High leg marking
- Thread starter nizak
- Start date
- Status
Garygood
Member
- Location
- Morton pa USA
Orange
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
curt swartz
Electrical Contractor - San Jose, CA
- Location
- San Jose, CA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
If your in SF = Purple
ptonsparky
Tom
- Occupation
- EC - retired
On a side not, for some existing installations it could be Red.
- Location
- Bremerton, Washington
- Occupation
- Master Electrician
Orange, but on the load side of the service, its only where the neutral is present.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
Orange markings is most popular, but other effective means can be about anything.
tadavidson
Senior Member
- Location
- Georgia
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I appreciate you citing the code section.
- Location
- Logan, Utah
Check out 110.15
Chris
Chris
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer
110.15 is the requirement from the NEC, which is what WE must follow. The use of other colors, like purple or red or (in one case I saw) yellow, is what the UTILITY supplies on the incoming service. THEY do not have to follow the NEC. So here in SF, where I too have come across the purple phase tape, I STILL HAD TO USE ORANGE after the service meter. That's the rule. Pay no attention to what the utility does on their side, it doesn't matter to you.
curt swartz
Electrical Contractor - San Jose, CA
- Location
- San Jose, CA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I have not looked at the SF electrical code recently but it has always required purple instead of orange for marking the high leg.
Edited to add copy of SF requirements.
On a 4-wire, delta-connected system where the midpoint of one phase winding is grounded, only the conductor or busbar having the higher phase voltage to ground shall be durably and permanently marked by an outer finish that is purple [ß] in color or by other effective means. Such identification shall be placed at each point on the system where a connection is made if the grounded conductor is also present. Identification of ungrounded feeder conductors shall comply with Section 210-5(C).
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kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
But it then immediately says or by other effective means - which leaves it wide open. Like I said, orange is most common, but is not the only way. They don't even limit the use of orange to high leg identification like they limit white/gray to grounded conductors or green to grounding conductors. Is pretty common to use orange as identification of one leg of 480/277 wye systems.
By saying other effective means, does it mean other effective colors or other effective means like (tags)
Carultch
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
So does this mean that in SF, you have to strip it orange and purple to comply with both the local and national code?
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
I think they have their own code - is mostly based off NEC content though, this is just one thing that is different from NEC.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
IMO it is wide open. Could use any color but white, gray and green because those are reserved for specific use, but if you use another color you may need to indicate somehow what that color represents. If you use orange you shouldn't have to indicate what it means.
ggunn
PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Occupation
- Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
Yes.
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
Either will suffice. But if non-standard, the meaning of color or any non readable tags should be posted in the way that system voltage and phase is posted for multi-system buildings.
mobile
mobile
ggunn
PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Occupation
- Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
It means what it says: permanently marked by an outer fnish that is orange in color or by other effective means.
Carultch
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
The national industry norm is to mark it orange, or use orange wire for #6 and smaller. The context of other wire colors usually distinguishes it from the B-phase in a 480V system. SF has a local requirement for marking it violet.
If you deviate from the industry norm, it needs to be explained on the equipment itself. Textual wire tags, permanent equipment cover labels, or anything else. Anything you can do to make the high leg as vivid as possible is encouraged.
- Status