Standard Color for indicator lights 10

[wfmoore]

I am looking for an available standard that provides guidance for using indicator lights.

The confusion is that in the Power Industry "Red" is traditionally used to indicate running.

In my manufacturing experience, "Green" is used for running. This is derived I believe from the old "JIC" standard that is no longer supported. Is there an industry standard that specifies or recommends a position

Thanks

William F. Moore

 

[wbd]

I don't know of an industry standard to reference but I've always seen and was taught that green is safe condition and red unsafe from a personnel safety viewpoint. This then translates into for electrical:
green - circuit breaker, switch is open
red - circuit breaker, switch is closed
for mechanical (valves):
green - valve is closed
red - valve is open

wbd

 

[busbar]

OP may want to review thread248-39408.

 

[jdbrandt]

NFPA 79 covers this topic, as related to Industrial Machinery

 

[peebee]

Red Star for you, jdbrandt. I never knew 79 was in there. Cool.

 

[electricpete]

I vote my star to busbar for a link that answers the question in details, including many standards.

 

[peebee]

Oh yeah. Guess I should have checked his thread. Red Star for you too, bus.

 

[wfmoore]

Gentlemne,

Thank you. Now I am as confused now as when I started this quest.

As stated so eloquently it is the users choice, and I will ask them to decide.

The reason for the question is that there are three conflicting designs by vendors that are being integrated into a project. 2 Will have to change their designs to accomodate. I was hoping that there was truly a standard to apply. NFPA, I believe is quite ambiguous depending whether you are discussing Life Safety or Process Performance.

Well, Thanks again

William F. Moore

 

[d23]

wfmoore:

For what its worth:

I by no means would say we are politically correct, but for the petroleum sub-pump industry our typical lights are:

Green -- Running
Yellow -- Stopped, but auto restart pending, timer running
Red -- Failure that will not auto restart

It would be nice if the whole world was on the same page! If you find some written standards please post them.

If you want some fun swap some lenses.

 

[buzzp]

d23, I have seen this used as well in the oil industry. If the product is going overseas then there are standards for colors on that by the IEC. There are standards, it depends on your end application and location.

 

[peebee]

In my background in pharmaceutical processing plants and other commercial/light industrial, red=run and green=stop.

It'd be nice if the whole world would follow that lead.

;-)

 

[pennpoint]

peebee!

When was the last time you went through a red light (knowingly).
In my country (I suspect yours too) RED means "STOP" and GREEN means "GO". It would be a shame if we were to reverse the meaning of this symbols as you suggest, just so the pharmaceutial industry can advance themselves. Sounds selfserving to me (Just kidding).
Convention for me is; when the machine is off nothing is illuminated. If the machine is running (normal running condition) AMBER indicators maybe illuminated.
Upon a fault condition, the machine is shut down and RED indicator lights are illumated indicating the cause of the outage.
To use RED as a general indicator of operation, is a false indicator of operation.

What if you had to enter a very tightly closed room and you could only enter the room if the fresh air fan was running. Would you enter the room with a RED indicator light by the door or a GREEN light.

Regards
pennpoint

 

[peebee]

Red = "Run" is very common in the US. My guess is close to 50% of the installations here use Red = "Run" (the rest of the porr confused masses use Red = "stopped&quot.

Good luck getting anyone here to standardize on light colors here. Good luck getting anyone to standardize on digital cell phone standards, HDTV standards, or Mac vs. PC too while you're at it.

I agree that there's a saftey concern here, but both standards are very entrenched. Even worse, as observed by wfmoore, "NFPA, I believe is quite ambiguous depending whether you are discussing Life Safety or Process Performance." Now, THAT's entrenched.

 

[electricpete]

Why not create your own plant standard... purple and yellow so there's no chance of anyone getting confused due to remembering their old plant?

It's a thought. Personally I would go with red means pump on...breaker closed....valve open. That's what I've always seen.

 

[dpc]

To pennpoint,

My experience is that red = energized = run is much more common in U.S. industrial facilities than the opposite. I believe this practice stems from the use of red to indicate a closed breaker or energized bus in electric utility systems.

If you accept that you will use red to indicate "energized", it's a little tough to decide green means running.

I believe the Navy using red for running as well, but I could be wrong on that.

The red/green traffic light analogy is really a red (green?) herring.

It's also interesting to note that building exit signs in the US can be either red --- or --- green.

You must use whatever is standard in your facility. The worst possible situation is not being consistent.

Despite whatever standards may be referenced, there is no single accepted standard in the US.

I believe even OSHA acknowledges that this is a "local custom".

 

[buzzp]

You can still add labels under the lights to avoid any confusion.

 

[jraef]

Actually, if you take the Red = Dangerous, Green = Ready philosophy and forget Go and Stop issues, then even a traffic light follows.

Think about it:

Red does not mean Stop, since you may already have been stopped for some other reason. It really means "Danger: You will likely be killed or injured if you Go into (or stay in) this intersection!"

Green doesn't necessarily mean you MUST Go, it means "OK to do whatever you want to in that intersection, including stopping in the middle, smoking a cigaret etc., because it is safe for you as long as it is still Green (and the guy behind you does not have a gun)!"

Yellow of course then means "Warning, this intersection is about to become very dangerous for you!"

As far as I am concerned, this follows the vast majority of industrial color code logic.

If you do not agree with this interpretation, ask any police officer what you are expected to do if you are already in an intersection and the light goes from Yellow to Red: Do you STOP or do you get the hell out? Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati

 

[peebee]

By the way, I've now heard a couple times within the last year or so that more and more vendors are starting to use flash patterns rather than color to ensure colorblind people aren't confused by the green/red thing.

So, maybe the color doesn't even matter anymore.

Pennpoint, how's your compliance to the new flash standard?

 

[electricpete]

I don't understand how the flash approach descirbed would work in a complex control room. Flashing is used to identify things that need attention such as alarms, not valves whose normal position may be open or closed. Generally, color blind people are screened out of these jobs. Obviously there must be something I'm missing because I have never heard of the new flash philosophy or standard.

 

[jbartos]

Suggestion: The indicating lights shall follow the application standards or a proximity of application standards. Visit

http://www.fletc.gov/pro/ftc01-A04/specs/16410.pdf

for ATS indicating light standards taken from AIA specs Section 16410 Automatic Transfer Switches:
2.1.1.10 Indicating Lights
a. A green indicating light shall supervise the normal power source and shall have a nameplate
engraved NORMAL.
b. A red indicating light shall supervise the emergency power source and shall have a nameplate
engraved EMERGENCY.

The nameplates under the lights are enhancing safety when it comes to emergency systems and in general