Good Electrician Needed

[parrot]

As I see it, the problem with electricians here is that you're almost at their mercy......unless you have enough electrical knowledge to know what's right and what's wrong. And even then, are you going to go up into the roof and inspect every circuit box, every splice, every connection? Did you inspect the size of the rebar in your home's posts to be sure it's up to standard? Or the quality of the cement mix? I don't even want to think about the quality of the 10l truck-delivered drinking water!

We should develop some sort of easy test to administer to a prospective electrician. Here are some ideas:
- If the electrician uses a drill that doesn't have a plug, but instead plugs bare wires into a socket, he fails. Likewise, if his drill cord has a multitude of bare wires showing, he fails.
- If the electrician has a ladder that has no rubber feet and uses electrical wire to hold the two ends of the ladder together, he fails.
- Disconnect the wires from 2 or 3 wall sockets. Have the electrician reconnect. If he swaps live for neutral wires in any of the sockets, he fails.
- If the color of his eyes is more milky white from cataracts than not, he should probably fail.
Any more?

[weasel]

Guys, even more worried now! Number please of someone "reliable/safe" !!

weasel

[parrot]

Another test item: Give him a handful of one-way light switches. Tell him you want to install a light with an on-off switch at one end of the room and another at the other. If he says he can do it with the switches you gave him, he fails.

Time for another: If you have a socket that doesn't have a ground wire, take the socket out of the wall. Give the electrician a socket with a ground hole. If he tries to install the socket without adding a ground wire, he fails.

I'd like to say I've made these things up........but I'd be lying.

[fdimike]

RL

It's between the clock circle & the fountain circle on the same side of the road as the supposedly new condo project that used to be a shopping center (of sorts).

[weasel]

Thanks Semperfiguy for name, will try this out and let you know, I cant post private messages yet!

Weasel

[Khun Paul]

I would honestly think that the vast majority of us are quite competent in the electrical departemnt, all it really needs is oodles of commonsense, most of the suggestions I have seen are plain bloody commonsense, if in doubt ground it, if unhappy put in a breaker, the cost here is so minimal that it barely warrants thinking about. The only thing I used a electrican for was to wire up the hpouse to the main meter, when they installed a new cable and the other one was splitting the house feed ionto two, other than that I have used my commonsense and judging by many replies I am sure that between us we can do the deed either by the written word or if all else fails paying a short visit free in Udon cost of diesel outside a 10 km radious , if you don't mind.

[jackspratt]

KP, are you saying that, with the couple of exceptions you noted, you have wired up your house yourself?

[Khun Paul]

No what I did was to go through it with a fine toothcomb, having suffered a Thai related cock-up and put right all the problems as well as ensuring that i can take a shower and I don'#t blkow the fuse board when i switch on the A/c.

Apart from the lack of Earth ( now in place, any house is similar to those in the UK, lighting circuits and power circuits, here though I found that the lights are linked in the main through a power circuit or to be more precise a power spur as Thai houses per se do not have ring mains, nor even lighting ring circuits.
They laid power and hacked into it as and when they needed to spur off to a room, very haphazard, rather than completely rewire the whole house ( not an option in my book, just checked every wire in the ceiling /loft ( being a bungalow easier than a house ) and ensured all joints were good and any iffy bits were either eradicated or replaced as to NOT iffy.
So I did not wire the entire house, probly easier if i had but then would have to bloody redocorate and I wasn't about to do that.

[jackspratt]

Phew!

Thanks for clarifying that.

[semperfiguy]

Well, I am the OP and my new electrician has just finished the work I requested and is out the door. He came with a two man crew and within 3 hrs and 45 minutes he had switched out the 4 way breaker box that was originally installed in my new home for a 12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box. He used 20 meters of 1x1 cable and 5 packs of wire nuts to shore up all the other connections in the attic. He rerouted the cables in the attic to run along the steel frame in the event I wanted to install ceiling insulation at some future date and not have to worry about wires getting in the way. Lastly, he opened up every switch panel and checked the connections.

