Its no surprise that most folk don’t have a clue any more, it also means its difficult to find someone with my skill, there are so many charlatans around that its easy to get ripped off badly, just think of the building trade or car game and you know what I mean.

On the other hand, the years of training and accumulating experience count for little, folk who work with their hands seem to have beome regarded as manual labour,depsite the fact that skilled trade workers represent a large investment and are very often much better paid than many other groups of workers.

Many householders cannot do simple things like fix a leak in a pipe, patch a hole up in plasterwork, wire a plug or even fix up a shelf so thats its level and straight.

6

Looking through the comments on the OP’s link, a very obvious explanation is made:

7

Yes, and if I recall correctly this was made a legal requirement fairly recently, in large part because of the number of people who would buy an appliance and then wire up the plug wrong.

Personally, changing a plug is something I’ve never had a problem with, providing the plug has the little paper chart on it or I have a correctly wired reference. Its not something I do often, and it’s fairly important it be done right, so why would I bother relying on memory?

I reserve my ire for the GIANT HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGE 3-pin plugs we are forced to use in the UK. Why can’t we have sensible small plugs? I know all the historical yadda yadda, but without some effort to modernize I can foresee the UK in 2160 still having these same damn things everywhere. :mad:

8

Since 1995 - which means that almost all under-30s (cf the survey) will not have encountered a new appliance without a plug in their adult lives.

9

They’ve not encountered my Dad scavenging after a spot of DIY. Plugs, doors and radiators are especially valued above all else. We have to make efforts to stop him taking large timber posts that he thinks are useful for non specified tasks that are expected some time in the future :stuck_out_tongue:

10

They’ve not encountered my Dad scavenging after a spot of DIY. Plugs, doors and radiators are especially valued above all else. We have to make efforts to stop him taking large timber posts that he thinks are useful for non specified tasks that are expected some time in the future from the rubbish dump :stuck_out_tongue:

11

The reason we use those huge plugs, is that they have fuses in them, unless you prefer to go the American way, where your appliance is backed up only by the mains fuse, which is usually 30 amp or above.

I think I’d rather keep our large plug and fit it wih the appropriate fuse, less danger of blowing your installed wiring in the house and starting a fire.

The other reason we use large plugs is that the prongs are designed to carry a certain current safely, and to make better electrical connection, the better that connection, the lower the possible build up of heat when running heavy duty appliances, means less risk of fire.

Our plugs may be large, but they are also safer.

12

:eek: 11 years ago? And I think of it as ‘recently’? I really am getting old. Nooooooooooooooo!

But does that really make a significant difference nowadays when we have circuit breakers and all the modern good stuff? Several european countries use 2-pin flat plugs with 230v and don’t seem to experience problems with stuff bursting into flames on a regular basis.
I distantly remember moving to the UK back in 82 and being surprised by how clunky the plugs were, among many other things. What an exciting child I was…

13

Actually, our standard receptacle circuits are 120 volt, and protected at 15 amps. Garages and kitchens will probably have 20 amp circuits. 30 amps is reserved for 240-volt circuits feeding things like clothes dryers and ranges (cookers, to you).

Recent updates to our electircal codes are calling for use of what are called arc-fault breakers on general receptacle circuits to detect sparks and arcs in addition to flat-out shorts and overloads.

Just for the sake of comparison, our wiring is usually green/bare for ground/earth, neutral is white and hot is black. If it’s a 240-volt circuit, the second hot will almost always be red.

14

Desperately trying to find a cite for my fading memory of electrical plug colour coding.

Before the UK went into the EU, the coding was red live, black neutral and green earth.

IIRC Germany had red as earth. France had something different again.

The final agreement was a compromise- red had to go because Germans and/or Brits would kill themselves if the wired to the old colours.

So Europe standardised on Brown Live, Blue Neutral and Yellow/Green Earth.

I’ve googled to the nth degree, but as this all happened in about 1972, I can find nothing. Any aging French or Germans out there who can remember the colours used?