Can Somebody Explain How The Electrics Work In Thailand

[mynextgig]

The 2 pin plugs that are used in Thailand obviously do not have an earth connection like the UK. So how is the electrical supply earthed ?

If i touch the metal part of my laptop plug i get a small shock, also if i touch the metal casing around my PC i also get a shock. So these appliances are not earthed if this is happening.

Of everything in Thailand, i am scared most of the electrical setup here. Am i alone ?

[Samuian]

it simply isn't but works!

I did "Earth" my UPS unit, drilled a hole in the wall, drove a large Copper 2m (metal) rod into the ground fixed (Clamp, soldered, welded) a thick copper wire to it, run it through the hole in the wall, connected it to the UPS unit where my PC, printer and Scanner are connected to and VOILA!

If you're handy man - and keen to - do to all the wiring of your house -it's worth it!

I made it after one single lightning hit the nearby phone and electricity lines and wacko! fridge gone, PC, scanner, printer, pump... al items on "stand by" are in danger... since then I know!

Maybe there will be some experts advice as well...

[Pattaya46]

Hi,

> The 2 pin plugs that are used in Thailand obviously do not have an earth connection

Yes, same as all 2-pin plugs in Europe and everywhere else

> So how is the electrical supply earthed ?

By using the 3-pin plugs

I do not really understand your problem as there is nothing different with electricity here in Thailand

In my condo I have a few 2-pin plugs (no earth) for lamps, phone charger and other small electric devices,

and I have 3-pin plugs (2 plate + 1 round for earth) for microwave, fridge, washing machine, ...

Pattaya46

[mynextgig]

Hi,

> The 2 pin plugs that are used in Thailand obviously do not have an earth connection

Yes, same as all 2-pin plugs in Europe and everywhere else

> So how is the electrical supply earthed ?

By using the 3-pin plugs

I do not really understand your problem as there is nothing different with electricity here in Thailand

In my condo I have a few 2-pin plugs (no earth) for lamps, phone charger and other small electric devices,

and I have 3-pin plugs (2 plate + 1 round for earth) for microwave, fridge, washing machine, ...

Pattaya46

As you can tell i dont know much about electrical wiring

But i do know that when i get a small shock from my laptop lead then that is not good. At least the laptop has a transformer so i am feeling a 12v shock, but i how about electrical showers etc that have straight connections to the mains i.e. 250V. Surely these are earthed ?

[Ratsima]

There are some pretty good threads in the construction part of this forum that explain how things are done in Thailand, how they ought to be done and what you can do about it.

I recently bought a home in a semi-upscale moo baan. I was happy to see three prong outlets throughout the house. However, when I actually inspected the wiring I was much less happy to see that there were not actually ground wires running from the ground pin on the outlets back to the service panel. I made them rip out all the wiring and do it over again under my inspection. It took three guys three full days to do this. After the mains were hooked up I tested each and every outlet on each and every circuit. I also made sure that the water heaters and air cons had proper grounds. And, I installed a residual current device (RCD) in the service panel just in case I missed something.

So far, so good.

Caveat emptor.

Edited July 8, 2008 by Ratsima

[bazmlb]

it simply isn't but works!

I did "Earth" my UPS unit, drilled a hole in the wall, drove a large Copper 2m (metal) rod into the ground fixed (Clamp, soldered, welded) a thick copper wire to it, run it through the hole in the wall, connected it to the UPS unit where my PC, printer and Scanner are connected to and VOILA!

If you're handy man - and keen to - do to all the wiring of your house -it's worth it!

I made it after one single lightning hit the nearby phone and electricity lines and wacko! fridge gone, PC, scanner, printer, pump... al items on "stand by" are in danger... since then I know!

Maybe there will be some experts advice as well...

Not just the things on standby, lightning came down my TV antenna in Australia and then went out the power cord and everything else that was plugged in blew, even tho all switches were off, the TV was blown to many small pieces, remember lightning jumps from the sky to the earth, so it can jump an off switch, unplug stuff in storms like pc's and laptops if your concerned.

