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French wiring colours


Alcazar

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OK, so the UK recently went European, and adopted brown for live, blue for neutral for house wiring.

Why is it then, that major outlets in France, still carry RED, Brown, BLACK, PURPLE, ORANGE, even WHITE etc for live?

I know the  "strange" colours tend to be used for two-way lighting circuits, etc, and even for "live from switch to light" type identification, but what do the regs say about the use of RED for live? Or BLACK?

Since I'm doing a fair bit next time I'm there, I DON'T want to be in a position that I use RED because it's available, then get told it ought to have been brown[:@] (anyway, red and blue look SO nice in the fusebox[;)][<:o)] )

On another note, there seems to be no reason NOT to buy cables for conduit, (singles), from Screwfix now, especially not at £7 per 100m for 1.5 sq mm, and £9 per 100m for 2.5 sq mm?

And on yet another note, UK suppliers only seem to be able to offer grey and black in addition to brown, blue green/yellow, and apparently, the regs state that these are only for THREE PHASE supply?

Alcazar

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My understanding is that in France Blue in neutral,

Green/Yellow is earth and any other colour (i.e. anything except Blue and

green/yellow) is live.

That is certainly what I’ve done and I find very useful when

e.g. wiring “landing light” type circuits where there are two cables that can

be live.

Others please correct me if thing have changed or I am just

wrong (as I am not a professional).

Ian

 

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[quote user="Brilec"]

Yes, in case you hadn't noticed, France is not actually a part of Europe.

To be fair, I bought a new convector heater last November, and it did come with the new unified colours, so perhaps they are just lagging a bit.

[/quote]

Except that I KNOW that with my luck, the first person to get told his new installation is illegal and must be rewired with brown instead of red, will be..............you guessed it[:'(]

Alcazar

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Correct - there are no rules as to the colour(s) you MUST use for live just the colours you must not. This would not be so much of a prob if the French electricians would just be consistent within the same house - as a friend is finding whilst trying to track down an "issue".

John

not

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Oh yes, been there, still doing that.

My wife refuses to touch anything connected to the sockets near the sink, as she says she gets a shock. We would appear to have 70V between NEUTRAL and EARTH, but the machines, (washer, dishwasher, tumble drier) work OK. Since I CAN'T feel it, I do all the washing etc, until I can get it sorted.

Oh, and just to be safe, I disconnect before loading/unloading, and only touch plastic on/off switches when connected..........just in case that 70V suddenly becomes 230V[^o)]

Alcazar

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[quote user="Alcazar"]

Oh yes, been there, still doing that.

My wife refuses to touch anything connected to the sockets near the

sink, as she says she gets a shock. We would appear to have 70V between

NEUTRAL and EARTH, but the machines, (washer, dishwasher, tumble drier)

work OK. Since I CAN'T feel it, I do all the washing etc, until I can

get it sorted.

Oh, and just to be safe, I disconnect before loading/unloading, and

only touch plastic on/off switches when connected..........just in case

that 70V suddenly becomes 230V[^o)]

Alcazar

[/quote]

Interesting - we found something similar in a some old sockets I was

replacing a couple of years ago - about 70-80 volts between neutral and

earth (I was only checking because the orginal wiring had both the live

and the neutral in a rather unattractive shade of grey, so I had no

idea what was what). The sockets seemed to be fine in terms of there

being 230V between live and neutral, but I couldn't (haven't) figured

out what was going on. I ended up tracing the earth all the way back to

a pipe, unscrewed it, polished the pipe a bit with some sandpaper, and

this seemed to cure, but what was actually going on, I have no idea.

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Alcazar

Re screwfix cable

Another little UK/ French oddity. All the UK single (conduit) cable I have used (and I have used a lot of it recently) has multistrand copper conductors, the French reel of 1.5 mm cable I have in front of me has a single strand conductor. Don't know if it matters though.

bj

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France does not use PME like the UK where the neutral and earth are connected togther somewher usually at the transformer.

