In article ,
Mike O'Donnell wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 10:13:08 +0000 (UTC),
(Bob Vaughan) wrote:

In article ,
[stuff snipped....]

You may also see blue outlets, which are frequently Surge Protection,
or yellow outlets, which are normally Corrosion Resistant. The Surge
Protection outlets may also be IG.

Other colors generally have no special meaning, although you sometimes see
red used for emergency power circuits.

Thanks for the detailed info. Interesting reading. Having worked
mostly on residential wiring, I never knew there were all these
special types of outlets. Next time I am at one of these places I
will have to look for the triangle and/or green dot.
I wouldn't mind getting a few of those surge protection outlets for my
computer and electronics at home. Seems like thwey would be better
than power strip protectors.....

Mark

The blue outlets do not provide surge protection in the outlets, I believe
the blue means they are connected to surge protection circuitry.

Right.. I had a bit of brainfade there.
I have used some distribution panels where the outlets were color coded
to match the phases (black, red, blue).

Lets amend that to say that if the outlet is blue Decora or Quad style,
then it is a TVSS (transient voltage surge supression) type, and if it
is a standard style, it is not a TVSS device, although it may be connected
to one.

A search of the manufacturers catalogs and websites seems to confirm this.

Bryant (now part of Hubbell) markets a line of surge suppression (TVSS)
receptacles that are available in blue, brown, gray, ivory, white in
Decora style, and in blue and ivory in their Quadplex style.
The catalog page shows the example in blue.
These are all IG, and Industrial or Hospital grade, nylon or Lexan.

Leviton markets a line of surge supression outlets in orange (IG), white,
ivory, gray, red, but not blue. Leviton does not appear to offer blue
outlets. (at least not in the printed catalog that I have in front of me.)

Pass & Seymour/Legrand, and Cooper also offer TVSS receptacles in various
colors, including blue.


Bryant, Hubbell, and Cooper also offer standard 5-20R or 5-15R duplex
receptacles in blue, but those appear to be the only non-TVSS examples
that I can find in blue.



A place I worked at before used red outlets throughout the building for the
computer equipment circuits. Kept someone from plugging in a vacuum cleaner
or space heater into the same line as a server (at least in theory).


- Mike O.

In theory :-)
In reality, color dosen't do much if the person running the vacumn cleaner
dosen't know what the colors are supposed to mean.






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