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	Subject - wire colors sparkie2170 When wiring a residential single phase panel, I have always followed the code of one leg black, one leg red, and the circuits follow the same pattern depending on what leg they are on. My newest employee brought a code section to my attention stating with a voltage of 150 v or less to ground, the color code is red, black, BLUE. I was always told by inspectors, employers etc, that blue is only for commercial and three phase. Is this just a Chicago thing? kbsparky I've used blue in single phase work as a conductor color to separate it from other circuits. Heck, if I am using conduit systems I might have some yellow, brown, violet, and pink conductors in there too! Something to keep the wires identified at both ends when installing multiple circuits in a single feeder conduit. As long as you don't use white, gray, or green for your circuit conductors, just about any color is acceptable. On single phase systems, that is. Which covers over 99% of residential work. When dealing with 3 phase systems, the so-called standardized color scheme was black, red, blue for 208Y120 systems; Black, orange, and blue on 240/120 hi-leg delta systems. Brown, Orange, and Yellow with a gray neutral on 277/480 systems. Some areas have adopted standardized color coding schemes while others have not. The NEC doesn't specify which colors to use in most cases, but they DO require that if you adopt a scheme that you post it at appropriate locations and be consistent. sparkie2170 I was refering to inside the panel. Otherwise we always use yellow for switch legs, orange for travellers, purple for 4-ways etc. lctrc789 Actually according to code you can use any color except white, green, or gray for hot wires. The orange is for high leg deltas. In residential commonly black and red are used but you can use blue or any other color for that matter. Black red and blue is what we use for 120/208 with a white neutral and brown orange yellow with a gray neutral for 277/480 and brown yellow orange for deltas. However there is no code that I am aware of for color schemes except ORANGE for high legs and what I mentioned above. It is a basic standard for knowledge and ease of use. Ryan_J See 210.4 (D) for multiwire circuits in buildings with more than one voltage system. Aside from that, the only color regulations are white, green and orange. lctrc789 Thanks Ryan, I know what you are saying however not all buildings have this as they are supposed to I know that. Many older buildings still have RHW wire and are not even color coated. But as I did say in the post the normal colrs that were posted. However I think his original post was for residential which doesn't matter. except of course the green and neutrals. Ryan_J I agree Pat. By the way, have you noticed the 2005 version of this? It is 210.5, and I think it is kind of two steps forward and one back. It now applies to all circuits where two voltage systems exist, not just multiwire, but it also only requires system identification, not phase identification. Its too bad they missed it on the 2005, but I think the 2008 will get it right.