What colour do you use for neutral?

[Adam W]

I use grey.

Brown for switched live or L1
Black for Auxiliary live or COM
Grey for Neutral or L2

Then in the switch you'd have 2 browns in L1, a blue and grey (both sleeved brown) in L2, and a black in COM.

 

[Adam W]

Did I pass

LOL yes, it's just from the other post it sounded like you did it that way because you were told to and that was good enough. I'm open to suggestions as to different ways of doing things provided they can be explained, and not just 'this is how you do it because that's the way it's done'.

 

[Adam W]

Reasons for doing it how i do regarding 2way is purely the way i've always done it....in the past red was common,yellow L1,blue L2.....is this totaly wrong and unsafe somehow,did i break the secret electricians code and deserve to be banished living the rest of my life in a black robe ringing a bell shouting 'unclean!!!' or something?

I an see your point about the browns being in 2 different connections though..hadn't thought about that before tbh. With everything sleeved they are all brown anyway but thats besides the point.

Can you remember why you started doing it like that?
It's not necessarily 'wrong' or unsafe, but the reason I use the colours I do is to avoid confusion; largely to avoid confusing myself.
If you were wiring switches in singles all the wires would be brown anyway, but I find having different colours makes each wire easier to identify.

 

[Swicade]

Abit hard to explain why i wire it that way without a probable 'wtf?' response but here goes:-

Brown (in my mind) is common live...be it one way switching,3 plate light wiring (the old way at the ceiling rose) or 2 way switching....to me it's always the common live in the common terminal.
That leaves me the black and grey (both sleeved brown) for switch wires L1 & L2 (or on one way switching blue (sleeved brown) as L1 switch return).It's just the way i read it in my wee mind.
Obviously this does lead to the fact the 'common' live from the light (brown cable on 3 plate) not going into the common on the 2 way light switch common but that's where my plan goes to pot....but i know where it goes,i think *ponders*

 

[nickblake]

Always use brown as common back and gray as strappers , as it then is the same as the 1 way switch switch common brown blue sleeve brown to L1 , ive always been taught common is live and as for neutral its recommended that the gray is used as neutral so it keeps away from the black as thats now become live so less confusing , having said that it was less confusing with the old colours way more sense being red yellow blue

 

[ipf]

Always use brown as common back and gray as strappers , as it then is the same as the 1 way switch switch common brown blue sleeve brown to L1 , ive always been taught common is live and as for neutral its recommended that the gray is used as neutral so it keeps away from the black as thats now become live so less confusing , having said that it was less confusing with the old colours way more sense being red yellow blue

Same here. You can always find ways of creating confusion, especially on existing installs with 2 sets of colours and different methods of wiring. If everything is sleeved correctly, where is the problem.

 

[Strima]

I tend to use grey with no sleeving, but then again most of my work now tends to be -48VDC. It can get confusing when it's three phase, to single to DC... :dizzy2:

 

[Adam W]

If you associate grey with blue, then it makes sense to me for the grey (sleeved) to go with the blue (sleeved), both the browns together, which leaves the black to go in the common.
You should sleeve everything correctly, but that on it's own doesn't stop confusion, the same as if you went to wire a a switch and were presented with a load of brown wires with no identification. The additional colours serve as extra identification.

 

[Adam W]

I suppose the problem comes about when there are more than one electrician working on an install, and different wires get used at different switches.
Same with permanent and switched live when wiring roses. I've seen that happen before. The power gets switched on and nothing works.

 

[ipf]

I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

 

[mayfair]

Bet you this post has confussed many a Electrical Trainee or diyer. Idiot electricians Blue is neutral Brown is Live and Green /yell earth it tells you that on the diagram on the plug.

 

[JulianC]

My god you lot think too much at times.

Brown for neutral here. I'd use green and yellow, but I keep that for live.

 

[mayfair]

So you've worked in Spain then! lol

My god you lot think too much at times.

Brown for neutral here. I'd use green and yellow, but I keep that for live.