gouda

I'm thinking of getting a petrol or diesel generator to supply electricity when the main supply drops

can anyone tell me how to hook it up to the house circuit?

petrol or diesel ?

expect to run the following at most

lights

fridge freezer

PC

TV

microwave possibly

3 x 13,000BTU air cons (or possibly fans if can't afford a large enough generator )

most local shops sell chinese made ones , 15Litres fuel tank, 2 or 3kw about 9000Bht, although saw a Kawasaki 2Kw at 20,000Bht... is it worth the extra cash for a Japanese made one?

TIA

i bought 3 different toilets ( bowl and cistern ) 1 of them came with a 3" to 4" rubber gasket but the 2 others didnt

so far have only been able to find wax seal available locally (central province outside bkk)

does anyone know if no wax type seals are available in BKK? thanks

thanks to those who replied

well it looks like i'll opt for one of my original choices, which is a slow sand/biosand filter, followed by a further UV purification system in the kitchen , although will check out what pesticides the local farmers use as there may be traces of these

for those who face a similar challenge e.g. well /surface water.. check out slow sand filters on the web.. up to you if you believe what is published but i'll be giving it a go...

I have eventually got to the stage where i need to sort out the filtering and disinfecting of the water supply that I will be using which is from a lake (basically a big dug out hole filled with water from local paddies)

I don't plan to drink this water just use it for washing showering flushing etc.

The set up is as follows

(1) water is pumped from a submersible hanging from a raft, about 1m below the water surface (10m deep so hopefully not too many big particles sucked in)

(2)this goes into a 2000l storage tank

(3)a automatic pump then pumps into the building.

Crossy posted the following suggestion when I posed the question of pumping from the lake a while back.

"Pump 60m to a coarse particulate filter (get one of the cotton ones that can be washed) to take out the really crunchy bits then into your tank. Pressure pump from the tank to the house via a finer particulate filter and probably a carbon filter too (to remove or at least reduce any chemical nasties in the water).

I would add a very fine particulate filter to the bathroom / shower feed to keep out the bigger bugs as this is the point where the water may enter your body. "

Can someone explain what a cotton filter is? also what other filter materials would you recommend, (don't have much clue of whats in the water .. anyone know where i can get a sample tested in bangkok? will be heading off to BKK soon)

Any brands recommended, I checked out the Mazuma website but didnt find it very helpful. Where is a good place to get filtering equipment?

Further I wish to continuously cholrinate /disinfect the water , does anyone have any experience of this?

I have found a inline chlorine feeder which uses trichlor tabs and was thinking of placing this before the storage tank, maybe even dangling one inside the tank too...

May even get a water purifier thing with RO or UV for the kitchen sink so can wash veggies etc...

any good advice will be greatly appreciated

here's a tip, don't believe everything you read...or are told...especially by the authorities

thanks for your replies

very nice doors you have there kamalabob.

have had these types of door for a bathroom back in the Uk and didn't experience any problems with it, but Thailand is a different story with the humidity and torrential rain in the rainy season.

anyway went shopping today and came across some basic wooden doors made with a thick frame and thin strips of wood running vertically. They were only just over 1000Baht so not much more than those moulded interior ones. I bought them already so problem solved.

i know these moulded white panel doors are intended for interior use as they'd be easy to kick in and are not secure, but security isn't really a concern where I'd be using them, the staff in Homepro say these are for interior use only as they seem to think water damage from rain is a problem (didn't mention anything about security) , however I'm not so sure...

would a couple of coats of gloss be adequate, there is a 90cm eves overhang which also offers a bit of protection from sun/rain

cheers

thanks guys

conduit and some kind of housing it will be then, plus will avoid switching them on when its raining

i was more referring to the tubes they have along long stretches of the roads, e.g. for stalls, temporarily for parties etc when they paint them different colours.

They install them vertically onto wooden posts about 10m apart without any protection from the elements.

I would be putting them up permanently and using them everyday

I guess the main hazard is from the rain/ torrential downpours in the rainy season getting water inside them... so would put them in some kind of box..

I need to hook up some external lights, about 3 or 4 over a square area with sides of approx 50 or 60 m.

The cable length is about 150m i guess.

I have looked at halogen, metal halide floodlights with the correct IP numbers but the power rating is at least 150W

As the locals seem not to hesitate to set up fluorescent tube lighting outdoors, I was thinking of this as a possible low cost solution with low running costs as they may be on all night and I dont need a very bright light.

I was just wondering how safe it is to set up, but have a feeling that I know the answer already...

