How to color-code conductors 100% correctly? Putting an end to disputes

  • Dec 14, 2020
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I decided that it was worth gradually, step by step, to further improve the quality and technical literacy of the articles of the "Electrician Notes" channel, and therefore with I plunged my head into the study of the current regulatory documents that relate to the design and operation of electrical equipment and electrical installations buildings. Without them, friends are nowhere ...

You ask, why didn't you initially write such articles that it would be difficult to find fault with and so that everything was correct? The answer is simple - we have such education in our country. They teach according to the same regulatory documents (GOSTs, SNiPs, SP and PUE), after 5-10 years, much of this is rewritten, new regulatory documents (ND) are issued, the terminology is changing, and besides after a while it turns out that those NDs for which he studied contained gross errors. And it turns out that in practice, when you perform electrical work, everything seems to work out and everything eventually works, but from the point of view of theoretical content, this is incorrect and may even be, under some special circumstances, also dangerous.

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Therefore, I will try to write articles, explaining how and what to do correctly, but taking into account modern standards and correct terminology. But I will do it as I did before - in the most simple language possible.

Confusion in standards

In theory, there can be no double interpretation of anything in electrics. It's like an exact mathematical science. Everything here should be clearly standardized and unambiguous. But as they say, everything is one thing in theory, but another in practice. And an example of this is the question of the correct implementation of the color coding of conductors.

It seems to be a simple question. But in practice - who does not use only what color for marking. Complete chaos, confusion and vacillation.

So, in order to thoroughly understand some electrical issues, you always need to contact ND and this is not only the PUE 7 known to all electricians, which contain really many errors and become obsolete over time, including rules from old irrelevant GOSTs, confusing electricians (more on this below in article).

You need to watch and study modern GOSTs that regulate this or that issue.

The issue of color identification of conductors is currently fully regulated by GOST 33542-2015, which was created on the basis of IEC 60445: 2010.

Why is this notorious confusion arising? It's simple. When releasing new GOSTs, for some reason the people responsible for this do not terminate the previous related GOSTs. This results in a double interpretation of the same rules and requirements.

In our case, before GOST 33542-2015 acted GOST R 50462-2009. And before GOST R 50462-2009, GOST R 50462-92. And before GOST R 50462-92, GOST 12.2.007.0-75. And what do you think? The older GOST R 50462-2009, GOST 12.2.007.0-75 continue to operate today! You can see this for yourself by clicking on the links or by going to the ROSSTANDART website and checking the validity period of these GOSTs.

In my opinion - this is blatant negligence, stupidity and stupidity, to produce standards about the same without prohibiting the actions of older ones.

After all, this leads not only to confusion in the requirements of these standards, but also interprets the same terms differently. In general, it creates a real mess, in which then electricians need to somehow cook.

That is, in fact and legally, an electrician can use any of the existing GOSTs for color marking of conductors, formally, as if not breaking anything. But objectively - we must think with our heads and understand that the GOSTs which have been replaced by the approved modern counterparts - should no longer act and we must simply forget about them.

Why p. 1.1.29 and 1.1.30 of PUE 7 are incorrect and do not suit us either?

And what about PUE 7? Paragraphs 1.1.29 and 1.1.30 contain irrelevant and even erroneous requirements for the color coding of conductors.

Consider item 1.1.29

Requirements p. 1.1.29 PUE 7

We see that the requirements of cl. 1.1.29 PUE 7 generally comply with the provisions of GOST R 50462-92. And this is already incorrect, since they must comply with the requirements of GOST 33542.

Consider item 1.1.30

Requirements p. 1.1.30 PUE 7
And the requirements of p. 1.1.30 PUE 7 contradict the requirements of not only modern GOST 33542–2015, but all its previous variations - GOST R 50462–2009, GOST R 50462–92 and even GOST 12.2.007.0–75, and thus create conditions for electric shock. For example, it says that you can use separately yellow and separately green colors to color-code phase busbars.
As we already know, GOST R 50462-2009 and GOST 33542-2015 explicitly prohibited the use of these colors separately in order to comply with the requirements electrical safety, as situations could arise when it was possible to confuse protective buses with yellow-green marking and phase buses with yellow or green colors.
Clause 6.2.1 of GOST 33542–2015

I think comments are superfluous And this is just one of the mistakes in this clause 1.1.30 of the EIC 7. You yourself can look for more errors here if you wish ...

That is why we forget PUE 7 in this part! We have to do electricians competently!

Correct color identification of conductors

Do not languish with theory, poured a lot of water (etc.) - but how to do something right - you ask. Now it's right to go to the specifics!

As I wrote above, we take the last GOST 33542–2015 officially introduced in Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan, then we find there Table A.1, which unambiguously regulates the colors, alphanumeric and graphic symbols used to identify conductors and pins electrical equipment. And we use it!

Table A.1 from GOST 33542–2015
End of table A.1 from GOST 33542–2015

For example, we will determine what color should be the insulation of conductors in electrical wiring of individual houses and apartments.

We know that in three-phase electrical installations of buildings with TN-C-S and TT system grounding types, 5 conductors are used: L1, L2, L3, N, PE.

And if the electrical installation is single-phase, then 3 types of conductors are used: L, N, PE.

Then, according to GOST 33542-2015, we get the following cheat sheets: for three-phase and single-phase electrical installations of buildings:

It should be noted here that phasing is not implied by these colors (brown, black and gray). This means that you can, for example, mark the L1 conductor not only with brown insulation, but also with gray or black.

As a result: you should buy the cable or wire that has the proper color identification of the cores in order to meet the requirements of modern GOST 33542-2015.

P.S. I hope that the issue with color marking is now closed, if not forever, then for a long time, at least for the duration of the standard.

Also, who is comfortable not to read, but to watch, then we have released a video for you below: