Wiring your Philippine house. Philippine electrical wiring. As part of our project to build our Philippine house, we had to learn about Philippine residential electrical systems. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Above: before pouring a tie beam at the top of the wall above the location for the panel box, the workers place eight pieces of electrical conduit through the form for the beam. This will provide a path from the panel box for the circuits in the ceiling, mainly light fixtures and ceiling fans.
Wiring your Philippine house. Philippine electrical wiring. As part of our project to build our Philippine house, we had to learn about Philippine residential electrical systems. Here’s what we’ve learned. Take the information here as hypothesis, not gospel and feel free to offer comments, suggestions and corrections.
With a few exceptions, the Philippine electrical system is 230 volt 60 cycle, but beyond that fact there are big differences based on where you live. Our comments mostly apply to areas in the Philippines served by rural electrical cooperatives which use a single 230v load wire and a ground wire to your residence. They are not fully applicable to urban areas using two load wires (including Manila and Iloilo City) or to systems around former American military bases. We assume that many cities offer the same type of service. Iloilo City service is from Panay Electric Company (PECO) and is two 115v load wires and a neutral. Using one of the load wires and the neutral will provide 115v.
You may look up at the wires leading from the meter or pole to your house or a neighbors house. If there are three wires you probably have two load (“hot”) wires and a ground. If you have two wires you probably have a single hot wire and a ground wire. Below is a photo of the wires coming into our house from the pole.
The wires on the right are from the pole, one black load wire and one uninsulated ground wire. The black and green wires on the right go into our attic and to our panel box. From the fact that there is only one load wire we can guess that we have a single wire system. If you had seen two black wires and a ground leading from the pole to the house you’re probably dealing with a system using two load wires which when combined provide 230v.
In fact, our property is served by an electrical cooperative, “Ileco 1″. The rural electric cooperatives run a single hot wire to the transformer serving your house. This “single wire earth return system (SWER)” or “multi-ground system” is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_earth_return and http://www.ruralpower.org/ The distribution grid for areas served by electrical cooperatives is very different that that in Philippine cities
The transformer-to-house wire is referred to as “duplex cable”. Our duplex cable is a #6 AWG hot wire which is insulated and is wound with an uninsulated neutral or ground wire. Both are aluminum. We paid about P17 per meter for this cable at Western Lamp in Iloilo City. At the bottom of each electrical pole is a ground rod which is connected to the transformer and to the line serving your house. These provide a ground to your system, but it’s important to have your own separate ground to ensure that your neutral wire is not carrying current. It’s interesting that our entrance cable (weather head to panel box) is #2 AWG copper (as specified by our electrical engineer) while the cable from the pole to the house is much lower capacity #6 AWG aluminum.
Shopping for panel boxes and breakers was a learning experience. Every panel box we have seen is set up for urban-style systems with two load lines. So they have two separate load buses and are set up to use double pole breakers. Some panel boxes we see in the hardware store chains are really poor quality, some with an aluminum bus. We found much better and bigger boxes at electrical supply stores. We bought an excellent twenty circuit panel box with a sturdy copper load buses for about P4,100 at Western Lamp in Iloilo City. This box uses GE style plug in breakers. While these plug in breakers work fine, if I had it to do over again, I’d use the sturdier bolt-in breakers.
So, our system will has three wires to each outlet; a load wire, a neutral wire and a ground. Since the panel box only came with a load bus, we added neutral and ground busses. We were able to buy very nice brass neutral and ground busses to add to the panel box. The maximum main breaker of our panel box is 100 amps. This is equivalent to a 200 amp box in the U.S. Remember that a twenty amp breaker has a capacity of 2,300 watts on a 115v circuit and 4,600 watts on a 230v system.
Panel box and genset transfer switch
This photo shows the panel box and (on the right) the double pole, double throw switch which switches between utility company power and our future generator power. Looking inside the panel box, the main (load/hot) bus and breakers is in the middle, the ground bus is on the right and the neutral bus on the left.
Added bus bar for ground wires
100 amp DPDT generator switch
There is some confusion over the right type of breaker to use in “single wire” areas served by electric cooperatives. My opinion is that only single pole breakers should be used, that only the load circuit should be controlled by a breaker, but that the neutral/ground circuit should never be broken by a breaker. The Philippine electrical code clearly states that the grounded line of a circuit should never be broken or fused. However, our experience is that most breakers sold and installed in our area are linked double pole breakers in which both the load and the neutral are tripped simultaneously. This is probably because most people live in urban areas where have two load lines which when combined provide 230v, so a two pole breaker is needed. These linked double pole breakers don’t really make much sense on single wire systems and may be a safety hazard if the breaker allows the neutral to be tripped and the load to stay hot. GE plug-in breakers are mechanically linked but electrically separate. Remove the link and you have two independent single-pole breakers. Koten and Royu breakers have a easily removable mechanical link. I don’t know why this is so because if you remove the link the breakers are still electrically connected internally, so if you’re using them as single pole breakers, both circuits will trip when one has a problem. We found that out when an underground short tripped our outdoor lights circuit. Our bedroom lights which are on a different circuit also went out. At first this was a mystery until we read the fine print about the Koten breakers being internally linked. This is not true with the GE breaker, so they are a better bet for this particular application.
Copper jumper connecting panel box busses
Because single pole breakers are not available in Iloilo, as noted above, we treated each side of a double pole breaker as a single pole breaker. The neutral wires will not be connected to the breakers. They are directly connected to an unswitched, grounded neutral bus. Our box accommodates twenty double pole breakers, meaning that it can accommodate a total of forty single pole circuits, far more than we will ever have. We converted our double pole panel box to single pole by connecting the two load busses with a copper link.
UPDATE: We ended up having fourteen circuits in our house, meaning that we really overdid it in buying our panel box. We ended up with 24 unused slots! Live and learn. If we had used double pole breakers we still would have had four spares.