How about making an enclosure to protect from rain/wind etc? any one done this before?

cheers

i don't claim to be an expert, far from it but I was going to lay some of these when i was back in the UK and did some research back then but didn't get around to it. But I have had a floor layed over here recently which i got from Homemart

granito is known as polished porcelain tiles in the UK, they are basically ceramic tiles made from clay so if you search for polished porcelain you should get a lot more info

They are porous so need some kind of impregnator sealer otherwise they may get dirt, stains in them which are impossible to remove.

some say to seal before laying and some after, or even try placing staining them e.g. tea, red wine etc on a cut off piece to see if they have been sealed properly

In Thailand, most shops selling will tell you that they don't need sealing as they most probably don't know.

The ones I got from homemart had this nano technology which were more expensive which I was told didn't need sealing after I specifically asked if it was required. And guess what ..... after I few months I now have some stains under some vases placed on the tiles ...so it seems this Nano technology is just a marketing ploy. Don't believe the sales people most don't know their a??? from their elbows. I'm not sure why the stains are there but they wont come out.

I have just bought some more last week, and a cheap place to get if price matters to you is www.siamtak.com, these are most probably inferior Chinese tiles but fit the task for me as I need some cheap flooring and these are only slightly more expensive than standard ceramic tiles and if just walking around in bare feet/socks there should be no problems i hope. btw they also do more expensive ones if you want. Most are grade A.

I wanted white but they were more expensive so went for some which where off white at 229B/m2.. however they seem more cream colour in the room they are layed in.. maybe it was the lighting in the shop they made them look whiter

you need some good installers as they are not the easiest to lay at 60x60 or larger. Any uneveness will spoil your floor and the larger the area is the more likelihood mistakes will happen. The first time I got them layed at 180B/m2. This time I have a price of 120B/m2 and an ok job so far on a 3x4 room.

Also, Thai's won't start the tiles in the center of the room unless you tell them to and they cut them with their angle grinders so the edges will be chipped therefore skirting is recommended

hope this helps

thanks Crossy, very helpful as always

I think I'll go for the copper as have read some more info about the problems of aluminium wiring

Also noticed you mentioned using 16mm2 copper meter tails for 15/45 Amps in another thread, I now think why the shop mentioned that 25mm was standard is that most Thai developers use 25mm2 aluminium i.e. 1 size up from 16mm2 copper due to the big cost difference and 16mm copper has an adequate current rating

but that's not going to tell you what extra drop you'll get if you're miles from the Tx

by extra drop do you mean voltage drop? current? both? I'm presuming the voltage drop can be read at the meter ??

fyi:

just been given a labour only quote of 80B/m2 for this (central province)

purchased the metal suspension frame already at 29B for a length (mid price one)

I am about to buy some 25mm2 tails for the overhead cable from the electricity meter to the building, the distance is about 35m from the 15/45 Amp meter to the Consumer unit. Therefore will most probably buy a 100M roll as i need 70M as price per roll is cheaper than price per meter

The local electric supply shop has 2 types of the 25mm2 THW cable Copper (Brand Thai Yazaki) at 72B/m or Aluminium (brand Union) at 12B/m. A big price difference of 6000B on a 100M roll

Will the 25mm2 aluminium one be ok?

does it depend on the voltage at the meter? If so, I'll buy a multimeter to check the voltage first as the building is out of town and not sure how close the nearest transformer is. The PEA mentioned there may be power problems as its at the end of supply

Would a larger size Aluminium be better?

ps: was planning to use 16mm2 first but the shop mentioned 25mm2 is standard

many thanks

hello

i will be travelling to BKK on Monday, and am looking to buy an erosion type chlorine feeder, and some trichlor chlorine tabs

I'm planning on using this to continuously chlorinate a water supply from a lake so will site it before the 2000L storage tank, the local village supply apparently doesnt use chlorine so no point in getting my water from there...

can anyone give me the details of a good place to buy these and rough prices

(ps: apologies if i have posted this in the wrong place but these are mainly used for swimming pools i believe)

thanks

thanks for all your replies

it does look similar to the pics posted by longball but not exactly

called the shop and they said they did have larger size clamps, however i called one of the guys on the building site to try and he managed to get it on ( must have used a bit more elbow grease than me or a longer spanner? )

The clamp posted by Tywais is supplied with the copper plated rods and i think they said it wasn't suitable for the solid core one.. not sure why though... although this design seems to be much easier to attach to the rod

hi people

i just bought a solid copper earth rod 2.4m , about 10mm diameter. I had to buy a clamp separately, which has Heavy duty 50/70 written on it. The cheaper steel core rods had clamps provided.

