Why you need colored electrical tape

Colored Tape is Your Friend

We all have a need for electrical tape. You likely have a roll in your bag, pouch, box or with a majority of your tools back in the shop. But what color is it? Most will answer black unless, of course, they have been an electrician. Some people may have never seen the variety of colors, or may even question the usefulness of such colors.

My Tape Ring

What's the purpose?

The boring technical answer, for marking wires. Marking wires? What does that even mean? I'm sure you're well aware of what hot, neutral and ground wires are and how they are colored. That's for the most part true, but many specialty and larger gauge wires often only come in a single color. These wires still need to be easily identified. This is where tape comes in.

Chances are you've looked inside of an electrical enclosure. If it's 120/208V you typically see black, red, blue, white and green wires. In 277/480V typically it's brown, orange, yellow, white and green. Now on your larger equipment, feeders and main panels, you may only find large black cables. They simply have a few rounds of tape to identify the different phases. This is for 2 main reasons. Either the wire only comes in one color, due to its specialty or availability. The other reason is cost. Like with everything else, the more you order the cheaper it is. We all know how expensive copper can be.

Wire of this size will come in large spools. The longer you get the cheaper. Some of these larger-sized wires cost over $5 per foot and can be discounted significantly if you order longer spools. Why buy 3 different colors of 250' when a single 1000' spool would be cheaper. You spend a few dollars on electrical tape and save hundreds or thousands on wire by buying in bulk.

How it helps mechanics and techs?

We've all run into a bird's nest of wires. Nothing is tagged. You have to trace the wires one by one. Ideally, you have wire tags and can number or letter the individual wires to match what the prints say. That's not always possible. The parts cage is locked, someone left them in their locker or the person approving purchases doesn't see the point of a 'sticker book'.

At the bare minimum of extra colors you should always have is white tape. While taking apart your bird's nest, you can flag and tag the wires. You have your marker handy right? Doesn't matter what color marker if it's white tape. You can also tag your pneumatic lines while you're at it.

But I don't think you should put white tape on hot wires, you're correct. REMOVE FROM UNGROUNDED(hot) AND GROUNDING(ground) CONDUCTORS before returning to service. White and gray are reserved for grounded conductors per the NEC 200.7

Now if you have other colored tape, those can stay on permanently. I suggest matching the colors of the phases of the feed in most instances. When everything is color-coded to the phase, it makes troubleshooting easier.

Purple is a color you may run into coming from a switch. It has no official meaning, but unofficially I've seen it used to denote it as the leg going to your load. It stands out the most since you almost never see purple wires. I always carry purple if I have to do work in an office, dwelling and other general locations outside of the plant floor.

Hopefully, you've learned a little something that you can add to your ever-growing skill set. I do suggest making or buying a ring like I have for easy organization. For more tricks and tips on tape, check out this post.