I noticed today that the colours have changed in twin and earth wiring (and I guess other cable as well) - I was wondering, has this been introduced since the new electical building regs came in in January, so they can tell what has been done after the law came in?

so what colour are they now? :confused:

They're blue and brown instead of red and black, which makes sense as they are the same as flex.

There is a bit of overlap which would not make it quite as simple as that.
This document (http://www.amicustheunion.org/pdf/FixedWiringChange.pdf) outlines the changes and says that the new could have been used as early as March 2004 and the old can still be used up to March 2006.

There is some harmonisation with Europe involved, some harmonisation with appliance wiring colours and some say a level of change with regard to colour blindness.
Currently, I believe, anyone with this type of colour blindness are barred from being registered electricians.

It still shouldn't make any difference to becoming an electrician though!

Have you ever seen a 20+ core control signal cable? ;)

The reason is to increase taxes.

Anyone who wants to sell a house after 2006 (or something) will need a certificate to say a qualified electrician has wired it. The blank certificates are only available to legitimate businesses, so the local cash-in-hand electrician can't get them.

The change in colours is so that house sellers can't say that all the wiring in their house was done years ago.

If I were looking for a new career I'd be having a long look at becoming an electrician. How one earth are there going to be enough qualified electricans around to check every time someone changes a light bulb (I know it's not quite that bad but almost).

You can still change socket covers, there's not much difference between doing that and adding an extra socket but it seems you can't do that (I realise you have to work out how your circuit works but that's hardly difficult).

Surely the people who would carry out the work incorrectly, putting the house in danger are still going to do it.

What's next, plumbing?:sad:

Originally posted by PerlOfWisdom

The change in colours is so that house sellers can't say that all the wiring in their house was done years ago.

I was wondering how they'd enforce that

So. Is there going to be a black market in old-colour cable?

Stock up now!:D

I bought some t&e in December, and it was already in the new colours. I was really annoyed as I only needed a few metres to finish a job, and it meant I had to stick a label on the fuseboard warning that the installation uded mixed colours.

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JGH

The trouble is, if you bought it in December what will happen if you came to sell, would they believe you did it before the new regs came in??

Its not only twin and earth thats changed, three phase wiring has as well. Instead of red, blue, yellow and black, its now grey, brown, blue and black. Causes no end of confusion for me, been using the old colours for the last 10 years and having to get used to a completely new system.

Originally posted by PerlOfWisdom
The change in colours is so that house sellers can't say that all the wiring in their house was done years ago.

The cable colours changed before the new regs came out so anyone could have wired it

Also as slh73 says the three phase colours have changed with black which was the neutral now being the second live cable:loopy: :loopy: