Questions about earthing.

[Marcel1]

Yes yes there we go again. More earthing in dangerous apartment buildings. 

 

I recently moved from Bkk to Chiang Mai for work. Since it went all kinda last minute I had no place to stay yet. Now a acquaintance of me offered me to live in her place for free since she is never at her condo here in CNX. Nice offer and apart from that it is quite old I am happy to live here since it is walking distance to my office.

 

At first I didn't think about the electrics much since most of it was working. It wasn't until a power socket stopped working that I actually took a close look. I screwed it open, re adjusted the cables and put it back, no problem. I noticed then that all of the place only has the 2-sprong sockets. Only where is electricity for the laundry machine there is a 3-sprong but after checking, there is no ground wire. 

I recently bought a brand new laundry machine and fridge so I am kinda worried now. 

 

The way it is installed as you see on the photos is no good right?

On the photo's you'll see my main box. The one with the ancient buttons. Then there are two switches. One is for my shower heater and the other one for the AC / Laundry machine. 

 

If this is actually bad, is there anyone who can point me in the right direction of a guy who actually knows what he is doing in CNX area? 

I hadn't had the time to settle in yet but I usually consume quite some electrics with cooking, tv, music etc. But at the moment I am not doing much since I don't really trust the electrics yet. 

 

Any advice is much . 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

Can't help with a local sparks, but if the second photo (the unit with the green button) is for the shower at least you have earth leakage protection (it doesn't need an earth to function) so you're unlikely to die in the shower. Do press the green button, the breaker should trip off.

 

Getting a ground to your shower and washer should be your priority, do you have any access to the building steelwork or a metal water pipe (not the fire pipe), either would provide a more than adequate ground.

 

 

[cooked]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Can't help with a local sparks, but if the second photo (the unit with the green button) is for the shower at least you have earth leakage protection (it doesn't need an earth to function) so you're unlikely to die in the shower. Do press the green button, the breaker should trip off.

 

Getting a ground to your shower and washer should be your priority, do you have any access to the building steelwork or a metal water pipe (not the fire pipe), either would provide a more than adequate ground.

 

 

What thickness of wire do you use for earthing? I attached a rammed in earthing rod to the earth connection of a three pronged plug with a 2.5mm2 copper wire, is that ok? Sorry to hijack the thread, on Google I just found instructions to earth stuff, but nothing about the size of the wire. This is for an exterior plug supplying a water pump.

[Crossy]

@cooked yup, that 2.5mm² will be just fine, is your pump protected by an RCD / RCBO?

 

[cooked]

3 minutes ago, Crossy said:

@cooked yup, that 2.5mm² will be just fine, is your pump protected by an RCD / RCBO?

 

Knew I could rely on you! Yes, I put in a RCBO in towards the source, haven't connected up yet. I couldn't face up to replacing all the two core wiring with three core wires (it's hell up there) in our house so am slowly putting in earthing where I can.