I have lived in BKK for more than six years and I have never received a satisfactory answer to this question. Why so many wires? Either every electrical appliance in this city of 10+million people has its own wire leading into the electric grid OR, whenever a wire develops a fault the people in charge string up another wire and leave the old one just hanging there. This latter explanation seems more logical; but, if that is the case how to they keep them straight....how do they know which live wire leads where?

This photo was taken where Ploenchit meets Ruam Rudi.

PS: If most of these wires are dead then Bangkok must have a fortune in copper hanging above its streets.

Edited May 22, 200620 yr by corkscrew

You forgot to mention Telephone and cable t.v lines. ALso it is way easier and quicker to string out overland/overhead then to dig. As for figuring out what is live and not. Better ask someone with more know how and a meter.

The problem is the ground Bangkok sits on. Used to be the Venice of the East with many canals. However it is still very wet underground and constructing an underground infrastructure to run the cables through would be a massive effort. But it does seem they could tidy things up a bit.

The problem is the ground Bangkok sits on. Used to be the Venice of the East with many canals. However it is still very wet underground and constructing an underground infrastructure to run the cables through would be a massive effort. But it does seem they could tidy things up a bit.

I have no idea how they keep the wires straight in their minds....unless they have a dedicated electrician for every city block.

But, I must give them great credit. In the 6+ years that I have lived here my power outages have been very few (2 or 3) and very short (a few seconds). In Florida when hurricane Wilma hit my house was sans electricity for 6 weeks...and that was in a big city, too. Glad I was not there.

corkscrew, from I can see the majority of the cables you see are not power, they are telephone/cable tv.

In the west these are mostly buried, but the same principle applies. There is a central point in your neighbourhood, where each end user picks off his/her cable. Normally (in Aust. atleast) this works it's way down from exchange to pillar to pit to your home. Each of these break the main supply down to street level where you get your signal.

However, from I can work out in Thailand, it goes from exchange, to pillar then every house picks off from the pillar/MDF or whatever you want to call it.

WHat they are missing is the final step, it actually goes hand in hand with the addressing situation, ie not coherent. Instead of a formal system to break it down for the end user each household seems to break off from the local MDF (Main Distribution Frame) rather than a more local (street level) IDF (internal dist. frame). SO what you find is that there is a spaghetti type arrangement. In my opinion it all boils down to poor civil planning.

Does that make sense?

If you picture a human body.

You have a brain (the service provider).

The the spinal cord. (the backbone)

Then you have the ribs (the cables to your house)

The longer the back bone, the shorter the ribs have to be to get to your house. In the west the backbone normally runs in front of your house, here it finished after the 3rd or 4th vertabrae, so you need to get you services from a lot further away, hence so much more cabling.

I live in the country, but this is how I see it. Can anyone elaborate?

I have lived in BKK for more than six years and I have never received a satisfactory answer to this question. Why so many wires? Either every electrical appliance in this city of 10+million people has its own wire leading into the electric grid OR, whenever a wire develops a fault the people in charge string up another wire and leave the old one just hanging there. This latter explanation seems more logical; but, if that is the case how to they keep them straight....how do they know which live wire leads where?

This photo was taken where Ploenchit meets Ruam Rudi.

PS: If most of these wires are dead then Bangkok must have a fortune in copper hanging above its streets.

Another one with a guy working! No Safety Net

Ah yes the old Thai proverb ..A man on the wire is worth 2 peeing in the bush

corkscrew, from I can see the majority of the cables you see are not power, they are telephone/cable tv.

In the west these are mostly buried, but the same principle applies. There is a central point in your neighbourhood, where each end user picks off his/her cable. Normally (in Aust. atleast) this works it's way down from exchange to pillar to pit to your home. Each of these break the main supply down to street level where you get your signal.

However, from I can work out in Thailand, it goes from exchange, to pillar then every house picks off from the pillar/MDF or whatever you want to call it.

WHat they are missing is the final step, it actually goes hand in hand with the addressing situation, ie not coherent. Instead of a formal system to break it down for the end user each household seems to break off from the local MDF (Main Distribution Frame) rather than a more local (street level) IDF (internal dist. frame). SO what you find is that there is a spaghetti type arrangement. In my opinion it all boils down to poor civil planning.

Does that make sense?

An excellent reply. Thank you. You must be an engineer.

Can anyone elaborate?

You lost me after the 3rd vertabrae Tuky

Can anyone elaborate?

You lost me after the 3rd vertabrae Tuky

Looks like Bangkok need a chiropractor.