ELECTRICAL SAFETY

Checklist: Overall safety Equipments/Tools How it works Cables / Flex Fuses

Safety
Check all walls for wires and pipes before cutting out for any new cables and boxes. A detector (shown here) can identify cables in the wall. If in any doubt whatever consult a qualified electrician. There is a legal requirement to obtain a completion certificate from a qualified electrician, for any work you do that requires a mains connection. For any work within circuits a minor works certificate should be obtained.

Safety cont.
Turn off the power and remove the fuse from any circuit you are working on. Make sure no-one can turn the power on by mistake. Use only approved materials and tools.

Electrical Hazard!

Equipment / Tool

Plastic socket plates

Plastic switches

Stainless steel sockets

Brass sockets

Insulating tape 2.5mm Twin and earth RCD sockets

Timers

Equipment / Tool

Wire strippers

Electrical screwdrivers

Socket testers

Electricians side cutters

Cable detectors

Junction boxes

Equipment / Tool

1000V Insulated 33 Piece Analogue VDE Screwdriver Bit Pocket Screwdriver Set Set Multimeter 7 Pc

Builder's Goldscrew Trade Case

EuroPlus Basic Marbo 2G 25mm Roughneck Site VDE Assortment Surface Pattress Electricians' Diagonal/Side Storage Boxes Bolster 3"" x 11"" Cutters 150mm (6"")

Equipment / Tool

Armeg Complete Clipsal 13A 1G Clipsal 13A 2G Clipsal Converta Electricians Sw Skt Sw Skt Skt 1G to 2G Installation Kit Polycarbonate Polycarbonate Polycarbonate

Clipsal Converta NWS VDE Side Plano Skt 2G to 3G Cutters 160mm Electricians Polycarbonate (6"") Pouch

VDE Slip Stop Screwdriver Set 7Pc

Equipment / Tool

1000V Insulated 33 Piece Autoranging VDE Screwdriver Bit Digital Screwdriver Set Set Multimeter 7 Pc

Builder's Goldscrew Trade Case

Heavy-Duty Wire Strippers

Roughneck Electricians' Bolster & Guard 3"" x 11""

Site VDE Site VDE Wire Diagonal/Side Strippers Cutters 150mm 150mm (6"") (6"")

How it works
An electrical supply come to your home at a main, sealed fuse called a service head. From there, it will go to your meter via a pair of large black wire. The meter measures how much electricity you use. At no time should you touch either the service head or the meter (offence).

Main Unit

How it works cont.

From main unit, the electricity will go to your consumer unit, from where it is distributed around the house. Each circuit is fused at this box either by an amp rated fuse wire, or a trip switch if you have an RCD (Residual Current Device).

Inside Consumer Unit

DO NOT MESS WITH THIS BOX!

Basic Equations
The amount of electricity available to you is measured in Volts (V), and the rate at which it flows along its conductors is measured in amps (ampere, A). The power required by any appliance is measured in Watts (W). The formula for working out the correct cable and fuse is; Watts divided by Volts equals Amps . P = VI Or, I = P/V And, V =IR So, P = VI = V(V/R) = V2/R Or P = VI = (IR)I = I2R Maximum power that can be served by a socket adapter (multiple slot); P = VI = 240 V x 13 A = 3120 Watts Where I = fuse rating in the adapter

Electrical Circuit
Electricity flows along the live (red) wire, feeding whatever is required and then returns along the neutral wire to the consumer unit (supply). The flow can be stopped by the insertion of a switch, which is placed in the live wire. Switches, most often, will be linked from your ceiling rose through a separate cable, even though one of the wires in this cable is black it is still live. For a switch, 2 wires are ALIVE, i.e red (coming in) and black (going out).

Cables
Fixed wiring is done in cable. This consists of individual conductors (wires) sheathed separately, by insulation to prevent leakage. The wires are then jointly covered by the outer sheath. The wires are colour coded, red for live, black for neutral and green/yellow striped for earth. Modern cables are sheathed with PVC which has an indefinite life, older cables were rubber with about 20/30 years life. If your home has these cables do not attempt electrical extensions with them.

Cables cont.
1.5mm2 is most common in lighting circuits. When installed it must not exceed 110m in length and carries a fuse rating of 5 amps. (6 amps if used in conjunction with a miniature circuit breaker, MCB). It is acceptable to run 1200 Watts on this cable, (equivalent of 12 x 100 Watt bulbs), but lighting circuits are normally run independently on each floor of your house. 2.5mm2 (as above but larger) is usually used for the installation of power sockets on a ring main. The circuit uses a 30 amp fuse at the consumer unit (32 with a MCB). Cable length must not exceed 60m or 50m with an MCB.

Wiring Rules

Flex
Flex, is simply flexible cable and is used for connecting appliances. The colour coding is different using brown for live, blue for neutral and green/yellow stripes for earth. There are many more cables for connecting cookers etc, but these are generally run directly from the consumer unit and require a professional electrician for their installation.

How to choose a Flex?