If you have single wire service and single pole panel boxes and breakers are available in your area, just use those and things will be cheaper and simpler.
#2 AWG main cables
To run the main feed into the attic we used 3/4″ galvanized pipe. (We have been advised that a larger diameter electrial conduit should be used.) The #2 AWG cables are adequate to handle a 100 amp load according to the electrical code. In the Philippines, metric sizing is replacing the AWG (American Wire Gauge) system. Our #2 AWG cable is designated as 30mm sq. under the metric system. This cable is expensive. Undersized cable is often used. Our electricians were astounded that we were using such heavy cable. Our load and neutral wiring is all 12 AWG. Ground wires are 14 AWG. Working with 12 AWG wire is a little tricky as switches and outlets can be a bit crowded. They really seem designed for 14 AWG. We discovered that our electricians would sometimes cut off strands from the 12 AWG wires so they would fit more easily into switch terminals. Since we did all the outlet wiring we know these were done correctly. We used a mix of Panasonic and Royu outlets. The Panasonic outlets are much better and much more expensive. Our switches are Panasonic and Anam. Anam is a mid-priced Korean brand which seems to be of good quality.
UPDATE: We used stranded wire. I think it was my foreman who recommended the stranded wire. If you are going to use stranded wire you have to be sure to buy switches and outlets designed for stranded wire. Stranded wire has a larger diameter than solid wire and therefore will not fit into many outlets and switches. Fortunately, the widely available and excellent Panasonic Wide Series switches and outlets are designated for and work well with stranded wire. Unfortunately, we only found this out after buying some Anam switches and outlets for 1.6mm solid wire. Live and learn! The Meiji EL grounded outlet works very well with stranded wire and is a good buy at P129.75.
Another matter to consider. We used 3.5mm (12AWG) wire. This may be overkill. The capacity of the 12AWG wire is at least 20 amps. Practically all the outlets are rated at 16 amps. We had a hard short circuit. The 20 amp breaker never tripped. Instead, the Royu 16 amp outlet quite spectacularly burned up. No harm was done, except to the outlet. The safety of our system would be improved by using breakers with less capacity 15 amps or less to be consistent with the rating of other elements of the system. 14 AWG wire is rated at 15 amps. If we are to to use 15 amp breakers then shouldn’t we have used the much cheaper and easier to work with 14 AWG stranded wire? Any electricians out there are very welcome to comment.
Weather head installed and connected
Most Philippine houses are not wired with three prong grounded outlets. There is only a load wire and a neutral wire. The quality of grounding of the neutral wire is uncertain. If you’ve spent any time in the Philippines, you’ve probably been repeatedly shocked by your computer, refrigerator and so forth. The metal parts of these either have no ground and when you touch them with bare feet on a tile, you become the ground. Fortunately, grounded outlets are readily available and that’s what we used. We ran a separate ground wire to each outlet running to the ground bus in the panel box and will be tied to both the neutral bus and to a separate grounding rod.
Rather than using a grounding rod pounded into the soil, we attached a copper clamp to the rebar in one of the house’s main columns. This rebar leads about 1.5 meters underground to a mass of rebar in the base of the footer. A heavy copper cable runs from the clamp to the panel box. Rebar grounding is permitted by both the PEC and NEC. See comments below why some feel rebar does not make a good system ground. See this link for an excellent discussion of grounding.
In the Philippines, the load and neutral wires are generally run from outlet to panel box in plastic conduit. When embedded in the floor or block walls, the conduit is 25mm rigid plastic. In the space above the ceiling, the wires generally run in flexible plastic conduit. The Philippine system of running conduit can be pretty horrifying when you first see it. Basically, the house, above the floor level, is built without much regard to electrical or plumbing runs. Then, when it comes time to run wires, channels are hacked into the hollow block to accommodate the electrical conduit. The house can look pretty massacred before the thick finishing coat covers all construction sins. We plan to tried to neatly cut the conduit channels into the hollow block using a diamond masonry blade in a 4″ angle grinder. The end result will be the same but we’ll just feel better with the neatness. Ideally conduit runs should be anticipated and conduit should be cast into beams so that the beams do not have to be cut later to accommodate the conduit running to the lighting and ceiling fans above the beams.
Generally, conduit for outlets is run in or under the floor before the floor is poured. On the other hand, conduit serving switches is run upwards through those channels in the hollow block, through the various beams (hopefully in conduit cast into the beams) into the “attic” area above the suspended ceiling where connections to lighting fixtures and ceiling fans are made.
Above. Utility boxes which will contain switches are half buried in the hollow block wall. The walls will be plastered with a smooth 1/2″ to 1″coat of finishing cement which is then painted and forms the final finish for both interior and exterior walls.
We have various circuits running outside the house; weatherproof outlets on the porch, circuits to the bahay kubo, circuits to lights on the perimeter fence posts, circuits for security lighting, circuits for porch lights, circuits for the carport, circuits for outdoor split air conditioning compressors and so forth. All of these must be anticipated and conduit leading outside installed before the house floor is poured.
Conduit converge on panel box. All will be buried in concrete floor.
These electrical conduit were buried in the concrete floor. The genius of this system is that wires can be replaced (if necessary) by pulling them through the conduit embedded in the floors. For this to work there can be no shortcuts. The wide arc elbows must be used. There are no electrical conduit tees. The blue water system fittings can be used with the electrical conduit but such use may well defeat the ability to pull new wires as the bends are too sharp to pull through.
Attic wiring
This view shows how wiring is installed in the attic or ceiling area. This wiring feeds ceiling light fixtures, ceiling fans and some outdoor lighting. Wiring is in flexible plastic conduit. The silver protrusions are the tops of recessed lighting. Except for table lamps, all lighting is recessed “pin” or “can” lights, no ceiling fixtures or chandeliers.
Rebar grounding clamp in attic.
