I defer to Klondyke, I am only familiar with small industrial/electronic stuff on ships and rigs, I know nothing about houses, swapping a few faceplates in the wall is probably no fuss, but I would not be happy to just leave someone to it with the bathroom and kitchen in Thailand, that's as much about my concern about water and lecky. I'd be inviting them to do the fabled "tongue test" to prove it's safe (i.e.: tell the Thai sparky the best way of proving there's no fault is to lick it)
I've seen the engine rooms of Thai vessels and they are comically terrifying. I guess you might want an RCD box like under the stairs in the UK? Maybe we should throw up some pics and diagrams and make a proper thread of it?!
Essentially we are . But there was no big fight . Someone wrote once how you get involved with someone and all their little differences are sweet . Character differences . Until they become a bit annoying and finally drive you f*****g demented .
We started at Hampton Court . A brilliant place with many hundreds of years history . One of the historical gems . She had no interest .
She wanted to wait in the gardens and Group Talk on Facebook .
At home ...... doesn't matter how many times I speak ....... the noodles and chopped vegetables STILL go down the sink until they block it and I'm taking it apart every 3 weeks .
Novel foreign quirks become good reasons for murder .
So we have separate lives now .
I didn't do the big " Get Out ! " scene . That's not fair to someone whose ticket you paid for in the first place . I'm easing her back into Thailand --- and the shitty electrics bother me .
Wasp
You are not really embracing Thai culture or getting into the Thai way of life if you are worrying about stuff like earthing your house.
Just live dangerously and not ting too mut.
You always have another life if this one is tragically cut short by some dodgy electric shower wiring
Wasp
I just sent you a PM not sure if it worked or not let me know if you get it.
Cheers
^ Do you have an RCD fitted? If so, I am surprised it didn't trip whenever you drew a lot of current
Couple of things to note.
Not ALL neutral bars are earthed. There are systems with what is called a 'Floating Earth'.
They exist in Thailand. I'm not saying they are safe ... but they exist.
Next thing to note.
If the appliance is 'Double Insulated' it doesn't need 'Earthing'
Residual Current Device (RCD) / Earth-leakage circuit breaker (ELCB) are a great idea because they go to the essence
of why someone get electrocuted but ...
1/ they are usually on the 'Power' Circuit and not the lighting circuit/mixed circuit and
2/ they often have 'nuisance tripping' and consumers get frustrated and disconnect them.
For me, they are an essential electrical safety item (and saved my arse once when dumb David stuck
a metal knife into the toaster to free the stuck bit of bread')
To Wasp ... your focus seems to be on the actual 'Earth Spike' into the ground', but that's totally useless if there
isn't the powerpoint itself isn't earthed and connected to the earth network.
sort of like tying a rope to the tractor and not trying the rope to the load and driving off.
You have a wonderfull knot and rope (euphemism for the Earth Spike), unless it's connected, it's useless.
---
Fifth and final Ashes Test is on, so back to my Holidays.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all.
Rural Thailand has a TT system. The source, at the power station is earthed but nowhere else. That is, not at the transformers etc. so connecting the neutral and earth is not a good idea, This is okay for TN-S earthed systems, possibly used for apartment blocks in Bangkok but not for TT systems in rural areas. A protective earth is isolated from live and neutral and only comes into play when there is a fault. It must be used in conjunction with an RCD, which will trip if there is a difference in current between Live and Neutral (usually ~30mA).
The typical consumer units here have a single RCD that covers all circuits rather than individual circuit ones, which are pretty expensive. The individual circuit breakers will protect the circuit wiring but not you. They will however detect a straight short between Live and Neutral, which the RCD will not.
At a minimum, I would get an RCD consumer unit fitted and have it wired to an earth rod (~ 6ft copper rod) using 10mm cable (check the biggest size that will fit to the consumer unit). I would use 3*2.5mm wire for sockets that are used for water or high current devices (eg kitchen appliances). You can stick with 2*1.5mm for the light circuits without worry.
If you want a shower installed then check the power rating and wire according to the installation instructions. The low power ones can be fitted with 3*2.5mm but the high power ones require 4mm and a separate 6mm earth.
If you get someone to do the work for you then here are some items to check, as a minimum:
1. Check the live is the live coming from the outside meter to the consumer unit and tape it red at both ends for future reference
2. Check isolation between earth and neutral and earth and live on at least one socket per circuit
3. Plug in a kettle or other high current device (>5A) on each circuit and ensure the RCD doesn't trip
4. I would put 2-pole isolator switches on any fixed high power installation such as Air Conditioning, shower or oven. Thais put in 30A CBs but these are not designed for switching on and off all the time. I like the 2-pole switches with a red light that you get in the UK.
The RCD in our house has saved at least two Thai electricians and saved me on one occasion. I have had wrongly wired plugs, short circuits and dogs eating through my cables with a resulting spark and little else.
Last edited by Troy; 07-01-2018 at 01:35 PM. Reason: typo
^
Good info mate but for punters who know very little about Electricity it's gobbly gook.
Good post anyway.
Thanks.
^ & ^^ My apologies, I will try and explain a little more, in layman's terms. The different types of supply earthing system can be found on wiki or any google search for TT earth. A link for those interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthi...ctive_earthing
Note that in the diagrams they have L1, L2 & L3, which are the 3 phase outputs. Only one of those phases is usually supplied to any one house and is why you sometimes have one half of a street with electricity and one half without.
I wanted to start by saying that it is not always wrong to connect earth and Neutral at the consumer unit. For example, I believe it is typical in many parts of the USA but it's dependent on the way the supply is brought to your house.
It is much cheaper for electrical companies to supply using a TT Earth system where only the Live and neutral are output from the generating source and it is up to the consumer to provide his own earth. These systems should always have the additional protection of an RCD. I know they are used in rural Thailand but I can't say what is used in cities or in Bangkok. Judging by the electrocutions in Pattaya that have been posted here over the years, I guess many are on TT Earthing systems there and have not had an RCD installed.
I have to go ... Let me know if you want further info.
^ I didn't want to go into the depth that Troy did, but his above (#43) was a great post.
A floating neutral is more common with a multi-phase set up.
Troy, this one is for you if you've not seen it before.
SWER ... Single Wire Earth Return, around in NZ and Australia
^ No I haven't seen before. Apparently it's being used in Laos as well but I haven't seen any examples.
What ??
Jaysus....my grandfather described Single Wire Earth Return to me from when he was in the Telegraph Branch in outback Australia, 1915 or 1920 ! Only it was used for telegraphic transmission....morse code....then voice, not 240 volts.
I didn't realize things were so primitive still. What happens when the ground dries out in a drought ?
^
Got me fooked how a single wire works.
I thought lecky went down the live wire and returned via the Neutral wire and continued around like that. ???
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