Competent Electrician Needed – Quick In Bangkok

[Valjean]

Just moved into a house I bought in Bangkok (Saphan Khwai). The rental down the soi I’ve been in for about a year and half wasn’t that great for power supply but this new (old) place is really shocking. Today just putting a CD in my laptop drive gave me a decent shock when I touched some metal. I’m used to the tingle but this was a jolt. My wife got one off a light switch. I’d say the house is 20 years old. Two prong plug. I read a lot of the 22 page pinned thread. Great info – I’m from the States and know where a GFI is required. And pretty much don’t expect to get electrocuted unless I deserve it.

I don’t know the best and cost efficient way to deal with this. We’ll be doing some remolding over the next year so perhaps there is a band-aid approach to get us safer and a long term re-do?

Most of all I’m looking for a Bangkok electrician who I could trust to get this as good as it could be short of rewiring the entire house (was that a bad pun??). And frankly I’d consider that to keep us all safe.

Tips on what to do are very welcome and advice from others who have been here before.

Thanks

[lopburi3]

If by that remark you think the GFI is only for the pool/bath (as in USA) I would think again in Thailand. The whole house should have such protection. Here you are almost always bare foot, in moist if not wet environment, with good grounds completely surrounding you if not in wood home.

I would highly advise complete rewire. It will not cost that much more than trying to piece together a ground system (you will need new outlets in any case).

I really don't have an answer on who/where. We use an experienced electrician who is always busy and hard to get. I believe HomePro have service connections but have never used them. Good soi electric supply stores may have contacts they can recommend. I am not sure how trustworthy personal recommendations from normal houseowners would be as most people will only judge on the neatness and perhaps on how much a mess he makes; or does not make.

[Valjean]

Yes I appreciate what you are saying on GFI. Would be good to see that out on the power pole :-)

On the re-wire. Through almost all of the house the wires are running through the walls - not on top. Is it possible to pull new wires through that? Is it a conduit of sorts? It's a 3 bedroom, 3 bath, maid room, office, etc. Rather normal in most respects. Anyone done a rewire in Bangkok and have an idea of cost?

And one little question - if I quickly have all the breakers replaced by GFI (or whatever the non-US name is). does it help with getting shocked or just ensure that it trips and you don't die? (that is an acceptable alternative) In this situation would they be going off all the time? If it is going to take time for the rewire does it make sense to get the breakers changed ASAP?

Thanks for the help. Your comments on finding someone good are appreciated.

[lopburi3]

I have not seen outlets with GFI as sold in US here - but I believe someone mentioned they were available recently so perhaps they are. Most people use with a whole house breaker/GFI or main breaker/GFI built into subpanels with 6-8 individual breakers. It is not going to prevent those computer shocks but will offer a good amount of protection for your life.

I have a five bed/bath home but did the conversion in several (three) stages and don't really remember the cost - except it seemed quite reasonable. Cutting wall for new wires is really a lot easier than you might imagine but probably good to plan a new paint after it done.

[Valjean]

I have not seen outlets with GFI as sold in US here - but I believe someone mentioned they were available recently so perhaps they are. Most people use with a whole house breaker/GFI or main breaker/GFI built into subpanels with 6-8 individual breakers. It is not going to prevent those computer shocks but will offer a good amount of protection for your life.

I have a five bed/bath home but did the conversion in several (three) stages and don't really remember the cost - except it seemed quite reasonable. Cutting wall for new wires is really a lot easier than you might imagine but probably good to plan a new paint after it done.

A top to bottom, inside and out paint is required - and thanks for the tip to get the wiring done first.

[tjo o tjim]

The GFI (technically GFCI) is will drive you nuts with nuisance tripping. Proper grounding is the simple answer-- anything with a metal case should be bonded, and this ground should be tied to your neutral at your power entry.

In LOS, the neutral often floats, which creates a voltage difference to "ground." Many different types of equipment internally ground the neutral to the case. (This can be through leakage current in capacitors, or a hard connection.) If the case has a potential voltage difference to ground (your floor tiles), you will get a jolt.