This photo shows the top of 12mm reinforcement bar in the attic. The rebar extends down six meters into the column footer and is connected to virtually all other rebar in the house. The wire is #8 AWG and leads to the ground bus in the panel box. There is another grounding clamp in the footer itself and it is also connected to the ground bus in the panel box with #4 AWG wire.
Outdoor lighting switch panel
This panel of switches controls all outdoor lighting; front and rear gate lights, lights at each corner of the house, and sodium vapor lights in the garage (three way) and yard.
Firefly 150 watt sodium vapor fixture in garage
250 watt security light lights our backyard
We did most of the wiring ourselves. We like that for a number of reasons. We were able to adjust the electrical system as the house progressed, trying to make sure that everything was in the right place, that nothing important was missing. We know that no corners were cut and that good materials were used. We are intimately familiar with the details of our wiring so if anything goes wrong or needs to be added, we’ll know how to do it. Of course it’s also a great learning experience. Bob had some experience with wiring in the U.S. but materials and techniques are very different in the Philippines. Now Philippine electrical systems are not a mystery. Of course we saved money too, although much of the savings (as with many facets of our house project) the savings were ploughed back into the house by using top quality materials were used.
Appendix:
Here’s an informative essay on Philippine electrical systems reprinted by permission of its author Harry Morgan. It appears in the excellent Living in the Philippines forum at: http://livinginthephilippines.com/forum/index.php Look under in the “building in the Philippines” classification under “it’s your money”. We have not come to exactly the same conclusions as Mr. Morgan in every detail, but his is the best writing we have seem on Philippine electrical systems.
Harry Morgan <harry80020@yahoo.com> wrote:
Personally I enjoy the arguements about the electric service in the Philippines. I’ve been an electrician for 30+ years in the USA and I totally rewired my father-in-law’s house in Sibonga, Cebu. I will try to address some of the issues about the electric service you will find in most of the Philippines, although I understand there are small areas of American style systems arround the old US military bases.
“IDEALLY”, here is what you “should” have in the majority of the Philippines: A transformer on a pole somewhere near your house, it will be serving several houses in the neighborhood. It will have 2 lugs on the secondary with 220 volts between them. There will be 1 wire from each lug going to each house. One and only one of the lugs “should” also have a second bare copper wire connected to it with the other wire and this bare wire will run down the pole to a ground rod at the base of the pole. The 2 large wires running to each house (service drop) will have the hot wire insulated and the other (neutral) may be bare or insulated. After passing through the electric meter these wires go to your fuse or breaker box. The hot wire will connect to the supply buss where the fuses or breakers are. The neutral wire will connect to the neutral buss which is directly mounted to the metal box. There SHOULD also be a bare wire gioing from the neutral buss to a copper ground rod at each house. From the fuse or breaker box there will be one black 220 volt hot wire from the fuse or breaker and one white neutral wire from the neutral buss for each circuit. This is what you should have in the majority of the simple Philippine 2 wire systems, please take note of the above IDEALLY’s and SHOULD’s.
The Philippine system is a GROUNDED system because the neutral wire is/SHOULD be connected to a ground rod at the pole where the transformer is and a ground rod and/or cold water pipe at each house. This keeps the transformer secondary from floating: the neutral wire at zero volts and the hot wire about 220 volts, depending on the service company’s supply voltage. The neutral wire will be at zero volts because it is connected to ground. If you have anything other than zero volts, you have a loose, dirty, or missing connection to the ground rod; or you are using your volt meter incorrectly (which is not unusual). The neutral wire is also called the “GROUNDED” wire and it should have white insulation throughout the house.
AS for the 3rd green or bare wire, which is missing most of the time in the Philippines, It is called the “GROUNDING” wire. It is connected to the neutral wire in the fuse/breaker box either in the same neutral buss mounted to the metal box or a seperate GROUNDING buss, but they should be connected together and only in the fuse/breaker box, this is the one and only time they should ever be connected together. Throughout the house this GROUNDING wire should connect to the 3rd round prong of each recepticle, all metal electric switch/ recepticle boxes, green hex head GROUNDING screws, and eventually all metal fromes of all electric appliances. This keeps the metal parts of the electric system and appliances at zero volts. The same Zero volts your human body is, so no shocks.
Throughout the house the white GROUNDED wire is at zero volts and is a current carrying part of each circuit. The green or bare GROUNDING wire is also at zero volts, is not part of the circuit, and does not carry current (except in a fault). It’s purpose is to keep all metal parts of the system and metal parts of the appliances at zero volts, and to trip the breaker or blow the fuse and shut the circuit down in the case of a fault.
As for fuses or breakers, there should be one, and only one, in each circuit and it should be in the hot wire. There should NEVER be a fuse or breaker in the neutral white GROUNDED wire, usually you will find this mistake in the old 2 fuse boxes. I have seen a fuse in the neutral a lot in the Philippines and some old installations in the US. If you find a fuse in the neutral GROUNDED wire, please remove it and connect the neutral GROUNDED wire direct. If you disagree with me and that fuse in the neutral ever blows, you may then understand why.
There is no magic electrical trick you can do to get 110 volts from the usual Philippine style 220 volt electric system. The ONLY way is to buy a 220 to 110 volt transformer.
Yes you can ship an American style breaker box to the Philippines and it will work fine, if you know what to do. The 2 hot busses will have to be connected together and tied to the one hot 220 volt wire in the Philippines. Yes, standard American single pole 110 volt breakers will work just fine on Philippine 220 volt systems, they are good to 300 volts. You will only need single pole breakers, NO/NONE/NEVER any 2 pole breakers. Also the same breaker on 220 volts will carry twice the power it carries on 110 volts. A 15 amp breaker carries only 1650 watts on 110 volts, but a whopping 3300 watts on 220 volts. So you will likely want/need the smallest breakers you can find.
