Jump to content

Condo breaker, is it the ground / earth cable that is not connected ? To what should it be connected ?


aeae

Recommended Posts

hello, an old condo has the breaker that you can see on the photo.

can you confirm that the green cable is the earth / ground cable ? And is it standard that it's not connected anywhere ?

I want to change the breaker, what kind of breaker do I need to buy to connect this green cable, and it is simple to do ?

thank you for your great help.

1625431779_2021-10-1614_57_52.thumb.jpg.01d22a56759d6c729f3fcc8f2994fcde.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are between a rock and a hard place here.

 

Chances are there is no solid connection to a ground. 

 

In a western situation you'd be fine connecting it to a copper water line, but this Thailand and that's not an option.

 

Now i read it says 'Safe-F-Cut' which in Thai speak is as good as it gets. 

 

If there is a short the Safe-T-Cut is supposed to trip.

 

So changing the breaker probably won't buy you anything in terms of protection from electrocution and death!

Edited by GinBoy2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is that the only breaker in your unit?

 

Do you have 3-pin outlets?

 

The green/yellow probably is earth and since there are two wires it might actually be joining to a wire going to an actual earth, or it might not ...

 

Moving to "Electrical".

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

More info needed.

Ground floor.

Middle floor. 

Top floor. 

Have got any other earth connection like say the shower which very important. 

 

Have neighbours got earth connections.

Does the building have any steel structure.  

 

Edited by Kwasaki
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Crossy said:

Is that the only breaker in your unit?

 

Do you have 3-pin outlets?

 

The green/yellow probably is earth and since there are two wires it might actually be joining to a wire going to an actual earth, or it might not ...

 

Moving to "Electrical".

 

 

yes it's the only breaker in condo, what can I buy to replace please ? and I am sure that ground is connected to building, I asks technicians and they confirmed.

 

if the breaker was good, to what would the ground be connected please ?

 

 

yes 3 pins outlets on wall.

 

thanks again

 

 

Edited by aeae
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, aeae said:

 

yes it's the only unit, what can I buy to replace please ? and I am sure that ground is connected to building, I asks technicians and they confirmed.

 

if the breaker was good, to what would the ground be connected please ?

 

thanks again

 

You could replace that breaker with an RCBO which provides earth leakage and shock protection, you should be able to get one that fits in that box. The ground wire can stay as it is as the RCBO doesn't need it.

 

Let me check what you can get on Lazada to drop in to that same space.

 

You will of course need the building techs to change it, not a DIY job on a live system.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

You could replace that breaker with an RCBO which provides earth leakage and shock protection, you should be able to get one that fits in that box. The ground wire can stay as it is as the RCBO doesn't need it.

 

Let me check what you can get on Lazada to drop in to that same space.

 

You will of course need the building techs to change it, not a DIY job on a live system.

 

 

 

Thank you so much, but I prefer to change the full box.

And if I cut the electricity from the meters room in the building, I guess that there is not risk to change the box myself ?

 

If the green ground / earth doesn't need to be connected, can you show me how the wires that I show on photo should be connected to the new breaker box ?

 

thanks again.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nothing to stop you changing the whole box for a proper consumer-unit, but that woulds also need you to separate out your various circuits. It looks like you just have two circuits (two wires in each outgoing terminal).

 

You still need to verify that earth really is earth, one of these is your friend 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i316566794-s634644285.html

 

If you do just want to replace the existing breaker and make things safer then:-

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/sale-nano-rcbo-2p-32a-10ka-din-ple42c32-thunelectric-home-improvement-equipment-i2539245045-s9033042963.html

32A

or

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/sale-nano-rcbo-2p-50a-10ka-din-ple42c50-thunelectric-home-i2014826002-s6492008130.html

50A

 

I didn't see an actual 45A unit in my quick search, they might be available.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, aeae said:

if I cut the electricity from the meters room in the building, I guess that there is not risk to change the box myself ?

That, In Thailand, is not sure. In fact all good (living ???? ) sparkies will treat all  circuits as live until they are tested as dead. You also need to be sure that you can lock the disconnect switch off.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Crossy said:

Loads of small consumer units on Lazada, something like this:-

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/consumer-unit-4-ccs-ccul-04-4-eco-5-i2828092221-s10315426028.html?

but there are many others too.

 

They come with instructions but I'd still get the building chaps (or their sparks) to do it for you ????

 

 

Is is a famous brand ? or any cheap brand is enough ?

 

Buy the way, I checked in the condo row fake rood, and only 2 cables, the black and the green go into the room, does it mean that the ground is not connected ? Should the ground be coming from the meter box as the green and black wires are coming ?

Or can a earth wire be connected directly to the ground from inside the condo (1st floor condo with only car park under).

 

thank you so much.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get a multimeter and check the voltage between phase and ground, if it's 230v it could actually be ground.

It could of course also just be connected to neutral, would then also show 230v, no idea how to figure out if it's a real ground other than tracing the cable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...