Cost of the breaker box, which I purchased myself at Global House, was 3210 baht, cable and wire nuts totaled 1200 baht and labor was 2000 baht. So, for 6410 baht I will have peace of mind when I go to sleep tonight.

Now, before he started this morning I had him sit down with me for a little talk. I showed him the Udonmap website and explained to him that all of us thousands of farangs around Udon stay in touch with each other via this site, and we help each other with recommendations for various professional workers like electricians, plumbers, roofers, etc. And not only do we talk about the good ones, we also post when a worker does a bad job. I suggested that I prefer to be able to give him a good recommendation, but that depended on how happy he made me with his workmanship. I also let him know that since I am not able to accompany him into the attic, I already had an electrical inspector lined up to check out his work tomorrow. Although he came highly recommended, in my mind it's always a good idea to let any new worker know that you're not a sucker! It has been my experience over 3 years that most Thai workers will take advantage and cut corners if they think they can get away with it. And lastly, I called him early this morning before he arrived to make sure that he brought along wire nuts because I would not allow him to use only electrical tape on any connections...and to bring along a flashlight for every worker going into the attic. Sure enough...he had planned to use only tape, saying that he only used the wire nuts upon customer request. Whether or not he had planned to bring flashlights....I can't say, but the electrician who installed my three ceiling fans last week worked in the dark in the attic. Go figure!

So, bottom line is that I was very satisfied with the work that was done. The guy was very personable, understood some spoken English, was in control of his workers and cleaned up well after himself. For those of you who may wish to contact him, his nam is Rit and he is the owner of Rit Air Service. He also installs and cleans A/C's. His phone number is 081-8729385. For the two forumites who recommended Rit (you know who you are), I want to say thank you! As of now Rit is on my highly recommended list. If I have an electrical fire and my house burns down I will repost and change my recommendation. If I get electrocuted in my shower I will leave instructions for my wife to repost and change our recommendation, unless of course she is happy that I am dead...in which case she may highly recommend that your wives use Rit!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Galee]

A good result all round. Thanks for the recommendation.

[parrot]

semperfi "swapped out the 4 way breaker box that was originally installed in my new home"

Don't know if your house is still under 'warranty' or if the builder is still in the area, but I'd do some complaining about a 4way breaker box to power up an entire new home. Glad things worked out for you in the end.

[semperfiguy]

semperfi "swapped out the 4 way breaker box that was originally installed in my new home"

Don't know if your house is still under 'warranty' or if the builder is still in the area, but I'd do some complaining about a 4way breaker box to power up an entire new home. Glad things worked out for you in the end.

Hello Parrot! Yea, the builder is still around but the house is no longer in warranty. The breaker box is one of those things that an unsuspecting farang with little knowledge of electrical wiring would just take for granted when buying a house in Thailand. Who would have thought that any builder in their right mind would have installed only a 4 way breaker box in a 3 bedroom/2 bath new home? And what's even more unbelievable is that three separate installers put in three A/C's and 2 shower heaters and never made mention that the breaker box was ill-equipped to handle the load. The three A/C's were wired with their own breaker in each room and the two shower heaters were not on a breaker. I consider myself fortunate not to have died in this house!

[Barney]

Good to hear some common sense advice from many people but being just a hairy a....d sparky from aussie land i would not encourage to much home wiring without some sort of check by another person or mate. Very easy to make a connection mistake and have a dangerous or hazardous situation which may be just sitting there in limbo for the next unsuspecting person to come along.
Don't forget that you can run as many earth cables in your house as you like but if there is not a ground rod connected to the box it means diddly squat and the leakage breakers will not operate. Check he has a ground wire to at least a buried water pipe or independant rod. Many water lines in Thailand are plastic.
If the earth leakage breakers have a test button and it turns off the power then it should be OK. In our game you never trust any one else when it comes to the silent and invisible killer. The next person to be bought back to life after dying from electric shock will be the first. Buy or borrow a voltage tester and turn it off before you start working. Test before you touch.
You wouldn't cut into a water line without turning off the mains valve would you.
If you have little ones in the house protect them and don't be a cheap charlie and but quality gear.
I haven't even touched on electricity around pools. Don't want to turn this into a lecture. Sorry if it sounds like that.
Be safe!!!

