What Do I Do With This Green Earth Wire?

[triplegee]

I have read all the posts on here relating to the issue of electricity here in LOS but I am still confused.

We have just moved into a new apartment which is a refurbished place in an old building. All sorts of fun & games with the power supply as we are the first people to live in the place since it's refurbishment. Turns out we only have 10A coming into the apartment and there's all sorts of interesting circuit combinations that are tripping the system.... hopefully will be fixed on Thursday when the electricity company comes out.

In the meantime, have bought a new microwave which has a green earth wire on the back - the manual says not to use the microwave without earthing it. But I can't work out where I can earth it or how I go about it?? Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

GG.

[stumonster]

you need an earth because the microwave has a metal case, and in the event of some faults the case could be livened to line potential ( ie. 220 volts AC ). this would cause someone touching the metal case to probably suffer electric shock or electrocution.

you need to look at your electric socket to see if it is a 3 hole type and has a connection to the earth pin, which should also have continuity to ground. there is a high chance that your sockets in your appartment are only of the two hole variety, or if 3 hole have no wire connected to the ground, which is going to cause you a problem.

with you living in an appartment it is not that easy to solve

there are some other posts regarding earth circuits on this forum - search for them , have a read and let us know a bit more about the electrical wiring situation in your appartment.

[lopburi3]

I would ask when the electric people are there. Hopefully there is a ground that you can use, even if it is at the air conditioner or even the elevator shaft. If you can not ground it properly buy and use a GFI/RCB type device (local brand called Safe-T-Cut sold many places and easy to install for any electric an). There are also other brands, both local and international available. Using that you may still get a shock if the microwave goes bad but it will cut the current at that point so you should be ok.

If you have sockets with three holes buy a plug with three pins and attach the green wire to the third (center top) pin and the two wires that went to old plug to side pins. Have someone do for you it not sure.

If the microwave plug has a plug with two round pins and a steel strap on the side the electric wire probably already has a ground and you can buy an adapter for about 50 baht at Home Pro that will convert the two pins/strap to three pins. In that case the extra green wire is not needed.

As was mentioned, if you have outlets with ground make sure that they are hooked up with a ground wire and not just empty. Ask electric people to check.

[triplegee]

Thanks for the advice guys...

stumonster - what's really got me confused abt this green earth wire is why my Otto small appliance oven doesn't have the same? It has the same plug & connector as the microwave...

lopburi3 - I will definitely be quizzing the electricity company ppl on Thursday. The microwave plug has the 2 pins with the strap on the side. I think that regardless of what the "guru's" tell me on Thursday I'll head down to Home Pro anyway.

I'll see if I can confirm that the 3rd hole in the socket is actually connected as it should be.

Thanks again guys - I am a real luddite when it comes to this stuff - you have helped me no end.

GG.

[KevinN]

You can check to see if a wire is connected to the ground lug in the box by removing the cover,and if there is a wire connected to it then check OHMS to see it it is hooked to ground.

[lopburi3]

You can check to see if a wire is connected to the ground lug in the box by removing the cover,and if there is a wire connected to it then check OHMS to see it it is hooked to ground.

Have not seen any US type box with ground lug used but suppose there may be some. Most outlets are module snap in type and ground will be wired directly to each outlet.

In any case don't believe he should be going where he does not understand.

If he has a volt meter the easy way to check is go from each flat plug to the ground hole. One side should be zero and the other 230v if ground is good.

stumonster - what's really got me confused abt this green earth wire is why my Otto small appliance oven doesn't have the same? It has the same plug & connector as the microwave...

My Otto has a ground wire in the electric cable and I changed it to a three prong plug long ago. The green/yellow wire is ground. If it has the same plug as microwave get an adapter for it too. I changed plug before I found adapter as they are very hard to get. Your microwave is more money (and dangerous) and they know most do not have grounded outlets so include the extra wire.

[simon43]

I thought the stiff green wire was stripped away from the other 2 and then used to stir the food in your microwave to check that it was hot

Actually, do not try that at home!!!