Crossy has plenty of good diagrams of how it should work in Thailand. If you are curious, it is useful to measure the voltage from the case of equipment to grounded parts of your house (whatever you are standing on). If you know the voltage, there are different options to fix things.

What I personally still don't understand is why the heck laptops aren't "double insulated" where you can't get a shock no matter what happens. The power supplies aren't supposed to be grounded on the DC side, but failure to do so results in shocking...

[lopburi3]

Actually there are half a dozen names and if you have false trips you need to repair something. Proper grounding may, or may not save your life if you get between a hot wire and ground (it is most important for hot to neutral shorts). A GFI, RCD/RCCB will stop the flow much, much faster at a lot less than 15 amps and almost always prevent death.

[Crossy]

Find my diagrams here http://www.crossy.co.uk/wiring/

As to the laptop power units. I have two, one is a Dell OEM unit that came with the PC, no problems. The other is a 'pattern' unit, still says 'Dell' but I'm 99% certain it's a work alike, this one bites HARD when run un-grounded

If you have a GFI, RCD, RCCB, ELCB, Saf-T-Cut or whatever we are calling it today and you are getting nuisance trips then, as Lop rightly says, you need to repair something.

Check out the 'split service' consumer unit on my page which considerably reduces the pain of nuisance trips without compromising safety

[Valjean]

Thanks Crossy for the excellent web site – most helpful. And to everyone for the pointers.

The house I’ve got is very well done in terms of the number and locations of electrical outlets and lighting. The good news / bad news part of this is I guess that means it all will cost more to bring things up to speed.

I can’t say I was on another planet (I’m American so maybe I was off searching for WMD and wasn’t paying attention...) anyway I totally missed how a Schuko plug worked but now I get it. I have a question on installing these in a rewire. I see them mostly with the kitchen appliances. Should the kitchen be fitted with a combination of these and the normal Thai style 3 pin plugs? Other rooms? One side note is that the kitchen, down by the floor where the refrigerator would be located there are 2 Schuko outlets. Also there’s one in the living room, and for the air conditioning units in two bedrooms (being replaced today). I’ll have to look for others. Properly grounded? We’ll need to test that assumption but maybe that’s good news in terms of some grounding has been run into the house.

Your bathroom guide was helpful. All three bathrooms have sockets conveniently located within reach of all showers (they do have the flip covers on them). The master bath has an extra bonus of an open one in the ceiling that a fan in the window is plugged into via a cord that hangs from the ceiling down into the shower... This along with a rusty metal hot water heater with metal flex coming out the tile make this the “shower of death” – one at the Bate’s Hotel would be safer I’m sure. For now I’ve unplugged the fan and am resigned to cold showers (or morning showers at the gym).

I have noticed the lights dim here often. This just happened and there isn’t an air conditioning on. There is the refrigerator in (out in the maid’s room because it doesn’t fit in the kitchen – which is now another point of death). No idea if it’s the neighborhood or house. Should I be worried about this? The panel seems set up OK for a home this size. (Breakers: 4x10, 12x15, 2x25, 2x30).

Since I’m not going to do this myself (been there, done that) I need to find someone good. I figure it won’t hurt to have one of those testers you plug into sockets to make sure the work is OK but aside from that any hints on what to look for in someone? I’ll also probably have to do this through my Thai wife as my Thai doesn’t include this set of vocabulary. God knows if she does but she did get a nasty shock switching off light so she’s got religion on this to some extent. If I bring someone in and make it clear what I want what other means should I use to verify the work has been done right? Aside from checking the proper grounding, etc. in the sockets are there other points of failure to check? All or most breakers RCD. Grounding? I’m normally of the “rose colored glasses brigade” when it comes to getting along with Thai’s but this seems to be a matter of life and death in an area where the easy going Thai approach isn’t appreciated. Tips are!!

Thanks again everyone.

[quiksilva]

I was getting electric shocks in the shower of my new home last year. I got the developer's sparky to fix it. To verify that the job was done well, I insisted that he take a shower himself!

Its been fine since