US and Europe wiring standards what color is which wire?

[cannonfodder]

I need a quick hand. My new Elektra A3 arrived today. It is all hooked up with one exception, the plug. To my surprise, there was no plug on the power line, just bare wire so I had to run out and get a plug.

Now for the problem. I have a green/yellow-blue-brown wire on the Elektra. The green/yellow is ground, but I am use to black and white, which one corresponds to the blue and brown?

[HB]

From Wiring for La San Marco 85 series:

I'm not an electrician and have never installed non-US 220V equipment. That of course doesn't stop me from searching the Internet a bit (e.g., "standard wiring colors us"). One of my recent favorite references, the Wikipedia, has this to say about electrical wiring in the UK:

The colour change has been controversial and was delayed for three decades, because the colour blue which was previously used as a phase colour is now the colour for neutral, and the colour black which was previously used for neutral indicates now a phase. While confusion between these conductors could be dangerous, the combinations of colours used usually resolves ambiguities. It has also been suggested that the new phase colours are difficult to distinguish in low-light conditions, but the same can be claimed for most colour combinations, including the old British phase colours. A mnemonic advantage of the new colours is that the first two letters of "brown" and "blue" match the corresponding positions on the socket face: "bottom right" and "bottom left".

No easy answer, eh? It does include a table of the insulation color coding; its links led me to this very nice drawing from the Electrician's Guide, 4.6.2 - Identification of fixed wiring conductors. In case you haven't had enough of insulation color coding, the tables in Wire Color Coding covered both US and UK. Despite the online reference, my advice is to ask a technician at your friendly espresso equipment repair center of your choice.

Somebody has added a nice reference table since I last looked:

                        Pre-2004 IEE    Current IEC
Protective earth (PE)   Green or black  Green/yellow striped
Neutral (N)             Black           Blue
Single phase: Live (L)
Three phase: L1         Red             Brown
Three phase: L2         Yellow          Black
Three phase: L3         Blue            Grey

[cannonfodder]

Found it, Commercial Coding for AC Wiring from Reference & Information Wire Color Coding

115/240v 60Hz
US Black (hot) white(common) green (ground)
Europe and UK
Brown (hot) blue (common) Green/Yellow (ground)

and Go Ohio State!!

[k7qz]

My new Elektra A3 arrived today.

Congrat's! You're going to love this machine!

What, no pictures posted of the first beautiful shots yet?

[cannonfodder]

I was still installing, but I do have a new avatar

[cannonfodder]

And the very first shot and steam. I really mean the first, no grinder adjustment, no steaming practice, it was the first steam session. Not bad with two week old beans.



Good lord is this thing easy to use. It does the work itself, a little basic technique and it will pull good shots. A little barista skill and it should pull awesome shots. I will be starting a new thread on the performance tuning. Right now I have the mains pressure set at 2 bar (Dan, the pressure setting went up, my new machine shows 4 bar mains max), the pump is 8.8 bar brew, and my boiler is tweaked to 1.1-1.0 bar.

[mogogear]

Noticed the avatar change before I read your post........................... man o man- it is so sad to sit up here in the cheap seats. That La Forza looks really happy to sit up there..

Have a grand ol time !! Congrats

[cannonfodder]

I told the wife I ordered a box of espresso machine parts from Chris. I neglected to tell her all the parts were assembled into a machine. She laughed, I did not bleed, life is good. Now I have to drain the HX's in my two group and find a place to put it, unless someone wants a good deal on a Faema two group with one good group.

[k7qz]

Cool pics!

Good lord is this thing easy to use. It does the work itself, a little basic technique and it will pull good shots. A little barista skill and it should pull awesome shots.

+1 Those looking for a high-end machine should re-read this observation of Cannonfodder at least three times...

I will be starting a new thread on the performance tuning.

Excellent. Looking forward to someone of your experience level helping me move somewhere into barista stratosphere!

Aren't new toys fun ?!!