Looking for advice on house electrics.

[Bantex]

I am looking for advice on house electrics as we are having problems with the local authorities re our wiring.

I recently built a small house in the village. An earthing (grounding) rod was installed with a mixture of Thai and UK sockets all of which had an earth wire connected through circuit breakers. The system was working great and I had insisted on complete grounding as we have two young children.

Then a so called electrician from the local amphur called to certify the wiring but on finding the electrics were grounded he had the power cut off unless we changed the wiring to two wires on everything with no grounding. I was out of the country at the time and my wife had the wiring changed to two wires, he returned and was happy, certified the house as safe and left. My wife had the wiring changed back to ground everything but he returned a week later and threatened to cut off the power again.

His only argument is that no one else in the village has their house grounded and we don't need the extra safety. He keeps pointing to the electric pole outside providing our electric and repeating the pole has two wires, your house will have two wires.

My electrician did the work properly.

Has anyone else had this or similar problems.

[CharlieH]

Then you would be better with this in the Electrical forum

MOVED

[Crossy]

Are you getting supply from the village or direct from PEA (who do you pay the bill to)?

It's pretty obvious that this 'electrician' has absolutely no idea what he's talking about, but he does seem to have the power to pull the plug.

It may be worth perusing this PEA document http://www.crossy.co.uk/Handy%20Files/groundwire.pdf which gives the PEA requirements for new installations (front end RCD, MEN and a 2.4m rod).

Whether you use this against the man depends upon your (and his) status in the village.

Take care! (both with the electrics and the electrician), you'll need to find a solution that allows him to save face.

[jeab1980]

Don't really understand this we have built/had built 4 houses. We have never had any form of an amphur electrician come to check any wiring or from the PEA.????

[bankruatsteve]

Don't really understand this we have built/had built 4 houses. We have never had any form of an amphur electrician come to check any wiring or from the PEA.????

Even with the dubious national code, every PEA seems to be mostly autocratic and with its own rules. The OP sounds like the village know-it-all or poo-yai-ban - guessing retired school teacher or army.

[Bantex]

This is a new one on me as well, but the guy seems to have the status to have our power cut off as he has already done twice. I've tried to get to speak directly to him but he always fails to show when I'm about and only turns up when I'm out of the country. He seems to cover a large area and tracking him to a location on any given day is near impossible. I'll try to get the village head man to act as go between as he's well respected in the area and at the local amphur, maybe he can get to the bottom of things.

I get the feeling that this guy has made mistake and to save face won't back down.

I'll update as things run their course.

[GuestHouse]

How does he know how the wiring inside your house is connected?

[Bantex]

How does he know how the wiring inside your house is connected?

He called at the house whilst I was out of the country and my wife let him check.

Like I said before I have not been able to get to speak to him and when I go to the amphur to find out more, I'm told I need to speak directly to him.

[Bantex]

I eventually got some of the answers I was looking for.

The guy who called at the house had nothing to do with the electric company. We had taken out insurance on the house via the local bank and the guy was checking on behalf of the insurance company to certify the house as safe electrically and structurally for full policy coverage. The bank had given him a list of minimum standards they would accept as a guideline and he took this to be gospel as only what they would accept.

As we have exceeded their minimum standards required there should be no problems reverting back to a fully grounded electrical system.

[jeab1980]

Glad you have it sorted. Still a funny situation mind house insurance through our bank (bangkok bank)was just a formality couple of questions. Pay money all done. I can't see how a person paid for by an insurance company to look at Structure and electrics????:Would have the power to disconnect. More likely as you say he exxeded his authority and just disconnected the meter himself. But as I say glad it's all sorted.

[Bantex]

Our insurance was through SCB. Our house is near the edge of the village and a few wooden houses had previously been damaged through heavy rain and subsidence even a brick house received some structural damage but not near where we built and I believe the checks were as a result. The policy paperwork was a formality but bank staff did visit the house to photograph what was being insured due to higher coverage than neighbouring houses and I believe partly nosiness.

It is good to get to the bottom of things.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Crossy]

Good that it's sorted.

What do PEA have to say about an unauthorised person interfering with their equipment? Don't answer that, rhetorical question to which we all know the answer.

For that matter what do the insurance company say about their representative interfering with PEA's equipment? Don't answer that either.

[SantiSuk]

The world is full of eckspurts. At least in the UK ours stay stuck to the barstool. They rove around creating havoc in Thailand.

[keeniau96]

Shocking incompetence. Crossy is certainly right about the face saving necessity, glad the OP got things settled.