I just found out that since we build to UL508A compliance, the Hot wire must be Black and the Neutral must be White or Gray (UL508A 66.5.3). It looks like the Ground wire can be Green or Green/Yellow. I don’t think these wire colors will work for Europe.
John Cochran From: emc-p...@ieee.org [mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org] On Behalf Of Ted Eckert Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 1:33 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: RE: AC wire colors for international use Hello John, Brown, blue and green/yellow are not a violation of the NEC or CEC. You can use them in North America. The NEC specifies only a few wire colors. Green and green/yellow can only be used for ground. White and grey are reserved for neutral. No other colors are reserved for a specific use. Orange must be used for a high leg on an unbalanced delta, but it isn’t exclusively reserved for that use. You can use orange for other uses. The black/red/blue is the common convention for 120/208 V, but is not required. Orange/yellow/purple is a common convention for 277/480 V, but also is not required. These colors can be used for any voltage except ground or neutral. (For larger wire sizes, black can be used for ground as long as the ends of the wire are properly marked with green bands or tape.) Ted Eckert Compliance Engineer Microsoft Corporation ted.eck...@microsoft.com The opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. From: John Cochran [mailto:jcoch...@strongarm.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 9:31 AM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: AC wire colors for international use Sorry this question has probably already been answered many times, but I want to use the same AC wiring inside of an industrial control panel. Is it acceptable to use European wire colors (Brown, Blue, Green/Yellow) inside of a North American 115VAC industrial control panel? The NEC, according to what I know, does not allow for these wire colors, and the European codes do not seem to allow for NA wire colors (Black, White, Green). Not sure how companies produce identically wired products for North American and European compliance. Thanks, John Cochran - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@socal.rr.com> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com> - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@socal.rr.com> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com> - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <emcp...@socal.rr.com> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald <dhe...@gmail.com>