Anyway this clamp is in 2 pieces, 1 like a "U" shape which tapers out and another flatter piece. The rod is supposed to go in the "U"shape part. the 2 pieces are connected by two small bolts. However I'm having serious problems getting the thing onto the rod. i.e. the U shape seems too small

Is it supposed to be like this of a tight fitting ? or have I been supplied with the wrong clamp? The boss in the shop specifically mentioned the assistant to get the 50/70 clamp

unfortunately don't have pics as its at the building site

here you go Crossy

hope this is of some help and that you can read thai

this system uses a lip in the concrete floor as support, so if you can bolt some suitable concrete slabs into the cut out hole of your existing floor as a lip this may work too although your floor must be pretty deep to accomodate the lip and the blocks...... or maybe you could raise the surrounding edge of the blocks ??

err... not sure if Mr Crossy has sorted this out yet, but found a leaflet for paving glass block system in Thailand.

you can buy a prefabricated frame for the blocks, only comes in 3 sizes though 2x2,4x4 and 3x5 blocks.

paving glass block system

the website doesn't say much but the leaflet is quite detailed, has step by step installation photos, but text in Thai, can scan if anyone's interested..

thanks everyone

i bought a box of red ones, the shop only had a selection of 4 sizes, teenie, small, medium and extra large, i bought some red medium ones going as they looked approx the best size and the guide on the back of the box didn't havent any markings for AWG #13 anyway.

practiced using these on some 2.5mm2 cable and to me it seems twisting the wires before screwing on the nuts are better, maybe cos I bought the wrong size??

anyway, the nuts are hard to pull off, but unscrewing them is a doddle , should that be the case? I've screwed them on pretty much as hard as I can without burning up my hands too much..

ps : they are US made

hello,

just wondering about the possiblity of sinking piles as mentioned by trogers...

how long are the piles? did they go all the way down e.g. 1.5m below the top soil when they were driven or did they hit firm ground before that and could no longer by driven down?

ooh.. i forgot..

what's the proper way to use them

(1) twist the wires together first and twist on the wire nut

or

(2) leave the wires straight and twist on the wire nut

will be taping these up afterwards.. cheers

hello there

I'm getting someone (they call themselves an electrician', although i think they are just general thai builders ) to do the electrical wiring in the house, and am going to use wire nuts to join the splices.

However i have never used wire nuts before...(don't laugh, never seen them in the UK).

now my question is, what sizes should I buy and use, I am thinking I will need to join up to 4x 2.5mm (13AWG) and 4x1.5mm (15AWG) splices

do wire nuts in thailand follow the colour size standard? or do I just take some cable to the shop and try them out? I'd prefer not to ask the staff as most of them don't seem to be very knowledgable

btw the electrician didn't know what wire nuts are so I will have to show them..

Wire Nut Colors and Wire Sizes

1. Big Blue
   

1. #10 and Larger
   

1. Gray
   

1. #14 and Larger
   

1. Red
   

1. #14 and larger
   

1. Big Tan
   

1. #14 and larger
   

1. Yellow
   

1. #18 and larger
   

1. Big Orange
   

1. #18 to #14
   

1. Little Orange
   

1. #22 and to #14
   

1. Little Blue
   

1. #22 to #16
   

1. Small Tan
   

1. #22 to #18
   

Hi Crossy and others

Have got to the stage where the electrics for the building are nearly due to be installed and I am planning on using a submersible pump rated at 400W, maybe a stainless steel one that I saw, although not sure if it have a ground pin in the plug supplied.

From the crossy wiring website, I used the cable size calculator which gave me a 1.5mm2 for a 70m run for twin and earth in conduit, as I entered 1600W as the Load value. I just wanted to double check this was correct.

a few other questions

(1) Am planning to use a consumer unit with a RCBO built in, will this be sufficient for protection for 2 pumps?

(2) Is the yellow plastic conduit from local Homemart sufficient for external use and protection from rodents, rain etc?

(3) Should I just cut off the plug supplied and use a choc block type connector , in a yellow junction box to make the extension to the 1.5mm cable?

(4) Should the 2 pumps (1 submersible to storage tank), 2nd onland 150W pump from tank to house be on a separate circuit or is it ok to be on an internal sockets circuit?

(5) can some one explain how the radar brand float switches connect to the pump, and if I can extend the wires from the storage tank to the submersible, possibly up to 60/70m as I'm not sure where the storage tank will be sited yet.

(6) Can I use a 2 core 1.5mm2 cable with a separate 1mm2 earth for the extension as am planning to use separate ground for the house wiring or is it better to use a cable 1x1.5mm/1mm cable with ground?

(7) just noticed is says ambient temperature of 30C on the calculator, the temperature currently during the daytime in direct sunlight (most days) is higher than 30C, I'd guess possibly 40C as its unbearable. The cable will be in plastic conduit and maybe under soil. Is the 1.5mm2 still adequate?

thanking you all in advance

thanks for all your comments and advice,

I'll recommend to my friends that they get it checked out by a qualified electrician and also add the ELCB