Deciphering what each color means black electrical wires. Hot active wires may be any other colors except these.

What Are The Correct Electrical Wiring Colors
What color is common wire. No wire with any of those colors can be used for establishing a ground or neutral connection. Red electrical wires are the secondary live wires in 220 volt circuits and are commonly found in. The gauge or size of the wire may change depending on the current requirement of the circuit but the color is a consistent feature. Hot when a white wire is augmented with a red or black color marking this often indicates that it is being used as a hot wire rather than a neutral wire. As a neutral wire the white wire connects to the neutral bus bar in an electrical panel. Enables continuous power flow from the red wire.
Standard colors used for home wiring. Red r 24vac power from the furnaces transformer. The white wire is the common or neutral wire in a 100 volt service but the wire can also be gray in color. Knowing the color code is essential for setting up the correct configuration of an electrical system and for safety. In north america the common neutral conductor is white. Here are common usesfor wire colors.
Ground the ground wire if present will be white or grey. Its also called common because all circuits in the house typically have the white wires tied together which means every circuit has that wire in common. Blue or black c common wire may be unused by your existing thermostat. In fact any color wire except white gray or green may be used in conduit to carry ungrounded power. White wires with black or red tape. The coloring is as follows.
However common practice per local electrical inspectors is for the first hot live or active wire to be black and the second hot to be red. Theground wire is green or bare depending on its location in thesystem. What follows here is the standard coloring for wires throughout a home. A white or gray wire can only be connected to another white or gray wire. Black electrical wires carry the current from the power source to the outlet and used for power. Typically this is indicated with a band of black or red electrical tape but other colors may be used wrapped around the wires insulation.
According to nec a black or red wire must be used as an ungrounded conductor or hot wire. The wire that carries the current from the power source to the outlet or receptacle is the hot wire. Positive the wire for the positive current is red. Negative the wire for the negative current is black. The protective ground must be bare green or green yellow striped. The common wire is normally the white wire at least in the united states and is often called the neutral wire.
The recommendations in table below are by wiles.