Thread: Electrically Shocking

Thank you for that.

Originally Posted by dirtydog

try compressing that down when you do the screw up,

Specially with a Chinese box for 15bt where the steel is softer than the copper wire.

Not to mention the little geckos and insects who will crawl into the box and cause short-circuits!
No prob with tape-junctions.

Originally Posted by Airportwo

In one of my bathrooms there are 4 spotlights controlled by a dimmer switch, as two of the lights have been out for a while, and due to constant nagging - I changed them, when I turned the lights on to check - one of them literally exploded.
I did the wise thing and thought fcuk that and left alone!
Then today there was a smell of burning, so had to go into the void space to see if I could see anything - really wish I hadn't bothered, it's a night mare, millions of wires held together with insulating tape!
Should they not all be in junction boxes? looks like an accident waiting to happen!
Couldn't see anything wrong - apart form all the bleedin tape holding everything together - so opened up dimmer switch it was fcked - changing it solved the immediate problem.
Is this the standard here? or do I need to buy a hundred JB's
O' Dear

I had a customer last year, when you pushed his door bell his kitchen lights flashed, & everythime you touched the washing machine you got an electrical shock, I got an electrician around there ASAP, & all it was was the simple issue of earthing out the electrical system, 30 minute job, 300 baht all sorted. These house were built by a farang developer as well!!

In our old bungalow the one time I put my head in the loft/roof space, the wiring looked like spagetti junction, I closed the hatch & left it ASAP, best thing to do if you can, provided you have no problems, most decent/ reputable builders & electricians now run the wiring in conduit & through junction boxes.
Thailand is like anywhere in the world, you pay peanuts you get monkeys

Guess it will be staying as it is!
There are a few Junction boxes, most of the wiring is also in conduit, still resembles spagetti & looks like siht with the tape holding it together.
Cheers

Originally Posted by dickie

I had a customer last year, when you pushed his door bell his kitchen lights flashed, & everythime you touched the washing machine you got an electrical shock, I got an electrician around there ASAP, & all it was was the simple issue of earthing out the electrical system, 30 minute job, 300 baht all sorted. These house were built by a farang developer as well!!

I know the feeling...

Junction boxes with the proper fittings to attach the conduit and such along with twist on caps for all the splices and a good earthing will solve most of the problems

^ perhaps u missed reading the 2nd post....

Originally Posted by dirtydog

It is only in the last few years that they have started using those connector blocks due to pressure by the idiot white customers, now those connectors blocks are great in the UK where our wire is braided, screw that screw down on that braided wire and that is there for life nice and tight as it compresses nice and easy and splays out, noway that will come loose, here the cable is just a single strand, try compressing that down when you do the screw up, half the time as your doing the other end of the connector the first connection will just fall out, better to twist the wires together and then loads of tape over them I reckon, looks like a real bodge job though

if the lamp,/light fitting exploded, when you switched the dimmer on, the dimmer probably destroyed itself internally
fitting a new dimmer won,t cure the origional problem, take out the light fitting and replace it if pos
and get the earthing & electrics, checked by someone who actually knows and understands electrical installations
(almost imposs i know!)


do i get a green?

Originally Posted by Airportwo

13-01-2007, 11:42 AM

I think it's been fixed by now

I rented a house inUdon Than for a year. The lights in the living room were a 50/50 proposition the whole time I lived there. Two ghastly O-ring flourescent jobs. The odds of getting light out of them was about half regardless of whether it was raining, cold, hot, dark or light.

Drove me crazy.

Originally Posted by Texpat

Drove me crazy.

Is that why you're angry now?

completely infuriated

Originally Posted by jizzybloke

Originally Posted by Airportwo

13-01-2007, 11:42 AM

I think it's been fixed by now

didnt check the date did i!

I view Thai electricians with the greatest respect.
I am in the process of replacing all the light switches now. How they can trace wiring that is mostly one color beats me.
I took out the switch gang and put in a new one, one wire was black, 7 were Grey, I assumed and I should know better than to assume anything here, but any way a natural assumption was that the black wire was Neutral and the others live, NO ! Wrong.
Got that all sorted after much pissing around and then found that all the wires were stripped bare for exactly 8.5mm and you needed 8 mm of bared wire to reach the screws so at best you got 0.5 mm gripped by a screw, even then not for long, so undo it all again and re strip the wires for about 12 mm

i think -that as long as the electrics work its ok--
the most important thing is --earthing-- as long as everything is properly earthed /grounded- all should be safe(against electric shock)
make sure the fuse board has a substancial sized wire that goes to an earth stake which is under-ground-- this will "drain away "any fault current during a fault --causing a fuse or circuit breaker to blow/trip

I am having a house built, hopefully? Guess they will start one of these days....anyhow, I looked around 2 huge stores where they sell nearly everything needed for fitting out a house. I noticed they DO sell GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupters) (think I got that right?) and tons of wire, switches, etc. DO Home and Duo House I think are the names of the places, in or near Korat. Electrical circuits, as well as any kind of mechanical devices generally follow a simple rule: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Of course, some of us just HAVE to tinker with things.......

Originally Posted by andy55

i think -that as long as the electrics work its ok--
the most important thing is --earthing-- as long as everything is properly earthed /grounded- all should be safe(against electric shock)
make sure the fuse board has a substancial sized wire that goes to an earth stake which is under-ground-- this will "drain away "any fault current during a fault --causing a fuse or circuit breaker to blow/trip

this raises a question i have.

a copper rod driven deep into the ground and wired to the breaker box is a good ground because it ties your box into the same 'earth' as the power company.

if that copper rod were driven into a rock, wouldn't that have the same effect? rock = dirt in another form.

so, can i just tie my ground wire to a projecting rebar encased in the concrete columns of my home and expect that to act as a good ground?

i've actually done this but have no way to verify whether it is a good idea or not.

/\/\ No. In dry areas you will loose your earth ground because your grounding rod is now isolated from any moisture.

plus the fact that corrosion and rust act as insulation and do not let the current run off to ground.
The ground wire should be clamped directly onto the clean copper rod.

We have no ground wire for our electric.

One of them automatic circuit breakers is the next best thing, just cuts the electric when there's a leak.