Harmonised wiring colours

[Aldrich]

Hi

I wish to rewire the upstairs lighting circuit in our house because it is very untidy. Last week, I purchased a quality brand (Doncaster) reel of

1.5mm2 cable for the job from a local electrical trade outlet. I was told that they no longer stock Red/Black 6242Y cable, so I bought grey sheathed Brown/Blue 6242Y cable. I understand that the industry is moving over to these new "harmonised colours". My house is entirely wired in Red/Black colours so I am considering what I need to do when using the new colours.

The outlet told me that the proper action is to cover the exposed Brown/Blue cores of the new cable with Red/Black sleeving at every termination in the circuit I am rewiring. However, elsewhere, I have read that, for a single phase installation, the old and new colours may both be used without marking (and therefore without such sleeving), but that a warning notice must be provided at the consumer unit. So I think that the advice from the shop was incorrect.

Please note that I do not intend to replace the entire lighting circuit. I shall retain the cable from the consumer unit and the wires to the light switches, so there will be junction boxes where the two colour systems meet.

My question is what is the proper course of action? Is marking or sleeving of the new cable required? Should I provide a notice at the consumer unit? Or should I attempt to return the old cable to the shop and try and buy cable that uses the old colours elsewhere?

I shall be very grateful for advice. I hope to complete the job between Christmas and New Year.

With best regards

David

[Stefek Zaba]

You were right, they were wrong. Try

and follow links for relevant-looking stuff (once they're back from holidays and have fixed their website!) A notice at the CU saying "both old and new colours used in this installation" is all you need for single-phase domestic working. There's a prescribed form of words and size for such a label, but not even the most gold-braided NICEIC-certified certified fool would "fail" your installation if the form of words or size of label wasn't exactly as per IEE advice.

During the transition, you have to exercise judgment about what colour of sleeving to use to denote switched-lives in 2+E. If (as you say) you're rewiring essentially the whole of the upstairs lights, so the cores in nearly all roses/JBs are the new brown-n-blue colours, consistency strongly suggests brown sleeving over blue sw-L returns. But if you're doing a single "add" with the new colour into a predominantly red-n-black world, I couldn't fault a decision to sleeve with good old red...

HTH - Stefek

[Al Reynolds]

Do TLC have them in yet? I asked in early December and they said they were due in soon.

That's what I've done, but I've used tape rather than sleeving purely because it means I can write on the tape that it's a switched live. I figure that while there are mixed colour installations, people may as well know as clearly as possible what the nature of a particular wire is.

Al

[Dave Stanton]

Only trouble with tape is it goes gooey after a while. Try a coloured cable tie. You can buy packs of different colours at the Pound shops.

Dave