Monday, July 13, 2009

Frightening Electrical Panels in Indian Modern Homes















Okay, someone in the house wanted to document the mess that we call our electrical panel. Here's the service.

There is no cover, so it is exposed to all the elements, wind-borne dust, monsoon rains, etc. Nothing is labeled so figuring out what appliance or circuit is the problem becomes a mystery. You can't even tell which apartment is the problem.















Circuit Breaker Panel. Notice that the panel did not trip, but burned instead, in the lower right corner. The electricians come to the house and they don't even carry a screwdriver with them, let alone a tester, wire stripper, electrical tape, caps, extra wire (WTF!), etc. What kind of professional doesn''t show up with their tools? I wish I had a photo of the one electrician's drill. He had used leftover wire from previous jobs to plug it in; there had to have been three or four different wires all badly taped togther and NO PLUG! He would just stick the two wire ends into the socket... go figure. When we lived in Kolkata, there used to be a commercial that would run occasionally launching a new product line of wires "Guaranteed Not to Catch Fire". Um... shouldn't that be a given for all indoor wiring products? (WTF again.)















Closeup of the burnt wire.















Current inverter/battery setup that is connected to the grid. These two batteries power a three-family household, sometimes for a full day. Notice the layer of dust everywhere. Delhi is so very dusty,especially at this time of the year. I haven't heard back yet about the hybrid inverter system with the solar panel hookup. I'm hoping that will get sorted out as soon as possible.

BTW, if anyone knows a capable local electrician who can rewire our house to handle the electrical load we would greatly appreciate the phone number.

Cheers, Jeanne

3 comments:

  1. Very good! I think that you have done a great job! FANTASTIC!!!!
    Local Electrician

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  2. I love doing projects myself, and getting that glow of satisfaction because I saved money, and I accomplished something. This summer I was planning on installing a ceiling fan by myself, wires and all! When I saw this post, and saw the amount of money in damages, and the amount of fires started from DIY projects, I decided it wasn't worth the risk. Although I won't get that satisfaction of finishing another project, I'll have the peace of mind knowing the fan was installed correctly. WWICS

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  3. When it comes to Electrician , I’m always using this website: http://starcasa.it
    I hope I helped, have a nice day!

    ReplyDelete