The AC man came to gas the AC the other day and got knocked across the balcony as the outdoor unit was hot, starting to earth everything here myself too now.

[sotsira]

The 2 pin plugs that are used in Thailand obviously do not have an earth connection like the UK. So how is the electrical supply earthed ?

If i touch the metal part of my laptop plug i get a small shock, also if i touch the metal casing around my PC i also get a shock. So these appliances are not earthed if this is happening.

Of everything in Thailand, i am scared most of the electrical setup here. Am i alone ?

Most buildings in Thailand do not use an earth circuit in the wiring, therefore the only way is to make your own earth and run the wires in yourself or get an electrician that understands the principle of earthing as i've come across a few that don't. If you own your own property it's well worth doing as it makes it much safer.

[barryofthailand]

Electricians in Pattaya do understand the prinipals of earthing. You can purchase long grounding rods and have them installed by an electrician. TRhey will sink in into the ground, and then run a wire from the grounding rod to your main circut breaker. this will earth all the circuts in your home.

Barry

[bazmlb]

Electricians in Pattaya do understand the prinipals of earthing. You can purchase long grounding rods and have them installed by an electrician. TRhey will sink in into the ground, and then run a wire from the grounding rod to your main circut breaker. this will earth all the circuts in your home.

Barry

It needs to be run to every eletrical outlet to continue the circuit to each appliance/device, just earthing to the switchboard doesnt help if the circuit isnt complete to all the outlets

[kennkate]

Have looked at many Electrical items in major supermarkets and Nothing as got a 3 pin Plug

Recently Purchased a New Washing machine (Panasonic) came with 2 Pin Plug

Reading the Instruction book it states that the appliance should be Earthed ?

Why then No 3 Pin plug. No further Info as to how to go about Earthing the Appliance

.

This would seem to be the case with most things, Even the electric Irons. Just do not understand crazy.

[Tywais]

There are quite a few topics throughout the forums on grounding issues in Thailand. A couple here:

Grounding Issue for CPU for the tingle you get from the computer.

Earthed or Not

use "Grounding" for a search term in the forum, you will find some that are very detailed.

[libya 115]

I think some electrical items that are not earthed are more dangerous than others.

For example 2 pin light, 2 pin phone charger, 2 pin fan.

But I feel very uncomfortable using a microwave without an earth connection.

I have the electric tingle from the metal chassis of desktop PC. Sometimes reversing the polarity of the 2 pin plug helps stop this.

[sotsira]

Electricians in Pattaya do understand the prinipals of earthing. You can purchase long grounding rods and have them installed by an electrician. TRhey will sink in into the ground, and then run a wire from the grounding rod to your main circut breaker. this will earth all the circuts in your home.

Barry

Sorry Barry, but you are wrong, just connecting a ground rod to your main curcuit breaker will not earth any of your curcuits in your home, you need to run an additional earth wire to every outlet then earth the fusebox casing to the ground rod.

[dotcom]

A laptop is something like 6 volts DC. How you could get a shock off it I don't know.

Suspect something else is wrong.

[Ratsima]

That's another thing. None of the houses in this moo baan have a grounding rod. I insisted they put one in my house. They did, but they weren't happy about it. Of course, even if all your circuits have a ground wire it's almost worthless unless you have a grounding rod.

[justcruisin]

Just another point,I purchased a new apartment last year,all the outlets are 3 Pin and earthed but then I checked and found that in all circuits,the inexperience of thai trades manifests itself again as they had crossed over the active and neutral circuit,thence negating the possible benefits of grounding,as well as the impossibility for a residual current breaker to work.

It will take some sorting.

