little lockdown projects

[mahjongguy]

Living in a hot red zone can make an old man's dull life even more so. Takes some pondering to think of something useful to do.

 

Last week I was just puttering round the mooban and griping about the outdoor AC outlets that were installed on (somewhat random) power poles three years ago. The intention was to provide power for pressure washers, hammer drills, whatever might be involved in a village project. The outlets were installed for us by the PEA.

   

 

 

 

None of them have been used since then, partly because how would you?

So I found the right male (32A 2+1 pin) and wired it up to a standard inline 3-prong female.

 

 

Now, it seems that most of the fix-it guys we hire show up without any extension cords at all, so I set out to build a complete 40 meter set. I used a heavy rubberized 3x1.5 wire that has an 8mm diameter. That is the absolute minimum for the big industrial plug and the maximum for the inline M and F connectors. So that looked like this:

 

 

There are short, medium, and long segments. The short one has a double receptacle that accepts 2 and 3 prong round pins as well as the North American standard. Missing from this photo is a 2 prong adapter for the unfortunate case where the AC source is un-grounded. I'll add one or two other adapters as I see them in Watsadu.

 

 

Unknown to me, there has been a small project to replace storm drain grills that has been on hold because the adjacent properties are unoccupied and the meters removed. When I mentioned my adapter/extension set, that work (using a drill and an angle grinder) was done the next day.

 

I feel good about getting this done despite the Parkinson tremors. The segments are built to last. Run over them with a truck, no problem. And unlike the factory-made cords I see in stores, I know for myself that these are properly grounded end to end.

 

Which brings me to to this: I just bought this socket tester through a shop on Lazada. It is less clumsy than using a meter and provides more info. Very likable!

 

 

 

I'll end this small story with two small questions:

 

- In a typical residence, how serious is it if there is a circuit where the L and N are reversed? Thanks to my little tester above I discovered one and fixed it, but it had been that way for thirteen years.

 

- It seems obvious to me that all the blue outdoor sockets were installed upside down. Leave the cap up and it becomes a little birdbath, no?

 

Cheers to all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by mahjongguy

[Will B Good]

Some things would start to run backwards???

[sometimewoodworker]

46 minutes ago, mahjongguy said:

It seems obvious to me that all the blue outdoor sockets were installed upside down. Leave the cap up and it becomes a little birdbath, no?

46 minutes ago, mahjongguy said:

 

Yes absolutely correct and they are potentially deadly.

 

47 minutes ago, mahjongguy said:

In a typical residence, how serious is it if there is a circuit where the L and N are reversed?

It would only be significant from a safety view point depending on how the house is setup. For all double insulated items it makes no difference, the only problem could come from class 1 devices that should have an earth but may not.

 

there are no common devices today where it makes any difference, if they aren’t faulty.