Diy Home Electric Check

[bangkokumpalumpa]

Well after reading lots of horror stories about electric systems and native workers I thought it would be good to start a thread for people who dont understand much about a home electric system.

what I would love to see is this thread used to add thoughts of how and what to check, Not about the horror stories that we all have.

I have written this posting about the visual checks that anyone can do, please do not attempt to do electric work unless you fuly understand what you are doing, if you dont understand things then it is safer to get a Pro to look at things! NOT the standard man on his bike with a screwdriver, a set of pliers and a roll of tape get someone that has understanding and experience with western standards!!!

ok so you are looking at moving into a place, what do you look for????

here is the first thing you should do,

open the fuse box/breaker box/load center what ever you want to call it and check the ratings on the fuses, what you should see is low values on them.

for lights and plugs you should see a rating of 10 amps

if you see it stuffed with 32 amp or 20 amp breakers then that is just way to much!!! that is dangerous, the most an average socket or light is rated for is 10 amps!

if you see one that has a really large rating then that will proberly be your water heater or electric oven, what you can do is take a look and the name and model and google it, find a spec sheet and it will tell you what size breaker you should have. if in doubt get things checked!!

ok if you look in the box you should see a load of green wires that conect to a brass bar, there should be one wire that is larger than all the others, this is your ground/earth wire.

if you dont see this then there is a chance that you dont have an earth system. NOT GOOD

have a look outside the house and see if there is a green wire that is conected to a big rod that goes into the ground, this is your earth/ground rod, for safety reasons you should have one!!!

take a look at your plug sockets, how many holes are there, two or three, it the house is fitted with sockets with only 2 holes then there is not earth on those scokets.

now if this system has been done by a pro it should all look nice and pretty, if it looks messy then that is a sign of bad wiring.

a good thing to see is a unit called a Safe T cut, this is a common brand in Thailand it is a Earth leak system, it is designed to shut off the power if there is any electric going to earth/ground. this is a good unit it means that if you do get a shock it will shut off fast, within mili seconds. it is designed to save your life!

now if you do have a Safe T Cut then make sure it is not set to direct as that is the same as it been turned off, it should be running at about the 30 millisecond range although old aircons ect may cause a problem with these, they normally have a dial that you can adjust the setting so that it takes a little longer to trip, but hey if your system keeps tripping on all but the direct then get it looked at by a Pro!!!

now if you are moving into a house then is is good to take a look in the roof space, this is were you find the scary electric wiring in Thailand !!!! it can look pretty on the surface but you need to go look where people dont normally look. just yesterday I was caught out by just this, I looked at a system and it looked professional, came back to install some plugs and change some of the breakers from 32 amp to 10 amp and split off the circuits into separt breakers for plugs and lights ect.

well when it came to the finial part of climbing far into the roof space I found that the wires (hidden from a simple look) were SCARY and dangerous!! at one point on a 32 amp breaker there were a total of 8 wires all twisted together, that is just plain crazy and dangerous!! so what was a 3 hour job turned into 8 hours and still not complete!

most of the houses the wires are twisted together, this is not a bad thing if it has been done properly.

in saying that no doubt many are going to jump on me for this,!!! what you should NOT see is a mass of twisted wires!!! that is where it gets scary!!!!

ok twisted wires, here in Thailand you its hard to get the good junction boxes that we have in our western world, so they use two systems, a screwit or twisting the wires, ok both can be fine if done properly. now many will say it is not good. tell that to the British Forces!!! see what they say!

ok so there are some basics for all out there that are wondering if they have a safe system or not. what I hope to see is some more people adding to this for those that dont know much.

please dont make it a rant about how bad things are here in Thailand as we have lots of threads on horror stories, lets make this a topic for people to read about what safe looks like!

[elkangorito]

It's good to see someone who knows about electrical

[genset]

Hmmm...

I think I see where you're coming from with this, but with respect, a thread full of posts such as yours would be quite unreadable and perhaps even serve to exacerbate the problem. Thankfully an effective course of action already exists within this forum 'for people who dont understand much about a home electric system'.

Pause, gather your thoughts, clearly describe the electrical issue you are faced with (take a digital photograph if possible) and post it/them within this sub-forum.

If you read back through the previous threads you will see that posts of this type receive an almost immediate response from Crossy or Elkangorito (especially if the problem is serious and potentially life threatening). They both possess a wealth of electrical knowledge and are only too happy to thrash an issue to within an inch of its proverbial life... if warranted.

Genset

Edited October 21, 2009 by genset

[bangkokumpalumpa]

Hmmm...

I think I see where you're coming from with this, but with respect, a thread full of posts such as yours would be quite unreadable and perhaps even serve to exacerbate the problem. Thankfully an effective course of action already exists within this forum 'for people who dont understand much about a home electric system'.

Pause, gather your thoughts, clearly describe the electrical issue you are faced with (take a digital photograph if possible) and post it/them within this sub-forum.

If you read back through the previous threads you will see that posts of this type receive an almost immediate response from Crossy or Elkangorito (especially if the problem is serious and potentially life threatening). They both possess a wealth of electrical knowledge and are only too happy to thrash an issue to within an inch of its proverbial life... if warranted.

Genset

ok this thread was design for people that want to know if they have a problem, it is not designed to fix a problem, it was posted for those who read the other threads and and wonder if they have a safe electrical system. so it was put together for a basic check that can be done by anyone.

its fine to say if you have a problem then post it, but the chances are the way that you find that your water heater has kicked the bucket and you have no earth system is that you have just been fryed whilst taking a shower.

this thread is about looking for any possible safety problems BEFORE you find out the hard way.

after all do you check the oil in you car, or do you just wait for the engine to die?

a simple check of your home could save your life.

its called preventitive as opposed to crisis.

I note that you say "Pause, gather your thoughts, clearly describe the electrical issue you are faced with"

ok how about this, "what should I look for to see if I have a safe system"

Edited October 21, 2009 by bangkokumpalumpa

[Farang0tang]

I for one have found this immediately helpful. Just got a new safe-T-cut thingy installed, however some cowboy did it, suffice to say we needed a second visit by a Pro. Anyway i didnt have a clue what setting the dial should be at. Now i know (i think).

Thanks. I have printed this off and will compare when i visit the house next.