# CSA low voltage color coding



## ponyboy

Yeah I heard you fools use the same colors for both systems


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## daveEM

orange, brown, yellow comes to mind. That would be 1968 by the way. Don't know if it was a CSA thing. Haven't been near that stuff for many years.

Someone will know tho.

*Edit:
*
I wish I'd kept my first code book (tiny little thing). As a starter, the company I was working for was wiring (new and renovations) a couple of local hospitals. The CEC Rule 24-208 (c) wants orange, brown, yellow for 3 phase isolated systems. Probably in force back then also. CEC Rule 4-036-(3) (c) just has 3 phase as red, black, blue, white, no voltage.


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## KDC

Red(A) Black(Yellow sometimes if you're just using phasing tape on black conductors)(B) Blue(C) White(N) Green/Bare(Ground)

No difference based on voltage. 120/208, 347/600 or 7.2/12 is all phased the same way. 

Makes me wonder about the purple insulated stuff we have at work.


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## TOOL_5150

ponyboy said:


> Yeah I heard you fools use the same colors for both systems


Doesnt a good electrician test voltage, rather than rely on a color anyway?

Every wire in a cabinet could be pink for all I care. If I want to know the voltage and type of system.. I test it.


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## union347sparky

TOOL_5150 said:


> Doesnt a good electrician test voltage, rather than rely on a color anyway?
> 
> Every wire in a cabinet could be pink for all I care. If I want to know the voltage and type of system.. I test it.


Well yeah ..... However isn't easier to trouble shoot things when the color code is somewhat standard?


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## ponyboy

TOOL_5150 said:


> Doesnt every electrician test voltage, rather than rely on a color anyway?


Fixed it.

Yeah no one should rely on color to identify a system but you cant deny an industry standard means of identification is way more practical than one set of colors for everything.


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## glen1971

I think every wire should be numbered and not colored.. They do it with teck and I know that when I am looking at core #14 on one end, and I find core #14 on the other, it is the same wire...Heat shrink tags will identify neutrals as needed.. 
Transmitters would be easier - no more of the "what color is hot white or black or red?" Core 1 could always be hot, 2 the signal, 3 negative.


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## RonBaggett

*Purple wire*



KDC said:


> Red(A) Black(Yellow sometimes if you're just using phasing tape on black conductors)(B) Blue(C) White(N) Green/Bare(Ground)
> 
> No difference based on voltage. 120/208, 347/600 or 7.2/12 is all phased the same way.
> 
> Makes me wonder about the purple insulated stuff we have at work.


I had heard that CSA did not change the colors based upon voltage. 

NFPA designates Violet to be used in control cabinets to indicate wiring to potential free contacts.
I have used purple for 24VDC control(ladder logic) to distinguish it from the blue wire for the +24VDC power.


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## KDC

Just off hand, at our plant* for 3 phase loads we've got 120/208, 347/600, 480, 2300, 4160. Plus the 13.8kV we generate and the 115kV we step it up to for the transmission network. 

We'd have a rainbow. 


We do use numbered cables, and cable labels, but we sleeve the ends as we terminate to the colour code when appropriate.

The only code rule on phase colours is a general to all voltages (except in isolated systems in patent care areas)


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## wcord

*4-038 Colour of conductors*
4-038
(1) Insulated grounding or bonding conductors shall
(a) have a continuous outer finish that is either green or green with one or more yellow stripes; or
(b) if larger than No. 2 AWG, be permitted to be suitably labelled or marked in a permanent manner with a green colour or green with one or more yellow stripes at each end and at each point where the conductor is accessible.
(2) Conductors coloured or marked in accordance with Subrule (1) shall be used only as grounding or bonding conductors.
(3) Where colour-coded circuits are required, the following colour coding shall be used, except in the case of service entrance cable and when Rules 4-032, 4-034, and 6-308 may modify these requirements:
(a) 1-phase ac or dc (2-wire) — 1 black and 1 red or 1 black and 1 white*† (where identified conductor is required);
(b) 1-phase ac or dc (3-wire) — 1 black, 1 red, and 1 white*†; and
(c) 3-phase ac — 1 red (phase A), 1 black (phase B), 1 blue (phase C), and 1 white* (where neutral is required).
*Or grey
†Or white with coloured stripe (see Rule 4-030)
(4) Where the midpoint of one phase of a 4-wire delta-connected secondary is grounded to supply lighting and similar loads, the conductors shall be colour-coded in accordance with Subrule (3) and the phase A conductor shall be the conductor having the higher voltage-to-ground.
(5) Where a panelboard is supplied from a 4-wire delta-connected system, the grounded conductor referred to in Subrule (4) shall be located in a compartment provided for single-phase connections and the phase conductor having the higher voltage-to-ground shall be suitably barriered from that compartment.







*24-208 Three-phase isolated systems*
(see Appendix B)
24-208
A 3-phase isolated system shall
) have its circuit conductors identified as follows:
(i) isolated conductor No. A — orange;
(ii) isolated conductor No. B — brown; and
(iii) isolated conductor No. C — yellow; and


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## RonBaggett

*A phase Hi-Leg*

(4) Where the midpoint of one phase of a 4-wire delta-connected secondary is grounded to supply lighting and similar loads, the conductors shall be colour-coded in accordance with Subrule (3) and the phase A conductor shall be the conductor having the higher voltage-to-ground.

I have run across B phase Hi-Leg and even C phase Hi-Leg.


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## gnuuser

ponyboy said:


> Fixed it.
> 
> Yeah no one should rely on color to identify a system but you cant deny an industry standard means of identification is way more practical than one set of colors for everything.


correct some of our issues ive had to deal with in our factory is contractors installing panels
they do good work *but*
while the conductors are numbered they leave very little in the way of documentation of the control systems. sometimes they took the schematics with them 
fun job tracing miles of wire.
even more fun when they use all one color


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## Silv3rb4ck

In AB if its 347v/600 it has to be orange , brown yellow 
120v/208 it's red black blue


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## glen1971

Silv3rb4ck said:


> In AB if its 347v/600 it has to be orange , brown yellow
> 120v/208 it's red black blue


Where is that one found? What is their plan for everything that is not that "standard"?


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## Silv3rb4ck

The red black blue for 120/208 is in the code book section 4 and 347/600v being phased orange, brown yellow is in the ab standata


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## daveEM

Silv3rb4ck,

I can't seem to find anything in my Standata. Typically they would reference the CEC code rules. As I posted (#3) that would be...

_The CEC Rule 24-208 (c) wants orange, brown, yellow for 3 phase isolated systems. Probably in force back then also. CEC Rule 4-036-(3) (c) just has 3 phase as red, black, blue, white, no voltage._

Can you post the reference in the Standata.


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## glen1971

Silv3rb4ck said:


> The red black blue for 120/208 is in the code book section 4 and 347/600v being phased orange, brown yellow is in the ab standata


Hopefully no one is foolish enough to assume voltage by colors... There are alot of places not wired that way...


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## daveEM

glen1971 said:


> Hopefully no one is foolish enough to assume voltage by colors... There are alot of places not wired that way...


Right. Also I'm pretty sure AB wouldn't fool with 24-208(c)


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## Silv3rb4ck

Well maybe I'm mistaken and every single 347v panel or transformer new or old that I've seen is the wrong colors .. But personally I would meter it as well when in an unknown jb


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