Just ensure if you purchase a property to get elec. checks done as part of pre-purchase inspection

[sotsira]

Just another point,I purchased a new apartment last year,all the outlets are 3 Pin and earthed but then I checked and found that in all circuits,the inexperience of thai trades manifests itself again as they had crossed over the active and neutral circuit,thence negating the possible benefits of grounding,as well as the impossibility for a residual current breaker to work.

It will take some sorting.

Just ensure if you purchase a property to get elec. checks done as part of pre-purchase inspection

I've had the same expieriance when trying to get so-called thai electricians to wire up the curcuits in a condo that i was having a new kitchen put in. They were trying to run every curcuit with only 2 wires, live & nuetral, that would have meant the oven, hob, water heater, washing machine and microwave which all require high amperage would have had no earth.This is standard practice to them, when i explained that i wanted everything earthed they were baffled, i ended up having to work alongside them showing them what to do, otherwise they were incapable, and these guys work as electricians for a living!

That explains why most fires that occur here are allways put down to electrical curcuit failure!

[dingdongrb]

A laptop is something like 6 volts DC. How you could get a shock off it I don't know.

Suspect something else is wrong.

It depends on how much current is in the circuit whether you will feel it or not. Example: Take a standard 9 volt transistor radio battery (The kind that is somewhat square looking and has the two terminals at the top) and place your fingers across the terminals. You will feel nothing. Then take that same battery and place the two terminals on your tongue. You will feel a slight shock. Why? More current running through the circuit. Your fingers (body) has a higher resistance compared to your tongue and the moisture on your tongue. It all boils down to Ohms law ... V= I*R.......

By the way, not all computers are the same. Example my laptop is using 18.5 Volts.

[Basil B]

A laptop is something like 6 volts DC. How you could get a shock off it I don't know.

Suspect something else is wrong.

Most laptops have a "Switch Mode Power Supply Unit" to provide low voltage for your laptops.

This is normally around 18v DC.

They normally work 100-240v AC in and they rectify the voltage so if your supply is 230v then after rectification you will have about 330v in your power supply before it drives a small transformer at very high frequency to make the low voltage for your laptop.

Many power supplies have only a two pin supply in so it would be very difficult to Earth them anyway.

On your power supply you should have a symbol one square inside another that denotes that it is double insulated and should be safe to use without an earth also worth while checking that it carries other symbols such as CE, UL, TuV, etc.

If you are getting shocks, even static it would be a good idea to get you power supply checked as 330v could do more than just make your hair stand up and if it is static it could kill you laptop.

BB

[dotcom]

Good point.

[Ratsima]

Just another point,I purchased a new apartment last year,all the outlets are 3 Pin and earthed but then I checked and found that in all circuits,the inexperience of thai trades manifests itself again as they had crossed over the active and neutral circuit,thence negating the possible benefits of grounding,as well as the impossibility for a residual current breaker to work.

One problem is that they seem to ignore the color coding of wires and use whatever color is handy. This means that they have no idea which wire is hot and which is neutral. I ended up using colored tape to mark everything so that they next guy who works on it (maybe me) will know what's what.

After my house was finished but before the meter was installed they agreed to give us some temporary power using the lines they had set up for construction. Of course, they switched hot and neutral causing the residual current device to trip as soon as they connected it. I never could get it through their heads what they'd done wrong. But, as soon as I switched it myself all was well.

Amazing Thailand.

[Naam]

I do not really understand your problem as there is nothing different with electricity here in Thailand

In my condo I have a few 2-pin plugs (no earth) for lamps, phone charger and other small electric devices,

and I have 3-pin plugs (2 plate + 1 round for earth) for microwave, fridge, washing machine, ...

Pattaya46

in most cases there IS a difference and that you have 3-pin plugs is irrelevant. open one of the sockets and check whether the receiving opening for the plug's third pin (earth) is connected to a wire. you might be in for an unpleasant surprise

Edited July 8, 2008 by Naam

[Ratsima]

check whether the receiving opening for the plug's third pin (earth) is connected to a wire. you might be in for an unpleasant surprise

And check to see how long that wire is. When I inspected the outdoor outlets in my house I found that the ground wire extended only about 10 cm into the plastic conduit. So, you really need to check that the ground wire extends all the way back to the service panel!