I have no idea if an American style 110 volt ground fault or arc fault breakers will work on the Philippine system, I imagine you would blow the test button when you try to test them. I contacted the American manufacturer with this question, but they wouldn’t answer. I imagine because of legal issues. You will have no use for the Americam style 2 pole GFCI’s for you hot tub heater, I imagine no use for a hot tub either.
Now for the American style 110/220 volt system you might find arround the old US military bases: The transformer on the pole will have 3 lugs for the secondary. The middle lug is the “center tap” and will be connected to the ground rod that should be at the bottom of the pole and at the ground rod that should be at each house. The second wire connected to this lug and running to each house may be called GROUNDED, neutral, or common. The other 2 lugs are the hot wires. Each hot wire will be 110 volts to the neutral/common/GROUNDED wire. And there will be also be 220 volts between the 2 hot wires if you leave the 3rd neutral/common/GROUNDED wire out of the circuit. The American style system is a single phase system even though there are 2 hot wires. One hot wire will be at +110 volts at exactly the same time the other hot wire is at -110 volts, thus they are in the same phase.
If there are any budding electrical engineers out there, please no arguements about American style 208 volt systems, I already know they use 2 phases from a three phase system. If you do have a 3 phase system for the secondary in your area of the Philippines, I think you will find it to be a 380 volt 3 phase “Y” tied secondary. Thus any phase to ground will be 220 volts. Besides, I thought engineers were supposed to drive trains?
If I can be of help or if anyone wants to argue (I enjoy both), you may contact me on or of the list.
Best always,
Harry Morgan
harry80020@yahoo.com
January 27, 2013 at 11:36 pm
Hi again Bob,
Thanks so much for aswering my questions. Bob I plan on having some of the nice things we use in the US like a electric stove top, ceiling fans, hot water heater, small A/C, etc.
Do you suggest that I get a 200 Amp service panal. I don’t mind spending the money for a top notch panal. Or should I just let the Filipino electrican make his suggestion.
I’ve lived in the PI going on 10 years and leaving the important things up to some folks here can result in a very disappointing outcome, if you know what I mean. Short cuts are a way of life here at times.
thank you again
Tim
January 27, 2013 at 1:12 am
Howdy Bob,
Great job with a lot of superb input. I’m about to start the electric grid in my home in Porac. I’m very apprehensive about the electric wiring and the quality of the electrians.
I wondering if it would make sense to buy my main service panal and breakers in the US and send them to the PI. It appears I have a Phase 1 power line just as you.
Any suggestions would be a real help.
thanks
Tim
January 27, 2013 at 8:30 pm
Tim,
I would not bother to try to bring a panel box or breakers. Just buy them here but in an electrical supply firm in the nearest large city to have a decent selection.
Bob
January 19, 2013 at 7:08 pm
Hi Bob,
Can u give sites or even your own blog or page relating to newest residential electrical wiring because its my topic, i have my research now, so i hope u can help me. about wirings and computing of loads. thanks bob.
alvin.
January 20, 2013 at 12:01 pm
You can buy books on electrical wiring at National Bookstore or better get a copy of the Philippine Electrical Code. This is from a comment posted on the blog.
Bob,
Below is the IIEE web address and contact numbers. You may call them up about the purchase then they will tell how much including shipping and ask you to deposit it with their bank account (BDO). You have to scan the receipt and email it to them for confirmation of the purchase. The item/s will be shipped on the same day thru LBC if scanned receipt is received before 2PM. You will receive the item/s the next day or the day after depending on your location.
http://www.iiee.org.ph/home/index.php/home/contact-us
I hope this one may help you get a copy of the code.
Happy New Year!
Jahn
January 8, 2013 at 3:56 am
I have written over 50 books on electrical and after readers various comments I would like to say: Grounding to concrete encased rebar is the BEST ground and the worst is a ground rod!
As far as connecting wires, the Code states in 110.3(B) all electrical equipment shall be installed as LISTED! The proper electrical connection requires an inch-pound torque. The label in the load center will state the correct inch-pounds for the wire size. All circuit breakers in the U.S. have the required inch-pound of torque molded into the circuit breaker case. How many of your so called electricians even have a torque screwdriver? In you reply ask them.
I work as an electrical expert in personal injury and death cases, and when the lawyer asks you if you torqued the connections you had better hope you did! Please understand the Philippine Code and the NFPA 70 contain the same rules and Code rules are the MINIMUM requirement and a jury doesn’t want to hear you didn’t even follow the MINIMUM! Read 110.3(B) before you connect another electrical conductor. And by way the way in section 110 the Code considers concrete to be a GROUNDED material, you can inform your reader.
Tom Henry
56 years in the electrical industry and many visits to the Philippines
National Bookstore sold my books
January 8, 2013 at 11:13 am
Tom,
Thanks for your comments and for your backup on using rebar for grounding. There are lots of folks out there who feel that the only acceptable ground in a grounding rod or pipe.
I have never seen an electrician with a torque screwdriver but the idea makes sense to me. Under-tighten and have bad connection, over-tighten and break something.
Bob
January 6, 2013 at 4:56 am
can u give me advice , im thinking bringing electrical panel ,wiring ,outlet to Philippines what panel do i need to send , size of wiring or u need a stepdown transformer……thank you…..
January 6, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Emman,
It’s difficult to advise you because there are so many variables; size of house, type of electrical supply (varies by region), loads (for example, how much air conditioning) etc. Just wait until you get here and hire a qualified electrical engineer to help to design your system. You can buy everything locally.
Bob
January 7, 2013 at 12:42 am
Hi, you need to consider first the wiring arrangements, or the incoming mains supply. Most likely in the phils. TT system ( earthing from ground) and the design of the installation design current in every circuit ex: size of cable and the breaker that can take the load +disconnection times of the breaker+ size of the earthing conductor. And Ze + ze and r1+r2 . The panel distribution board or ccu comes with different breaker( rcbo,rccb mcb etc. it’s very technical this stuff and a lot of calculation and testing involved.
Step down transformer it depends what sort of appliances you using.
