On Monday, 10 August 2009 at 17:32:02 UTC+1, Carl D wrote:
I bought some SWA cable to use in the garden. It has three 2.5
mm2 cores, with brown, black and grey insulation.
The label doesn't say which colour to use for what but it does
have an new/old conversion chart.
new old
brown red
grey yellow
black blue
I think brown is live, but I'm not sure what to do with the
others, because I've only used twin and earth until now.
Which one is what?
It's quite simple really (if you're a European) The earth coloured one (brown) is live, while the "electric blue" coloured one is neutral, but if you have black and grey then 99% of UK electricians will use black as neutral because neutral has been black for the last 100 years and, as pointed out above, if you trasnslate R,B,G (red/black/green) to Euro colours you get B, B, G which is Brown (or maybe blue ) Blue (or maybe brown) and Grey! Of course if it's a 3-phase supply you can tell by looking at the indicator lights on your control panel, which are now Brown, Black, and Grey. If the black one doesn't seem to be working make sure the power supply is running, and just a reminder that the switch should be set to Red for Go or Green for Stop if it's a newer one but Green for Go and Red for Stop if it's an older one. Any idiot could have thought that up (though no sane person could!)