Accessing power (240v) directly from the mains.

[DrDave]

Sticking an arc welder's bare wires into a receptacle is fairly common practice from what I've seen. My son in law is a professional welder, and I've seen him do it with a 250 amp arc welder, too. And, it's not only arc welders that can draw very high current, but other things like a heavy duty pressure washer.

The bigger concern I have is that putting such a high current load through an ordinary receptacle might fry a portion of the house wiring if the circuit breaker doesn't trip. This has happened to me. We had some work done on our house while we were out of the country, and when we returned, we found one outdoor receptacle completely disintegrated (and the wiring's insulation burned off in the box), and another outdoor receptacle badly burned. I haven't repaired either of these yet, but shudder to think of the condition of the wires inside the plastic conduit, buried inside the cement walls. I'm fairly certain the damage was caused by a pressure washer overloading the circuit. All my breakers are 15 or 20 amp, so I'm not sure why the receptacles and wiring were fried, unless the wiring is undersized.

I'd like to create a separate circuit with just a single receptacle next to the Consumer Unit so that there is no wiring buried in the walls. This way, these people are free to plug into this receptacle and fry their own extension cords instead of my home's wiring Only problem is my CU is maxed out, so no more room for another circuit breaker.

[thaibeachlovers]

Sticking an arc welder's bare wires into a receptacle is fairly common practice from what I've seen. My son in law is a professional welder, and I've seen him do it with a 250 amp arc welder, too. And, it's not only arc welders that can draw very high current, but other things like a heavy duty pressure washer.

The bigger concern I have is that putting such a high current load through an ordinary receptacle might fry a portion of the house wiring if the circuit breaker doesn't trip. This has happened to me. We had some work done on our house while we were out of the country, and when we returned, we found one outdoor receptacle completely disintegrated (and the wiring's insulation burned off in the box), and another outdoor receptacle badly burned. I haven't repaired either of these yet, but shudder to think of the condition of the wires inside the plastic conduit, buried inside the cement walls. I'm fairly certain the damage was caused by a pressure washer overloading the circuit. All my breakers are 15 or 20 amp, so I'm not sure why the receptacles and wiring were fried, unless the wiring is undersized.

I'd like to create a separate circuit with just a single receptacle next to the Consumer Unit so that there is no wiring buried in the walls. This way, these people are free to plug into this receptacle and fry their own extension cords instead of my home's wiring Only problem is my CU is maxed out, so no more room for another circuit breaker.

Then you are lucky that CUs are cheap in Thailand.

[rawhod]

When my place was being built they just stuck their wires into un-metered, unfused electric in the strWith our build they stuck the wires into the outlet side of the meter in the street...

With our build, they did at least stick the wires into the outlet side of the meter in the street...