Wall Sockets will foreign sockets fit Thai backboxes

[brissie]

I'm moving to thailand in a few months from Australia, would like to change some of the the Thai style sockets in the house to Australian ones. Safer and reduces the amount of connections in the circuit. Would the back boxes have the same fixing centres or should I buy those over here too. 

[David48]

Mate, I'm an aussie, a lapsed sparkie ... and even I'm not to sure what you mean.

 

Below is an non-Aussie one ... but it shows the question you are asking?

 

 

Will an Aussie style power point ...  GPO fit the steel, fireproof back box?

[David48]

Just my thought, if the above was correct.

 

Fit a Thai powerpoint, buy an Aussie Powerboard ... 

 

Get a set of Pliers, grabbing the pins, at the base twist them till they are parallel to each other, saw off the Earth Plug ... and you are done.

 

Many 3 pin GPO's here in Thailand don't have an Earth Wire attached.

 

Just a thought.

[brissie]

Yes you are right David48, badly worded question.The minister for war and finance has heaps of kitchen appliances she wants to bring over. I don't like adapters, weak and they overheat if too much current used. Same with power boards. Just want to change Thai GPO's for Aussie ones.

Cheers

[lopburi3]

Just change the plugs to local versions.  Problem solved and no issues when you buy locally to replace.  That said at least one local multi version I have allows OZ two pin plug to be used (surface mount 3 grounded outlet type).

[David48]

Just change the plugs to local versions.  Problem solved and no issues when you buy locally to replace.  That said at least one local multi version I have allows OZ two pin plug to be used (surface mount 3 grounded outlet type).

 

brissie ... given the understanding of what you want to achieve ^^  what he said ...
 

Thais aren't renown for that earthing practices, so, presuming you are building ... inspect the earth wires, the wire connections, the earth spike and the connectivity of the loop.

 

Just a thought and good luck with it.

[Pdaz]

I've done this in two houses now. Changed all the crap local faceplate ( power and switches ) for higher quality UK ones. The centres aren't the same and I needed to install suitable back boxes. I used Clipsal in the first house and MK faceplates in the latest one. Both houses were being renovated so wasn't much work to chop out the old boxes. Much safer fitments and easy to change two pin thai plugs to 3 pin UK/Malaysian/Singapore type on any appliances I had. After 10 years use in my old house no yellowing, cracking or sparks when you put a plug in. Well worth the time and effort.

[BaldPlumber]

On this subject, anyone know where to buy universal faceplates for Thai metal boxes so that they will accept any plugs?

Getting fed up with the amount of extension leads I have and some uk adaptors cannot be converted to Thai stylee.

[Litlos]

An alternative to save a nightmare of non fitting plugs and the required adapters is fit local 3 pin outlets which are switched.

 

The actual 3 pin flat or 3 pin round are virtually the same safety wise with the earth pin if done properly, note the done properly stipulation.

 

I have bought the 3 pin switched outlets at Home Pro for about 250 Baht.

 

Cheers

[brissie]

I'll buy the backbones too.

 

Minister for W&F thinks piggybacking 4 power boards together and filling every socket is no ploblem "you too fussy"

 

Thanks Pdaz and everyone else who took the time and trouble to help.

 

Cheers

[lopburi3]

Not being a fan of bending over to turn on an outlet every time I want to use the attached items do not understand this at all - in 70 plus years of electric usage I have never had an issue caused by electric from wall to item being on.  Yes it might happen but suspect there are far more accidents and injury/deaths caused for the inconvenience of having to switch such all outlets on.  Your appliance has and on/off switch and for many modern units (TV and such) a small keep alive voltage is an advantage.  

 

Perhaps this dates to electric heater usage in our frozen homelands?  For normal home do not see the advantage.  Would much rather invest in RCD protection today.

[Crossy]

On this subject, anyone know where to buy universal faceplates for Thai metal boxes so that they will accept any plugs?

Getting fed up with the amount of extension leads I have and some uk adaptors cannot be converted to Thai stylee.

 

Most of the locally available ranges feature a 'universal' outlet. Ensure the ones you get have shutters and don't plug in heavy current appliances, the contact area is not large due to the requirement to accept a multitude of plugs.

 

All the manufacturers seem to have the same fixing centres so mixing and matching isn't an issue.