Thai Grounding Advice Needed

[toodkeng]

i am currently in the process of decorating a 3 storey town house into something liveable .. with just very basic decorating .. nothing fancy .. which is why i'm doing it all myself mostly cos i dont trust any thai to do even a half decent job , and also cos its fun learning how to do things myself as im pretty DIY minded already ..when we (me and the gf) got the building we had no water running upstairs on the 1st floor where we wanted to live, the pressure was only enough for the ground floor, so i had to install a water tank and all the pipes etc which is almost finished , i can't do anymore until i get the pump installed and for that i need electric .. and that is where you guys come in .. hopefully

i'm not an electrician .. far from it .. and to be honest it scares the hel_l out of me..lol .. but i want my home grounded for my own safety , my gf's , all my home

appliances and also for the little nieces and nephews usually running around

What i'd like to acheive is :

1. Install only a new ground wire to link the existing wall sockets and replace just the fronts and upgrade the pins sockets from 2 to 3 (oviously) leaving all the existing wires in place and possibly the internal shells for the wall sockets (unless the 3 pin ones take up a lot more space and make this impossible, then external shells will be used) ,

2. Install a ground rod the correct in the correct location , depth etc

3. Upgrade to a new Consumer Unit with the correct sized breakers , ELCB etc (but if possible keep the existing circuit breakers in place so later when i leave it can all be removed and put back to normal if necessary)

the existing system is 2 pin sockets etc with the big old circuit breakers?? and fuse

This is how i would like to add the consumer unit into the equation so it can be removed easily again later with no fuss

this is a rough electrical plan of how things are currently , sorry if its not very clear it makes perfect sense to me ..

basically the dark green line is the mains power coming in from outside

into the purple boxes which are circuit breakers (as in top photo)

the lighter green lines are thicker cables than the others and seem to just be taking the power from floor to floor

the red lines are the same as yellow lines .. but red show the power supply throughout the radials and the yellow just go direct to the light bulbs

the red squares represent the power sockets and yelllow are for the light switches

the blue squares are for where im going to want new sockets etc which are grounded

each point will only ever have certain things plugged into those areas ..so incase that makes a difference they will be as follows

- point one: will be the lounge area so will be the TV, DVD player, maybe a home PC at some point, my laptop, and a fan etc

- point two: will be the kitchen area , this will have a table top oven that is 2000W , toaster , hot pan , rice cooker, kettle, microwave, food mixer etc and also a washing machine and fridge

- point three: is the toilet area which will have an electric hot water shower

- point four: is the bedroom .. not much in here , maybe a tv , the home pc might go in here when i get it .. and the laptop will be used in here often too

- point five: is under the stairs where the water pump is going

- point six and seven: are not needed just yet and can be added at a later date but will be for any appliances needed in a food shop , so again for an oven , food mixer etc ( i only say this now because im not sure how that affects the RCCB/ELCB(if thats what i need)

the existing circuits can stay as they are .. but i want the new grounded circuits added along side it all .. i dont care much for the cosmetic side of how this all looks as the building is only rented and everything is only temporary (long term enough to bother having this done for now) but i can easily rip out any work ive done to put the building back to normal and take anything with me to the new place etc and re-use it all where possible (if they are in decent condition )

the gounding and the consumer unit breakers are pretty much the only things im really unsure of .. i know how to put wires all over the building and connect them to the sockets etc , what i need to know is that im making the correct type of circuit for whats needed and with the right size fuses etc

i know the grounding rod needs to be in a wet area of ground for better conductivity etc .. but thats the problem .. thailand is covered in concrete , front and back of the building is full of concrete , as you can see.... the back

left corner:

middle:

Right corner:

and the front left:

and right:

also another place i've considered for the ground rod is next to the pump under the stairs out of the way

which spot looks best to you for the ground rod to be installed??, bearing in mind i dont know whats under the ground in any of these locations so just trying to think of somehwere that would stay moist and avoid hitting any ground pipes etc

so basically .. in a nut shell .. id like any advice on either a decent electrician around saraburi area (one who you know can ground properly) and a rough idea how much you think this would cost

OR what i'd prefer is to know what materials i'd need .. starting at circuit breakers , what type of cables should i use .. any info you think i'd need to do this correctly .. ( apart from telling me an electricians course etc ...lol )

some more pics i took just incase they help with anything:

electrics outside:

plug socket near point one showing the different thickness of cables (the difference between the light green lines and red/yellow lines on the plan)

and the red line near point one with the two forked ends (like snake tongue) is this cable that seems to have been put in for something before we moved in:

my pump:

my oven:

incase anyone has trouble viewing the photos here you can see the whole album here :

Building Plans pictures by ToodKeng - Photobucket

and if anyone is interested in adding to the original plan i have the original copy in photoshop psd with all layers seperate to make life easy for any changes

at the very least .. id like to run the cables all over the building myself and get the grounding rod into the ground properly so i know it is atleast 1.4m down and 10 cm above the ground and not just 4 inches deep or the ground wire poked just below the surface out of sight .....and then only have the electrician come in to test everything is working fine

so .. let the advice , or flaming begin .. lol

[elkangorito]

You are undertaking a huge project that may seem easier than it looks. I think it's too big to handle over the internet.

My ultimate advice is to have a total rewire & refit.

Also, you must only have one (1) Main Switchboard (MSB), which should be located on the ground floor. It must supply sub distribution boards...one on each floor OR you can run the cables from the MSB directly to each fitting/appliance on each floor.

For details, see http://www.crossy.co.uk/wiring/

With an installation like yours, care must be taken to get the correct size cable to suit the operating time (0.4 seconds) of any circuit breaker (RCD's can fail). Also, the following tests should be carried out upon completion;

1] Polarity test.

2] Insulation Resistance test.

3] Phase rotation test (if you are being supplied with 3 phase).

4] Earth Fault Loop Impedance test (if TT or TN system).

5] Voltage test.

It's all well & good for me to tell you this but nobody seems to do these tests in Thailand.

Good luck.