If somebody out there want some advise re: wiring in the phils. Here’s my email adds: charly2kph@yahoo.com I’m based here in uk, I can help you guys.
My parents house used solar and mains supply,hot water from solar thermal. I designed and installed all of it and it’s working with perfection. I used all megger instruments for testing and inspection.
Talking about electricity supply in the Philippines? Well it’s not reliable and unstable lots of surge and low voltage/amps.
October 10, 2012 at 12:59 am
Hi Bob,
what a wonderful job u did building your own house. May i ask if you have any idea on the steps and procedure of testing the insulation and ground for our electrical wiring. Is that what they call Megger Test? your inputs will be of big help to properly check the wirrings done by our electrical contractor. Many thanks!
Danny
October 10, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Danny
Thanks for the kind comments. Our electrical engineer said that he would come to check the grounding with some tool, perhaps a Megger instrument, but it never happened. It would be a good idea, so maybe we will have to hire him to do the tests. Hope this helps a little.
Bob
December 9, 2012 at 6:40 am
as common practice in philippines we donot conduct grounding test, and perhaps only few knows how to use megger, i suggest that we need to installed separate grounding rod and conduct proper grounding test. hope this will help. thank you
December 19, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Thanks for the suggestion. I do believe our electrical engineer has Megger testing gear. Perhaps we’ll have him come and do a test — now when it’s so dry.
Bob and Carol
September 19, 2012 at 10:01 am
Hello, may I know the size / amperage of your main breaker? And how long (in meters / feet) does your main wire run from main breaker inside the house to the breaker outside of the house / meralco meter? Ours is 25 meters and I am not sure if it was a good workmanship. I read somewhere that the length of the wire also dictates the kind of wire to use. We used 30mm (#2) stranded wire (phleps dodge brand).
September 19, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Emi,
Our breaker is 100 ampere. The original electrical plan called for a 200 amp panel to support aircon throughout the house and electric hot water heaters. Since we were not going to have extensive aircon or any electric hot water heaters, we were able to change to 100amp. The cable from the panel box to the weather head outside is #2 AWG stranded copper, just like yours. Our run must be less than 20 meters. The meter is on a pole fairly far from the house. From the weather head to the meter we used #6 AWG duplex aluminum cable. It probably should have been heavier but the run is entirely outside the house in the open air. It’s the standard in our area for this use. The #2 AWG was almost certainly overkill. We use about 400 KW per month or about 550 Watts per hour on average.
Hope this helps,
Bob and Carol
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September 5, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Hi,
When you did the wiring for the house did you run the wiring from socket to socket thereby not using any “spurs” or did you run a ring with a spur off for each socket?
I’ve lived in houses in the UK that have had both systems and can see the advantages of both. What do the Philippine regs state? Our builders are being a bit vague on the matter!
I’m also having problems convincing my fiancee that we need more than 1 CB for the whole house (which is what she has). The mantra is “It’s cheaper to just have one”.
TIA
Edward
September 5, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Hi Edward,
Our wiring is socket to socket. I’m not sure what the electrical code says but our plans were done by an electrical engineer.
You can see a page of the electrical plan at http://sdrv.ms/YgbhOf and http://sdrv.ms/Ygbnpd
We ended up with 18 breakers in our panel box.
Bob
September 3, 2012 at 1:37 am
Just a comment regarding the use of 2-pole circuit breakers. It is perfectly OK to use these on a 220V AC single phase system. If a RCD is used these should be 2 pole. Also though not applicable for residential houses, it is mandatory to break both the phase and neutral of power suppies into harardous areas. In all cases the phase and neutral of the 2 pole circuit breaker must be mechanically linked. Under no circumstances should a fuse be placed in the neutral or an independent circuit breaker.
June 28, 2012 at 7:12 pm
Very poor workmanship… I hope everything works and that someday you don’t have a fire… Panelboard is a mess… Should have used proper knock-outs with proper electrical fittings… They could have found a decent transfer switch than that… Conduits and other rough-ins should have been placed before concrete pour, eliminating chases… EMT is cheaper now, so rough-ins in the attic plenum space should have been EMT… Being a Filipino-American electrician, I am greatly dissapointed by this type of workmanship… Electrical work needs to always be world-class… You don’t have to spend a lot of money to buy the proper materials and to have excellent workmanship… As an electrician, I take pride in my work and no amount of money can buy that pride… Next time, chose a good contractor that has pride in their work, not just somebody who wants a contract…
July 3, 2012 at 9:05 am
Enrique,
I have to say that no contractor or electrician is responsible for the wiring. As an American retiree, I did most of it myself. I often see Americans complaining about how things are done in the Philippines. “That’s not how we do it in America!” For a little defense: I have never seen EMT used in Philippine residential construction. All of the rigid plastic conduit is embedded in concrete. I don’t see how embedding metal conduit would be better, especially in the floors where the metal would be subject to corrosion. Perhaps things have changed in the USA, but I recall most residential wiring being 12-3 Romex cable stapled to studs. In our New York house the mice loved chewing on the Romex cable insulation. The Philippine system of plastic conduit embedded in concrete seems better to me.
The 100 amp transfer switch was Japanese-made, the best that I could find. It cost more than $70 for the single switch and seems very well made. If you think the quality is poor, you should see what is normally used here. I do agree that the flexible conduit used in the attic seems pretty flimsy and that EMT or rigid plastic would be great there. However, the flexible plastic is the norm in Philippine residential construction.
While your criticism of the panel box wiring is not very specific, it is a bit eccentric. Did you read the article on single wire earth return (SWER) electrical system we have here? See http://myphilippinelife.com/wiring-in-a-240v-backup-generator-in-a-swer-area/ It might help you to understand why some things were done the way they were done.
Anyway, comments and discussion are always welcome.