Fuses
Fuses are placed into a circuit as a deliberate weak point. If anything goes wrong within your circuit, the fuse will "blow" first. With the modern RCD boxes, the trip switch will go. BUT BEFORE YOU PUSH IT BACK ON, LOCATE THE REASON WHY IT TRIPPED. Most of the time it is because the circuit has been overloaded or there is an earth fault. If you are in doubt contact an electrician.

RING MAIN WIRING

In a ring main, a ring of wires are circling your home, carrying the mains electricity to sockets on the way. It gets the power from the consumer consumer unit and delivers it to the sockets. As both ends of the ring are connected to the same terminals at the consumer unit, the current runs in both directions imposing less of a load on the cables.

Ring Main
Electricity loses power over long lengths of cable and trying to put too much power through a cable which is not designed for it, is dangerous, so a ring main delivers power from both ends to keep the load as light as possible. The back of a socket on a ring main looks like this. The other type of circuit used to power your home is a radial circuit. There are not so common and can easily be turned into a ring circuit.

Ring Main cont.

A separate ring main is usually installed on every floor of the house to make sure things are kept safe. A ring main uses 2.5mm2 cable (cross sectional area) comprising of a live, neutral and earth. The floor area a ring main serves is also governed (regulation). The maximum area for a ring main is 100 square meters.

Ring Main cont.

An average house has a footprint of about 64-70 square meters so this allows for the continuation of the ring into a porch or garage etc. The ring main must be protected by a 30 amp fuse if it is on a cartridge fuse board, or a 32 amp MCB fuse. The cable itself can be up to 60 meters long if it is protected by a cartridge fuse and 50 meters long if protected by an MCB.

There is no limit to the number of sockets you can have on a ring main but there is a limit to the number of spurs you can have from those sockets or from the wiring between them. See next section on adding an extra socket. You can also extend the ring main if you need to.

High Power Appliance

Units or appliances which use a lot of power, like cookers and showers must be installed on their own circuits, so please check the appliances you are considering using on your ring main. It is also a regulation that any socket which is capable of being used to supply power outside of the house is protected by an RCD. Most modern consumer units will provide this protection but again it is vital that you get a qualified electrician to check and approve any installation you may consider.

EXTENDING A RING MAIN

Summary: Extending a ring main. Adding sockets to a ring main. Putting more sockets in a room or office. If you need extra sockets in a new room or turn an old room into an office, it may not be possible to add extra sockets from your existing ring main. It is not particularly difficult to extend a ring main but you must remember that certain rules apply about the floor area and length of cable one ring main may serve and use. (refer to Wiring Rules Table)

EXTENDING A RING MAIN cont.

The diagrammes below show how you can break into a ring main with junction boxes to extend it. There is no set limit to the number of sockets on a ring main as long as within the rules mentioned above. Obviously you will not want to have surface cables all over the place; so remember if you place new cables in any floor, roof or ceiling void they must not be covered in insulation which will make them too hot and if they are buried in the wall they must be in a protective conduit and only run vertically from above or below the sockets. Socket and switch plates in plastic, stainless steel and brass.

 The first image shows a simple ring main to and from the consumer unit.

 The image below shows the main extended via 2 new 30 amp junction boxes.

RADIAL CIRCUIT WIRING

A radial circuit is a mains power circuit found in some homes to feed sockets and lighting points. Simply a length of appropriately rated cable feeding one power point then going on to the next. The circuit terminates with the last point on it. It does not return to the consumer unit or fuse box as does the more popular circuit, the ring main.

RADIAL CIRCUIT cont.

The descriptions below apply only to a circuit for power sockets. There is no limit to the number of sockets used on a radial circuit and, just like a ring main, spurs, or extra sockets, can be added. The number of spurs must not exceed the number of existing sockets.

Spur Socket
Very often we find we do not have enough sockets at home. It is not a difficult job to add another but there are certain rules to follow. A spur can be connected to an existing socket, on either a ring main or a radial circuit, providing that socket does not already have a spur. That is only one spur per socket is allowed and the number of spurs must not exceed the number of sockets. If this is necessary in any part of your home, the only way you can do this is by adding another ring main or by extending one of the ring mains you have.

Spur cont.
The spur must be connected to the existing circuit using the same cable as used in the main circuit. A general rule for a ring main is that if you only have two cables in the back of an existing socket then it is ok to spur. If there are 3 cables coming out of any socket then it is NOT OK to spur.

SPUR
The cables to and from any spurs you connect must be protected by a conduit of some kind; be it on the surface or buried in the wall. If you bury cables in the wall they must only run vertically, not horizontally. Cables may be placed in floor or ceiling voids but not wrapped in, insulation where they may become too hot.

 A spur can be added to any part of the circuit providing the rules above are followed. If there is not an existing socket near enough, you can connect into the cable by means of a junction box for your new spur.

TNB Bill
Exercise: A resedential house in Malaysia consumes 500 kWh of electricity in Jan 2009. Calculate the electricity bills for this house if the tariffs are as follows:
First 200 kWh @ RM 0.20/kWh > 100 kWh @ RM 0.25/kWh > 100 kWh @ RM 0.30/kWh