My friendly electrician told me that there is no real colour code for the live wire although each electrician developes his/her own system. They use one colour for switched things like lights, say red to the switch then purple from the switch to the lamp bulb holder, a different colour between switches for stairs where there are two switches. Another colour for things like dishwashers and washing machines etc. I must admit when you look inside my consumer unit there appears to be just about every colour you could think of but a closer look does indicate some sort of system is involed, all I have to do is work it out.

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[quote user="bejay"]

Alcazar

Re screwfix cable

Another little UK/ French oddity. All the UK single (conduit) cable I have used (and I have used a lot of it recently) has multistrand copper conductors, the French reel of 1.5 mm cable I have in front of me has a single strand conductor. Don't know if it matters though.

bj

[/quote]

Thanks, I'll check that out, I'm unsure as to the type of conductor in the Screwfix cable, but they have a helpline that will tell me tomorrow. I'm not in a hurry anyway, we aren't back there officially until end of May[:(]

Alcazar

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[quote user="jond"]

Interesting - we found something similar in a some old sockets I was replacing a couple of years ago - about 70-80 volts between neutral and earth (I was only checking because the orginal wiring had both the live and the neutral in a rather unattractive shade of grey, so I had no idea what was what). The sockets seemed to be fine in terms of there being 230V between live and neutral, but I couldn't (haven't) figured out what was going on. I ended up tracing the earth all the way back to a pipe, unscrewed it, polished the pipe a bit with some sandpaper, and this seemed to cure, but what was actually going on, I have no idea.
[/quote]

Hmmm, very odd, isn't it? AFAIK, there is NO earth connected at the sockets, there's a cable, and it goes into the nearest junction box, where the situation is the same, but I can't trace it any further. I have installed a proper earth but it's only connected to the newer parts of the installation so far, there was no earth wire arriving at the distribution box for me to connect, except the one I, myself, put in to the actual earthing rod.

It's on my list of "things to do", right after finish the first shower room, and make a decent start on installing electrics to the barn extension.[:'(] Unfortunately, time always seems to be agianst me, and wife's decision to go elsewhere at Easter this year, (it's our 30th wedding anniversary), hasn't helped.

Jeff

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[quote user="Alcazar"]

[quote user="jond"]

Interesting - we

found something similar in a some old sockets I was replacing a couple

of years ago - about 70-80 volts between neutral and earth (I was only

checking because the orginal wiring had both the live and the neutral

in a rather unattractive shade of grey, so I had no idea what was

what). The sockets seemed to be fine in terms of there being 230V

between live and neutral, but I couldn't (haven't) figured out what was

going on. I ended up tracing the earth all the way back to a pipe,

unscrewed it, polished the pipe a bit with some sandpaper, and this

seemed to cure, but what was actually going on, I have no idea.

[/quote]

Hmmm, very odd, isn't it? AFAIK, there is NO earth connected at the

sockets, there's a cable, and it goes into the nearest junction box,

where the situation is the same, but I can't trace it any further. I

have installed a proper earth but it's only connected to the newer

parts of the installation so far, there was no earth wire arriving at

the distribution box for me to connect, except the one I,

myself, put in to the actual earthing rod.

It's on my list of "things to do", right after finish the first

shower room, and make a decent start on installing electrics to the

barn extension.[:'(] Unfortunately, time always seems to be agianst me,

and wife's decision to go elsewhere at Easter this year, (it's our 30th

wedding anniversary), hasn't helped.

Jeff

[/quote]

Oh the provision of earths in sockets appears to be totally random

[:S]. There probably is a logic to it all, but it's beyond me!

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Is it my imagination or is the outer insulation on the rolls of flexible cable here in France a damn-sight thicker - and therefore less flexible - than its equivalent back in the UK ?

I'm not talking about the 3 x single strand stuff which does duty in place of the individual single cables in a gaine, but the 5 or 10 m rolls of stuff you would buy to rewire - say - an appliance, or make up an extension cable.

p

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