Bob
August 23, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Pvc conduit pipes are better than metal or gi pipes. As you mentioned, pipes are subject to corrosion. Even our water pipes are made of Pvc nowadays. I had big problems with metal pipes in our old houses. It’s very difficult to replace corroded pipes
June 15, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Hi Bob,
Doing my electrics now and you are right about Panasonic sockets, they are much better than the Royu. Would have preferred the international sockets for flat and round connectors but the ones I saw had no protective spring covers inside which left gaping holes where the bare terminals could be seen. Have decided to use the ordinary slot type by Panasonic. The latter are also the only brand I found to have screw type terminals. The other brands are the spring type which are pushed back by a narrow blade and then they come back and trap the wire inside. This is fine for lamp sockets but Power sockets at 10 amps …..doubt that, would prefer a screw that can tighten into stranded cable to make more electrical surface contact.
Some very nice distributor/fuse boxes available now instead of the dull grey jobs that you hide under the stairs. These are attractive plastic fronts with rows of trips under a clear cover; they don’t look untowards on the wall by the kitchen door. I was disappointed to find the lowest trip to be 16 amps. In the UK a lighting socket will have a 6amp line and we have trips to suit. My architect has put 8 lights on a 16 amp trip …imagine a load of maybe 800 watts at the most, drawing less than 4 amps protected by 16 amp fuse yuk yuk. At first the plans specified 3.5 mm all round and I wanted a smaller cable for the lights but the 2mm suggested by my electrician will only carry about 9 amps, even covered by insulation and in a pipe at 30 odd degrees! I can see the benefit of using 3.5 mm on the light circuits since if there is a problem we can get the surge of shorting current to the 16 amp trip asap. The 3.5 mm wire fits perfectly into the Panasonic sockets. Panasonic also do a double socket linked together needing only 2 connections and it also has the 3 pin type for the ground connection. (285 pesos, 2 times the Royu ones)
My plans also have too many trips to cover what I think is a very low load and I have put all the lights under one 16 amp trip and also the power sockets under another 16 amp trip. Electricity is expensive in the Philippines and no one user’s high wattage appliances save a iron at less than a kilo watt.
My electrician arrived this morning to “layout” the Meltex piping into to rebar grid of the first floor slab before the pour, apparently in the PI it’s the norm. I sent him home because I prefer to put a 17 inch ½ pipe into each beam to string the cable through and lay the wire onto the ceiling. My foremen will put a ¾ piece of marine ply in the centre of the room suspended by 10mm rebar from the first floor to hold the room lights, so we can also use it to support the junction boxes…….or Johnson boxes as my man says hohoho.
Ground or Earth rod will go down the side of our septic tank to the damp parts that will never dry out even in the summer season. I can feed it alongside the plastic sewer pipe to the building distributor boxes..
Some difference in the quality of “back” boxes and “junction” boxes, ended up with “omni” at 20 pesos from Ace hardware, 5 pesos more than el cheapo but worth it.
Said to my foreman…water goes up and electric comes down. These local chaps love to hide services under concrete whilst we are used to having them exposed and more accessible.
take care..Peter
ps we are having our light switches horizontal with “down” for “on”
June 17, 2012 at 10:27 am
Thanks for your excellent report. When I do my list of things I’d do differently, using all Panasonic outlets and switches will be on it. Great stuff. Also I’d use all 15a GE breakers.
One engineer commented that the spring type terminals are better. Over time the wire flows or flattens. With screws the connection can then loosen, but the spring connectors maintain firm contact. But, I agree that the screw terminals FEEL more secure.
Bob and Carol
October 2, 2012 at 5:07 pm
Hi Peter, Im also from the UK. I’v been told that there is no neutral wire here, just two 110v live wires to give 220v.That’s why all the breakers are two pole. I’m near Manila and my supply is two wires. I’m not an electrician, but friends back home said it’s impossible not to have a neutral. The supply wires into the house are huge! They look like 10 or 12mm. I think the tails back home are 6mm. Also, I have a nice new modern looking plastic consumer unit, But they put a massive metal box beside it. For what they call the isolation switch. I believe its something like 160a. How come back home we can use an 80a main switch inside the consumer unit?
February 19, 2013 at 11:30 pm
Im also from the UK. Im living in Metro Manila, and I’m told that our supply is 220v, b ut thats two live 110v wires, and no neutral. When I told electricians back home, they said its impossible, you have to have a neutral, or “return” to make the circuit. All my breakers are double pole. What I cant understand is the need for such a big ugly, separate main switch. 160a. Back home the main switch fits neatly in the consumer unit!
February 21, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Not sure why you have the switch. Ours is in the panel box, just like the other breakers. Our panel box is rated for 100a and we have a 100a main breaker. Is the big switch serving a generator?
June 9, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Hi may i ask if how can i convert the line to line into line to ground setting? A friend told me that line to line has 110v per line thus making it line to ground wel give me only 110 volts? Or should i look for the positive terminal on line to line if ther is any? Need your help guys thank you.
Lance
May 5, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Hi Bob,
Congratulations on your new home!!
Would like to ask as to why do you have non – insulated wire on your service drop? It should also be insulated if you’ll be using 240V.
I was amazed with what Harry wrote. Here in Subic, which is a former US Naval Base, 208V system and 3-wire single phase 120/240V system are very common. That is why I asked the question above. Or am I not used to the usual Philippine standard?? We do also have 277/480V system for manufacturers and the like.
Anyway, reading the comments above was very insightful. Now I learned that using 3.5mm2 wires for a few lights and outlets is an overkill. I just thought that replacing burnt outlets or switches is a lot easier than replacing burnt electrical wiring. That’s why I always used 3.5mm2 wires even the possible connected loads are small.
Cheers!!
May 6, 2012 at 11:39 am
Our service drop only has one “hot” lead. It’s insulated. The other lead is an uninsulated ground.
Our electrical engineer specified 3.5mm for all circuits with outlets, except in the kitchen where he specified 5mm. It’s the same in the USA where 12AWG wire is used with 20 amp breakers, 14AWG with 15 amp breakers and 10AWG with 30 amp breakers.
