Hi Lauren Since no one answered your question, I would comment that whilst you might be correct in theory, you could meet resistance or confusion in practice.
Most safety standards for equipment say little about internal wiring colours except for the safety ground/earth, except - as you say EN60204 etc. However, traditionally, neutrals have almost always been blue, or in the UK - to confuse matters - black in some fixed wiring and old power cords. Generally, grey (gray) has been avoided completely for AC wiring, and when it was encountered in the UK in appliance cords on equipment from the USA, it usually appeared in conjunction with a black Live/Line conductor. This used to cause immediate confusion amongst UK electricians who traditionally thought the black was the Neutral, and thus wired the grey as the Live line!!!! Thus I would caution against doing what you suggest as I don't think european wiring codes inspectors would be very "happy" - just think what your local inspectors would say if we sent European wiring colour-coded equipment to the US and did'nt use grey/white for neutrals where specified in the NEC. Regards John Allen ---------- From: Crane, Lauren[SMTP:[email protected]] Reply To: Crane, Lauren Sent: 15 April 1999 20:36 To: '[email protected]' Subject: White neutrals in Europe > Is it acceptable to ship equipment to Europe with neutral conductors (hook > up wire) that is white, particularly if the ends are marked with the > letter 'N' ? > > It seems to me that this would be acceptable to both the Machinery > Directive and the Low Voltage Directive. Neither of these directives have > a requirement for wire color in their Essential Requirements. > > Marking neutrals in this manner conforms to NFPA-79, an appropriate, > though US National, design standard for large semiconductor manufacturing > equipment. > > Conforming to NFPA-79, I think, demonstrates adequately addressing > electrical hazards to the extent of the concern of the Machinery Directive > and Low Voltage Directive > > EN 60204 requires that neutrals be colored light blue ONLY IF COLOR IS > USED TO IDENTIFY THEM. Quoting section 15.2.3 "Where a circuit includes a > neutral conductor identified by colour, the colour shall be light > blue...". > > Note that the definitions section of EN 60204 (3.38) says that the neutral > conductor is assigned the symbol 'N'. > > This is echoed in EN60439 "Specification for Low voltage switch gear and > control gear assemblies Part 1. Specification for type-tested and > partially type-tested assemblies." section 7.6.5.2 which says in part "Any > neutral conductor of the main circuit should be readily distinguishable by > shape, location, marking or colour..." > > I would be interested to know if anyone has experiences with this issue. > > Thanks in advance..... > > Lauren Crane > Eaton Corporation > > [email protected] --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators). --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to [email protected] with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected] (the list administrators).
