Electrical Tips for Rookies

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Oh, By the way, black is the wire color for the "hot" in 120 volt AC house wiring. In three phase power systems, black wire is used very often for all phases with some kind of indicator as to which phase the wire represents. Black is also commonly the wire color of both sides of 220 volt house input wiring.
Red in house wiring is commonly used for "switched" power wiring or for anything the electrician chooses. When pulling in multiple circuits in a single conduit or raceway, different circuit "hots" will use a combination of colors (i.e.black, blue, red, yellow, etc.) with white as the neutral and green as ground.
Color codes vary across the country and municipalities so even the above colors may not apply in all locations.