Using 3.5mm wire allows more outlets per circuit.
I’m just an amateur who does not understand the logic of using 16amp outlets and switches on 20 or 30 amp circuits. Maybe an engineer can enlighten me! I’m guess that protecting the wire is the main objective. so if you blow up a 16amp outlet because the 20 amp breaker would not trip to protect it is acceptable.
In the meantime using 15amp breakers on 3.5mm circuits seems the safest bet.
Bob
June 8, 2012 at 11:38 am
the size of your circuit breaker and the size of your wires must be depend upon the computation of the load…for all branch circuits wires, consider and 80 percent current carrying capacity…say for example a 20 amp branch circuit can only carry 16 amp as required by the National Electrical Code.the no. 12 AWG has an ampacity of 20 amp, so based on the load computation the current connected for this circuit must not exceed 16 amp considering an 80 percent safety factor.in addition for safety wiring, do not use a circuit breaker that has a rating larger than the rating of the branch circuit..it must be equal…
April 2, 2012 at 9:42 am
bob,
youre not mentioning about the use of RCBO or RCCB in your house wiring, is it not necessary? or no need for that.? tnx
April 2, 2012 at 10:59 am
No, we do not have any RCBO/RCCB (GFI in the USA). Perhaps we should. However, I do wonder if they would work properly with our single wire earth return system. I get the feeling that the amount of problems with this SWER system would be a challenge to any sensitive GFI. We’ll have to buy one, give it a try and report back.
March 22, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Bob, I am repairing our ocean front home in a barrio in Calbayog City, Samar. My main concern is the type of roof to use considering the location and suppliers.
Your advice would be much appreciated. Thanks
March 25, 2012 at 5:59 am
Sorry, I can’t be of much help as I know nothing about suppliers in Samar. Since you’ll have increased corrosion at your waterfront location, be sure to get heavy gauge roofing material, especially for the gutters. .6mm is what we used. It will definitely cost more but is worth it. You could also check out non metal roofing such as Onduline. See http://www.onduline.com/ph/
January 23, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Hi, I have a second home in Pampanga, I shipped in a GE 20 Circuit Panel Box with all GE Style breakers installed and converted my second home there to US NEMA standards I also shipped in all wires and conduit pipe because I did not trust any of their low standard and poor quality electrical items. I also seen the snickering by the so-called electricians there but when I was done they simply dropped their collective jaws in awe and I had a line of electrician wannabes lining my driveway. I wanted a 120/240v Delta power because of my imported US appliances from the skinny toothpick pole so I found a used pole transformer here on Guam for cheap and had the local power company in the PI install it and at first they had reservations and said so but I simply said I am donating it to their company and they couldn’t climb the pole fast enough. I have seen through my years here on Guam a certain amount of Filipinos shipping all sorts of electrical items via Forex shipping for a very reasonable price and I looked into it and I saved a lot of $$$ sending all my electrical appliances and TV’s from the local K-Mart and Home Depot as compared to the prices in the malls in the PI.
December 12, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Hi Bob,
I have a suggestion regarding the breaker, the wire and the rated amperes of the outlet that you are using. First of all, as we all alectricians knows the purpose of the breaker is to protect the wire and trip before it burns out in case of electrical short circuit. And as we all know that the common rating of the outlet available in most hardware and construction supply here in the philippines is 15 amperes only. To prevent electrical short circuit and electrical overload., 1.) You have to know the rated resistance of the insulation of the wire that you are using for. 2.) Choose a right circuit breaker and its ampertrip for the protection of the wire. 3.) Do not exceed the rated capacity of your outlet. Use THHN type of wire if you want a higher insulation resistance instead of ordinary TW type. Hope that this basic info will help you guys….God Bless And More Power.
December 13, 2011 at 9:53 am
Braveheart,
Thanks for these excellent suggestions. As noted elsewhere, I used all stranded 3.5mm (12AWG) THHN — except for ground wires which are 2.0mm (14AWG). So my wiring is up to capacity for 20 amp breakers but, as you point out, my outlets and switches are rated at 15 amp. I did have a situation (mentioned earlier) where a short blew up an outlet but never blew the 20 amp breaker. I should have use 15 amp breakers for outlets and fixtures. That raises the question of why I used 3.5mm wiring at all? It was just habit from the 115v circuits in the U.S. I should have used 2.0mm wiring
This was overkill. I could have used 2.0mm wiring for outlets with 15 amp breakers. Wiring would have been easier. 3.5mm can be hard to work with. It would have saved money. It’s one of the few cases where my instinct to “use the best” resulted in wasting money.
Thanks again for your comments!
Bob
December 15, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Hi Bob,
Am Just curious why your outlet blew up? because i never encountered that incident in my 3 years experience as certified electrician. Using standard and quality material in building wiring installation required in PEC, dont regret about it. Outlet rated 15amperes is not easy to blew up and circuit breakers are designed to trip not to blew up. Under the PEC, you can use 15ampere breaker and 2.0mm2 solid or stranded wire in convenience outlet only for appliances that have low wattage and amperage.
December 21, 2011 at 1:06 pm
I don’t remember the exact details, but I was doing some testing, intentionally shorted that outlet and then forgot about it and turned on the breaker. As I said the 20a breaker did not trip and the cheapo Royu outlet self-destructed. Not too bright on my part!
December 28, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Bob,
The PEC requires the use of 3.5 sq. mm as minimum wire size for power circuits provided the connected load does not exceed 3680VA. You may use 2.0 sq. mm as minimum wire size only for lighting provided the load does not exceed 2760VA. Overcurrent protection shall not exceed 15AT and 20AT for 2.0 and 3.5 sq. mm, respectively.
