Basic Grounding Question

[Forkinhades]

^ absolutely that is a must!

[Crossy]

But don't, unless you have tested it (with the proper kit), rely on the conduit as the earth conductor.

[Forkinhades]

The conduit should be earthed by the adaptor to the metal box, which in turn should be earthed. Its unclear from your picture whether the box has an earth terminal or not.

[emanphoto]

Yes he is running ground wire for every outlet here which previously did not exist. In other words, we're getting all new electrical. The outlet shown was installed temporarily it turns out, as he didn't have a 3 prong w/him and wanted to give us an outlet to use as we're living in only 2 rooms right now. These circuits are live only for our convenience to have the security lights outside. The open box w/wires photo shows 3 wires, the colors of which have been used throughout the work so far. This is very much a work in progress so grounding has not been setup yet other than to run the 3 wires to do so.

Re:earthing the conduit. That's what I was reading a few minutes ago while in my panic mode thinking that maybe all this work was going to need to be redone. I'm REALLY glad you guys concur. The whole system is to be grounded via the requisite copper rod from the main box, or wherever it is attached.

From what I read and what has been said here, the grounding of the metal conduit is a separate measure. The metal conduit is being installed is for exterior lights, mostly in covered areas, some not. There is some in the front of the house and some on a rear 2nd floor back porch that is covered and does not get wet. These are 2 separate and distant locations so I'm assuming the conduit in these 2 separate areas will need their own separate earthing, correct?

In any case, w/my wife as translator, this will be done and tested with us present. Forkinshades' link gives a good checklist, thank you.

So going back to wire nuts. Usually electricians leave them all over the place while they're working but I've seen none here. A necessity or not?

Edited August 17, 2014 by emanphoto

[bankruatsteve]

Not sure where this post is going? The OP seems to be concerned about grounding - so I hope you have that resolved. RE connectors: the local sparks prefer to twist and tape. Don't let that put you off. The wire nuts here are crap. From my experience, twist and tape is probably better.

RE Multimeter: For sure Tesco has them for (to wit) B300 or so. The quality might not be the best but they work.

[RichCor]

If it were me, I would go back to ALL wire junctions and use wire nuts.

The big issue here is the use of metal conduit with an electrical taped wire.

It's very easy for a wire point to penetrate electrical tape. And if the circuit is under heavy load the Load or Neutral Wire can heat and melt through the tape and short to the conduit, making the conduit LIVE.

Though, if you used Wire Nuts and bonded the ground wire at each junction box I would have no problem with it.

[bankruatsteve]

The problem I have had with the wire nuts here is that they just don't grab the wires (like the ones in the states). EVERY time I have a problem - it's because a wire has come loose from the wire nut. Don't worry about twist and tape (at least the ones I have seen): they are very well connected and have a lot of tape so there's not going to be point contacts. And don't nay say unless you have actually checked out a Thai "twist and tape", OK?

[2fishin2]

Nut and tape both

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[RichCor]

Wire nuts used to have a metal threaded thimble embedded inside, then many manufacturers got rid of it. Now, as bankruatsteve points out, the plastic-only nuts allow the wires to work loose.

So, now we are left with stripping the jackets way back, tripple-twisting all the wires together with plyers, adding the almost useless plastic wire nut (in my case), and using a roll of plastic tape.

The loose wire always bugs me, so lately I've gone to using Terminal Blocks with electrical tape.

[bankruatsteve]

Wire nuts used to have a metal threaded thimble embedded inside, then many manufacturers got rid of it. Now, as bankruatsteve points out, the plastic-only nuts allow the wires to work loose.

So, now we are left with stripping the jackets way back, tripple-twisting all the wires together with plyers, adding the almost useless plastic wire nut (in my case), and using a roll of plastic tape.

The loose wire always bugs me, so lately I've gone to using Terminal Blocks with electrical tape.

Yeah, I've used those and they are crap also. I don't know how many screws I have lost spending the time to make sure a solid connection. I have thrown away about as many as I have used. Maybe it's just me but I curse these things.

[Forkinhades]

Wago's are available in LOS now

http://www.automation24.co.uk/connection-technology/connecting-terminals-50-pcs-wago-222-413-i95-1578-0.htm?gclid=CJjA09y_msACFUvpwgodrE4AtA

[Crossy]

You can still get the 'proper' wire nuts with the steel spring inside, HomePro do them.

But, if you can get your sparks to do the job properly, i.e. run a single piece of wire all the way to the point of use without joints, you will use far fewer. Fewer joints (of whatever type) means fewer potential failures.

As a Brit, I don't like wire nuts anyway (they have been outlawed for many years), we used Wago push terminals, not cheap but very reliable (and quicker than either twist-n-tape or nuts). Our sparks fell in love with them, until he found out the cost

[emanphoto]

AFAIK there are no breaks in the wires except at junction boxes and outlets. I thought the concern here was to have wire nuts used anywhere there is tape which, AFAIK, is only at these places. I can't imagine they would be pulling wire down conduit that is joined together with tape, but then again...

Attached is what I am referring to as "junction boxes".

That's interesting that wire nuts are outlawed in GB. Is it because of the nature of the higher voltage or something else that they did that?

You can still get the 'proper' wire nuts with the steel spring inside, HomePro do them.

But, if you can get your sparks to do the job properly, i.e. run a single piece of wire all the way to the point of use without joints, you will use far fewer. Fewer joints (of whatever type) means fewer potential failures.

As a Brit, I don't like wire nuts anyway (they have been outlawed for many years), we used Wago push terminals, not cheap but very reliable (and quicker than either twist-n-tape or nuts). Our sparks fell in love with them, until he found out the cost

Edited August 18, 2014 by emanphoto