Lighting Wire Colours

What 12 different electrical wire colors actually mean wiring a light fixture or new appliance.

Lighting wire colours. Electrical wiring is an electrical installation of cabling and associated devices such as switches distribution boards sockets and light fittings in a structure. Allowable wire and cable types and sizes are specified according to the circuit operating voltage and electric current capability with further restrictions on the. It s important that properties get their wiring checked to see if the wiring colours are out of date have deteriorated over time and to check if they comply with bs 7671 wiring. A simple standard electrical circuit has a black or red hot wire that carries power from the power source to the device e g switch fixture outlet appliance a white neutral wire that carries the power back to the power source and a green or bare copper ground wire that connects the device to the home s grounding system.

Any electronic wiring in a uk home features three colours of wiring which are used for three different functions. Finally there are the direct current dc power wire colours commonly featured in solar and battery power systems. Positive non ground red. Brown this is the live wire.

Wiring is subject to safety standards for design and installation. Ground white or grey. Jun 4 2012 4 the op may be done with this thread or not but i have to correct the color codes posted above by ericloewe. Take apart an already installed fixture.

Aug 12 2007 17 0 66. This is the earth wire. Since 2006 british law dictates that the colours mentioned above must be used in all new electricity installations. The switch wiring is all the same but the switch wire cable c leads up to a different set up.

The standard dc colours are as follows. In 2006 amendment 2 of 17 th edition bs7671 wiring regulations saw a change to harmonise the uk colours with the european cable colours for consistency and to avoid confusion. Wire markers should be visible during installation and normal maintenance of the wiring systems. Ground green green with yellow stripes or bare wire.

Don t be confused by the number of electrical wire colors you find we ve got just the. When those labels use printed text they should use high contrast and durable print. Blue this is the neutral wire. There is a chance that if your house has these old wiring colours the switch drops may be from a loop in loop out radial lighting circuit done with junction boxes rather than ceiling roses as shown in fig 2.

Basic wire color coding. Strip the wire and stick it in a hole teeth inside hold the wire. Negative non ground black.