Chile Forum

griffin wrote:...If you don't want to rent or buy a drill (and possibly a ladder) and you have concrete ceilings, ...

I thought you were going to offer:

A.) To install it for us (you know for practice or because you love the smell of ground concrete).
or
B.) Lend us your tools and ladder (because you feel sorry for those of us that have no specialized tools).



John

JaX_Chile wrote:I thought you were going to offer:

A.) To install it for us (you know for practice or because you love the smell of ground concrete).
or
B.) Lend us your tools and ladder (because you feel sorry for those of us that have no specialized tools).

I love the smell of ground concrete in the morning....smells like...., well, just dusty really.

Too bad you're too far away from my home (and I'm too far along in my pregnancy) to be offering either!

The prongs are only a different size (polarized) as a matter of safety, not function and having it polarized vs non-polarized is a matter of design safety based on whatever standard you are using, since polarized plugs probably mean that device can be made more inexpensively. There is no real difference in the Hot and Neutral as both carry current back and forth (hence ALTERNATING current). An incandescent light bulb filament doesn't care if it's coming in the "right" or the "left" at that instant, nor does just about any AC device. The risk with having the Hot and Neutral reversed is that on a normal devices, there aren't safety-guards in place to counter a fault (or even basic design), and the design of the device can leave that device to have an exposed surface live, when the device is actually switched off. Some are Double-insulated to help reduce this risk, but the risk is still there. Obviously we are able to touch the neutral because it is coupled with the earth, and hence our body.

So my guess would be that it's fine to connect it to either side because the devices are designed with that fact in mind or that Chilean electrical code simply doesn't view it as a hazard worth caring about!

Actually, in Southern Chile you're most likely to encounter a new 7-phase circuit that shows 850 volts between any hot and ground, and 518 volts between any two hots. BTW, 7-phase to 4-phase rotary phase converters are easily available at SODIMAC.

~~~ Chile Forum Electrician

RuneTheChookcha wrote:Actually, in Southern Chile you're most likely to encounter a new 7-phase circuit that shows 850 volts between any hot and ground, and 518 volts between any two hots. BTW, 7-phase to 4-phase rotary phase converters are easily available at SODIMAC.

~~~ Chile Forum Electrician

Rune... are you smokin' again?

JaX_Chile wrote:
Rune... are you smokin' again?

I think our good friend Rune make be what we call "perma-smoked"

I've not come across this charming habit of removing electrical fixtures but somehow I am not surprised....

On Chilean house wiring,generally the Phase (the "hot" wire with 220 volts on it) is the Red one; the Neutral is White. On lighting circuits, the hot wire should be connected through the light switch to ensure there is no voltage on the circuit when the light switch is off. If there is a ground connection it will be a Green wire.

On a standard 3-pin 10Amp outlet socket, the Ground goes to the center pin, this is the one most important connection that you have to get right!

On a standard lampholder, for safety reasons the Red wire goes to the center pin on the socket; the White one to the outer screw-thread connection.

Before touching any wiring, if you are not completely sure what you are doing, cut the power at the main breaker, drop all the other breakers and make sure nobody can come along and flip them back on while you are actually working on electricity. These things do happen...
Even better, get an Electrician. Quite a lot of people die every year in Chile either directly through electrocution on indirectly in house fires of electrical origin.

I learned the hard way to flip the main house breaker on the meter, rather than trust the breaker in the house. The landlords on house I rented a few years ago wired around the box. I am likly still alive only because I used insulated wire cutters.

RuneTheChookcha wrote:Actually, in Southern Chile you're most likely to encounter a new 7-phase circuit that shows 850 volts between any hot and ground, and 518 volts between any two hots. BTW, 7-phase to 4-phase rotary phase converters are easily available at SODIMAC.

~~~ Chile Forum Electrician

Rune,

I have read this several times now and I realized that maybe you should set your phaseR to stun!

*note: attempt at pun completely intended!

Good post, Fraggle.

admin wrote:I learned the hard way to flip the main house breaker on the meter, rather than trust the breaker in the house. The landlords on house I rented a few years ago wired around the box. I am likly still alive only because I used insulated wire cutters.

220 will hurt, and CAN certainly be fatal, but under normal circumstances like that, it wont. But it will damn sure as hell hurt according to some of my buddies. I've been shocked by 110 enough times to know that double the Volts (and more importantly Amperage) isn't going to be very pleasant!

But as Fraggle said, to everybody out there, don't hesitate to call an actual Electrician if you are not pretty damn proficient. It's just not worth the risk, both at that instant, and because of possible shoddy work down the road. But if you MUST, always use insulated tools, and work gloves....and nitrile gloves, just in case. And watch out for your forearms. ZZZZAAAAP!

Oh, I don't know . . . some cats are pretty bright!