Laos - no earths, no RCDs... advice please

[Schwuppes]

Hi everyone!

I've just recently moved to Laos PDR and was shocked (no pun intended) to find that the whole house has no earth wire (i.e only Live and Neutral) going to all sockets and appliances... to top it all off also no RCD's... its completely ridiculous.
I am not an electrician and have only basic knowledge of electrical stuff. But i believe I am totally unprotected in this scenario...

Now... would it be acceptable to run a seperate earth wire from each appliance say through a drilled hole in the wall to a copper earthing rod into the soil? Kind of like a TT earth but individually for each appliance? I will limit the use of anything thats not double insulated as much as I can... but a few things like the hotplate and instant shower water heater I can't avoid. An electrician actually came today and installed such an earth as I described to the shower instant water heater at least (my landlord's comment was "we normally don't use earths except for the water heaters... lol).

Anyway Id like to ask if there is anything wrong with this... I'm thinking of voltage potentials between the improvised earths and say metal pipes etc. Apart from the fact that the resistance of the copper rods would be too high to trip the MCB (at least they have those here lol)

Which brings me to the second part of my question: if I were to use those portable socket RCDs... would they work? I'm guessing it would be better than nothing, right?

Sorry for long post, thank you

 

[UKMeterman]

I have seen SWER in Canada between Montral and Qubec In the case of the OP it may be an idea to have a decent local earth, cross bond to produce a local eqpotential zone within the property. Check that all circuit breakers are double pole and also have RCD protection.

 

[R-fur]

If you google 'single wire earth return' there are a couple of bits of information about it. A european electrician may struggle as neither the hv or lv systems are used in europe.
Like wise if you google IT earthing system you should find some info.

The pictures show a three phase transformer, not a SWER system.

 

[Schwuppes]

Thanks guys,
I tried to take some photos of a transformer... i couldn't find the one that feeds my direct area... its all just cable spaghetti ontop of poles around my house. But it might give an idea.

It'll probably be difficult to make anything out from the pics but its worth a shot

 

[Kidsolo]

and was shocked (no pun intended) to find that the whole house has no earth wire (i.e only Live and Neutral) going to all sockets and appliances.

the local "electrician" who fitted the earth to the water heater yesterday seemed to say that the whole house was "grounded

Just pick one... it is either earthed or it isn't. If you are only taking a guess at the situation, don't even think about doing any electrical work.... If you are only taking the ---- out of us you are doing a terrible job of it.

Keep us informed

 

[UKMeterman]

Ok, that is a 3 phase transformer, I can't see where the earth-neutral connection is.

 

[Schwuppes]

Just pick one... it is either earthed or it isn't. If you are only taking a guess at the situation, don't even think about doing any electrical work.... If you are only taking the ---- out of us you are doing a terrible job of it.

Keep us informed

Mate, I'm not taking the ----... there was always the one earth rod and a cable going into the wall from outside... but it hasn't been extended extended/distributed to any of the sockets or appliances. So its just sitting there in the brick wall somewhere looking pretty but is completely useless.

So what they guy did yesterday was run a second, seperate earth cable from the water heater ground point, through the wall and into the soil outside.

Yeah I'll keep you informed. Thanks
And no i won't do any electrical work.