[scrunchielaura]

But i do know that when i get a small shock from my laptop lead then that is not good. At least the laptop has a transformer so i am feeling a 12v shock, but i how about electrical showers etc that have straight connections to the mains i.e. 250V. Surely these are earthed ?

The shock you are feeling is not a "12 volt shock". Instead, you are being shocked by about half of the line voltage. In short, you are being shocked by about 120 volts AC.

Here's why: Your computer's power supply, no matter how it is built or how it works, does not perfectly isolate its output from the power line. There is always some leakage across the insulation in the power supply's transformer. The leakage is about equal to each side of the 240 VAC. Thus, the leakage splits the difference and ends up putting 120 VAC to the computer's case. The amount of current that can flow is low, so you simply feel an uncomfortable tingle instead of being thrown across the room.

There's a further complication: If both sides of the 240 VAC line voltage were to be balanced around the earth voltage (ie one side at earth+120V while the other side is earth-120V), then the leakage voltage would be darn near the earth voltage and you wouldn't get shocked.

A story: Years ago in America at work we had an office full of computer equipment all plugged into grounded power strips all daisy chained from one to the next. The end power strip was plugged into a 2 pin outlet via a 3 pin to 2 pin cheater plug. The lack of a proper ground didn't affect most of us. However, the "big boss" sat next to an old cast iron steam heat radiator which was apparently earthed. Every time he'd touch his computer and lean against the radiator, he'd get quite a shock! Checking with a volt meter showed 60 VAC (half of the American 120 VAC power). With twenty leaking power supplies all wired together, there was quite a bit of current possible at the 60 VAC.

[Tywais]

Here's why: Your computer's power supply, no matter how it is built or how it works, does not perfectly isolate its output from the power line. There is always some leakage across the insulation in the power supply's transformer. The leakage is about equal to each side of the 240 VAC. Thus, the leakage splits the difference and ends up putting 120 VAC to the computer's case. The amount of current that can flow is low, so you simply feel an uncomfortable tingle instead of being thrown across the room.

Not quite right. I posted the technical reason for this voltage divider effect here > Earthing A Computer

[libya 115]

Can someone explain this:

I remember from physics instruction that porceline is an excellent electrical insulator. So why do I get small electric shocks from computer cases whilst standing on porceline floor tiles? Do I have to wear rubber boots instead?

[Tywais]

Can someone explain this:

I remember from physics instruction that porceline is an excellent electrical insulator. So why do I get small electric shocks from computer cases whilst standing on porceline floor tiles? Do I have to wear rubber boots instead?

Most likely impurities (electrolytes) in the porcelain combined with the moisture (sweat) on your feet allowing some conduction. As for the boots, just a proper ground to the computer will fix it.

[Samuian]

...even if all your circuits have a ground wire it's almost worthless unless you have a grounding rod.

so it is... unless it's a three phase system already!

[Ratsima]

...even if all your circuits have a ground wire it's almost worthless unless you have a grounding rod.

so it is... unless it's a three phase system already!

I actually visited a farang home here with a full-on three phase system. He didn't have anything in the house that would require three phase, but that's what he got. He had a huge panel that had volt and ammeters for each of the three phases. He could have run a small factory with all that capacity.

[jastheace]

A laptop is something like 6 volts DC. How you could get a shock off it I don't know.

Suspect something else is wrong.

the shock he is getting is a 'floating' voltage of around 120 volts(rms,or 160 peak)

an earth or ground would eliminate this .however the shock won't be of anyharm,since as soon as you touch the casing of the equipment,you are doing the earthing thru yr body.

under no load,the voltage could measure thousands of volts,(maybe you can hear a spark also when you touch the offending unit)however the current is extremely small.