Ground

[tatom]

I feel much better now that I had my electrical system upgraded. Fusebox, ground wire and rod etc. Then I got to thinking, how do you know if the ground works? It looks good, single wires (no splices), connections look tight. I asked a farang who is an electrician about it. he said there is an expensive device to check the ground. also, another farang said on another forum, that he rigged up something to test his ground.

Can someone enlighten me?

[lopburi3]

I have not seen simple testers for sale here. The normal method would be to have the electrician show you the voltage reading using his multi meter. It should read the same from hot to neutral; and hot to ground. Neutral to ground should read zero.

A guess can be make with an electric lamp but this involves bare wire into electric socket so not advised for consumer. A meter can also be obtained for about 200 baht from Lotus or electrical shop but again you need to put probes into outlet holes so not someone a consumer should be doing.

Yes there are expensive devices to test the quality of a ground but that is probably a bit overkill for normal residence use here.

[elkangorito]

The attached document may be of some use although it is meant for electricians.

The document mentions different classes of circuit breakers (B, C, & D). Unless you specify otherwise when purchasing, most circuit breakers are Class C.

[elkangorito]

There is an error in the above attached document.

In the second paragraph "Earth Resistance Checks", the last sentence says, "To confirm this value (which is dependent upon the type and rating of the protective device and the fault-loop impedance of the associated conductors) requires either one of the following tests to be performed:"

Delete "either one of" & change "tests" to "test".