[RLTrader]

Well, I am the OP and my new electrician has just finished the work I requested and is out the door. He came with a two man crew and within 3 hrs and 45 minutes he had switched out the 4 way breaker box that was originally installed in my new home for a 12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box. He used 20 meters of 1x1 cable and 5 packs of wire nuts to shore up all the other connections in the attic......

Sounds good.

It is shocking yours being a new house, I was thinking it was oldish. I do have couple of question. Do you have a Ground at the Breaker Box? If not did he check that you had grounds from your 2 Heaters and that they really went to a grounding Rod in the earth?

Why I ask is

12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box

If Ground at the breaker box, I would have opted for 3 wire for both the heaters and ac’s if not Ground at the breaker box, I see why 2 wire.

[semperfiguy]

Well, I am the OP and my new electrician has just finished the work I requested and is out the door. He came with a two man crew and within 3 hrs and 45 minutes he had switched out the 4 way breaker box that was originally installed in my new home for a 12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box. He used 20 meters of 1x1 cable and 5 packs of wire nuts to shore up all the other connections in the attic......

Sounds good.

It is shocking yours being a new house, I was thinking it was oldish. I do have couple of question. Do you have a Ground at the Breaker Box? If not did he check that you had grounds from your 2 Heaters and that they really went to a grounding Rod in the earth?

Why I ask is

12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box

If Ground at the breaker box, I would have opted for 3 wire for both the heaters and ac’s if not Ground at the breaker box, I see why 2 wire.

RLTrader, I haven't a clue about how things are grounded in this house. I live in Baan San Sa-Ran, and Rit, the electrician, assured me that by government regulation this house was wired with an adequate ground and the shower heaters were grounded. I took his word for it since I don't know otherwise. Maybe I'll call him back up and ask him to further convince me. Now you've got me wondering again!

[RLTrader]

Just a quick comment on water heaters. In my bath's the water heater is not in the shower, they are installed in the sink cabinets and supply both the sinks and showers. Same in the inside kitchen. This way a lot harder to have an accident, I think.

[RLTrader]

Well, I am the OP and my new electrician has just finished the work I requested and is out the door. He came with a two man crew and within 3 hrs and 45 minutes he had switched out the 4 way breaker box that was originally installed in my new home for a 12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box. He used 20 meters of 1x1 cable and 5 packs of wire nuts to shore up all the other connections in the attic......

Sounds good.

It is shocking yours being a new house, I was thinking it was oldish. I do have couple of question. Do you have a Ground at the Breaker Box? If not did he check that you had grounds from your 2 Heaters and that they really went to a grounding Rod in the earth?

Why I ask is

12 way breaker box with a safety cut and run 58 meters of 2x2.5 cable from three A/C's and two shower heaters to connect directly with the breaker box

If Ground at the breaker box, I would have opted for 3 wire for both the heaters and ac’s if not Ground at the breaker box, I see why 2 wire.

RLTrader, I haven't a clue about how things are grounded in this house. I live in Baan San Sa-Ran, and Rit, the electrician, assured me that by government regulation this house was wired with an adequate ground and the shower heaters were grounded. I took his word for it since I don't know otherwise. Maybe I'll call him back up and ask him to further convince me. Now you've got me wondering again!

Might have the wife call and ask him. any idea what this was used for

He used 20 meters of 1x1 cable

? and what is it?

[papaguido]

FYI or DIY...

Thailand House Wiring Guide

http://www.crossy.co.uk/wiring/

[trubrit]

This topic is degenerating as I thought it would . That's why I was reluctant to post the guys details. This man did the initial wiring on my house build and has serviced all my aircons and domestic appliances over the last ten years , including an incident when a ginko crawled into the system and short circuited everything .Although I am not an electrician I am not a dummy either and his work has always met my specific criteria. To start going back and asking what about this and that will only reinforce the generally held opinion by Thai workmen not to deal with Farang, we are too much trouble, we're not worth it .Semper said he is happy with the job, leave it at that .This is the last time I. will pass on the benefit of my experience