Wire Colors in Conduit

[Deric]

Hoping someone here might be able to help with this. I want to add an outlet to an existing circuit in my garage. All wire is 12 AWG THHN in metal conduit. I have a bunch of 12 AWG THHN in the wrong colors so was looking up code/rules for re-marking/taping/re-identifying wire. Best I can tell, for individual wires smaller than 6 AWG in conduit, neutral wires MUST be white or gray and cannot be "re-marked". Ground MUST be green, bare or green with a stripe and cannot be remarked. Hot can be black or red.

Pulled the cover off the outlet I was going to connect the new outlet to and it is wired with 2 red and a grey wire that are re-marked (red - hot, red remarked white - neutral and grey remarked green - ground). Looks like I should replace them - luckily that's a short run that is easy to get to. The junction box these are connected to have a red hot, white neutral and a grey remarked green for ground going to the load center. Looks like I need to replace the ground wire. Ugh.

Can anyone here verify my thinking?

Thanks!

EDIT: Just talked to a local electrician and this is definitely NOT up to code. Off to Home Depot .....

 

[sibelman]

My two thoughts: No one except you is ever gonna see those colors. Home Depot sells THHN by the foot.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Our colours now are
Earth - yellow and green
Neutral - blue
Live - Brown

 

[DBhomebrew]

No one except you is ever gonna see those colors.

Except for future owners of said garage.

Our colours now are
Earth - yellow and green
Neutral - blue
Live - Brown

EDIT: Just talked to a local electrician

Good call.

 

[doug293cz]

Our colours now are
Earth - yellow and green
Neutral - blue
Live - Brown

These are the colors for the UK/EU, and many other places, but not in the United States. OP is in the USA (a bit north of Seattle, WA.)

Brew on

 

[sibelman]

Except for future owners of said garage.

I was dismayed, when extending a 30A run for my new water heater, to see that whoever installed it did not use correct wire colors from the panel to the wall box. So maybe it's best to correct these things, especially when it's easy.

 

[hungupdown]

These are the colors for the UK/EU, and many other places, but not in the United States.....

They are the UK (dreaded) 'harmonised cable colours'for single phase supplies. Introduced to make UK cable colours, more aligned with mainland Europe.
They're presently used for new installations, but old properties are allowed a mix of old and new colour cables. "Dreaded", as 'black' which was always old colour for neutral, is now sometimes a live wire, under the harmonised scheme!

 

[Skeeter686]

No one except you is ever gonna see those colors.

That's what the guy who installed it thought, too!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

If you're ever not sure, call an electrician. Insurance companies don't like homeowners pretending to be electrical wizards.

 

[cfrazier77]

Since you said it is not that long of a run to the junction box where it's right I would replace it all and make it right.

 

[rlrohan]

Since you said it is not that long of a run to the junction box where it's right I would replace it all and make it right.

I agree. Another good reason is having pride in your work.

 

[whoaru99]

If you're ever not sure, call an electrician. Insurance companies don't like homeowners pretending to be electrical wizards.

Indeed.

That said, just for the record, in many (most?) places homeowners can do their own electrical work, but that work is supposed to be inspected by the local authority/electrical inspector.

 

[Deric]

Since you said it is not that long of a run to the junction box where it's right I would replace it all and make it right.

That was my thinking so... I replaced the wire to the junction box. Upon closer inspection in the junction box I found a re-marked grey wire used as a ground going to the load center. That one is about a 40' run. When I pulled the cover off the load center to replace that ground I noticed that the other two outlets I had him relocate were wired with 4 reds (2 hot and 2 re-marked white for neutral) and 2 greys re-marked green for ground. Those 2 runs are about 35'. Replaced 2 of the reds with green wire for ground and cleaned the green tape of the greys and reused them for neutral.

Not exactly the way I had planned to spend a Sunday afternoon. Or $125.00.