Power outlets shall be calculated at no less than 180VA per box while lighting outlets shall be calculated at a minimum 100VA per outlet. So, a 3.5 sq. mm wire can have 20 maximum power outlets and 27 lighting outlets for the 2.0 sq. mm wire.
Jahn, REE
December 29, 2011 at 3:34 pm
This is a good example of why the code should be easily available to the public. Our wiring meets these standards, but since we did not have access to the code, there was no way we could independently confirm that it was being done properly.
December 9, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Hi Harry,
When using the Stranded 14AWG wire wouldn’t it work to crimp and solder spade lugs to the ends connecting to the electrical sockets and other connections? I have repaired electronics for 50 years and typically these connections if soldered correctly will last indefinately also there is no better ground than an 8 foot copper rod driven into Mother Earth.
Thank you for your insites My Filipina Wife and I are moving to Negros Oriental in 2013 to build our house there.
December 10, 2011 at 7:22 am
This makes sense to me. The experts say the spring type connectors are the best and they are found on almost all switches and outlets. It’s interesting though that circuit breakers including those handling 100+ amps all seem to use screw-type connectors. My guess is that the spring connectors are better than using un-tinned wire under a switch or outlet screw but not necessarily better than spade lugs. But, I’m no expert! Thanks for your comment.
October 31, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Me and my husband are living in Bohol for more than 2 years already. We been looking for electrician and a plumber for 2 years and and sad to say that the philippines has no real plumber and electrician.Fortunately, my husband is a mason from North Carolina and he wants to build a house here without chiseling the wall for conduit and the wires. The Philippines blocks are no good so we made our own. The masons here in the Philippines don’t know how to lay block so my husband had to lay blocks after he made them. We tried drilling for water too and discovered that there are no real well drillers here so we are building a cistern to collect water. There was a welder here in Bohol but he went back to America. We also discovered they have no roofers here.
November 2, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Rona,
When you come it can be hard to find the good workers but I’m sure there must be many on Bohol. The challenge is finding them! Can you cruise construction projects underway that seem to be going well, the buildings well-built — especially commercial projects. Good luck.
Bob
October 14, 2011 at 2:41 am
hello not talking electrical here but i was wondering ive been planning a trip to philippines this november 2011 i am 36 years old american and am planning to do some volunteer work at a local cemetery there called clark veterans cemetery.im also going there to meet a girl ive been communicating with via telephone,facebook and skype since feb 2011,i want to be safe when i go there and i was wondering if you had any tips for me other than all the sites ive read about im trying to do positive things on this my first vacation in many years and never thought id go to philippines never even knew where it was until this feb.and im scared as heck but amd 98% sure im going
please any tips you can give me id appreciate
thanks
jay
October 22, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I would not worry too much. Before my first trip I was told just to avoid drunken men. That’s good advice. Be respectful to all, keep your sense of humor, don’t rush into anything. Your girlfriend and her family should work to keep you safe. Follow their advice and have fun. You’ll probably have the time of your life.
September 29, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Bob,
I’m planning to apply for electrical supply for our small house. My problem is our electric company here is looking for our electrical plan upon applying. I’m thinking about to do it my self, but the thing is I’m having a problem about the connection from meter base to panel board, then from panel board to outlet, switch and lights.. i’m only installing 4 outlets, 5 lights and 5 outlets. I just wanted to ask for your help. thanks in advance and hoping for help
cris
September 30, 2011 at 8:20 am
Cris,
Wish we could help. Could you find a local electrician who can help you? On our house we used #6 AWG aluminum duplex cable from the meter to the house, #2AWG stranded copper from the weather head to the panel box and #12AWG to outlets and lights. It’s all shown on http://myphilippinelife.com/our-philippine-house-project-philippine-electrical-wiring/
Good luck!
August 20, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Hi Bob,
I have some concern on the service entrance of the house. Is the metal conduit that housed the service entrance cable and runs inside the attic connected to the ground? Is there a service switch or service disconnect installed outside after the meter? If there is none, the service entrance cable from the meter running inside the attic is not protected by a breaker or safety switch. It will looks like a utility company erected its additional pole in the open space inside the house. The service entrance should not be ran horizontally in the attic but should instead run vertically concealed inside the concrete wall unless it is buried in a concrete slab. The metal conduit which housed the main supply cable should be used up to the service panel where it will be bonded galvanically to the frame.
Regards,
Andrei
Orl,FL
August 21, 2011 at 10:52 am
Hi Andrei,
You are the second person to question the installation of the service cable in the galvanized pipe. The pipe is not grounded except perhaps by passing through the steel cornice components. It should be easy to run a ground wire from the pipe to rebar coming up from the footers. Thanks for pointing this out.
Bob
October 2, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Here, they run wires concealed under concrete, vertically, horizontally, and diagonally!!!
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February 25, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Andrew,
One other thing. We discussed the neutral to ground jumper in the panel box. I got to thinking that the jumper means that when the generator is running the generator neutral will be connected to the utility neutral through the buss. Is there any possible danger to utility workers in this?
Bob
February 23, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Hi Bob,
You mentioned beefing up the bonding connection for lightning safety and it piqued my interest. One of these days i hope to be living under a metal roof in the Philippines myself. I’ve been reading up on metal roofs and lightning protection. I thought you and other readers of the blog might like to know what i found so far.
Grounding the metal roof is not required by code except in the unlikely event that your roof is likely to be “energized” ( gets touched by a hot wire). But most people think that grounding the roof can’t hurt and might be beneficial. But grounding the roof might require running a bonding conductor to each panel if they have an insulating coating.
In your house, the roof panels might not be electrically connected to ground, but the giant metal roof trusses are likely grounded due to the welded connection to the rebar from the top of the wall (provided the wall rebar is tied to the foundation rebar).
No matter how big the grounding wire is in your main panel, it isn’t going to help you much in a direct lightning strike on your house. But it will help if lightning strikes in the neighborhood and induces a surge on the service entrance conductors. What will help even more is a whole-house surge suppresor (Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor-TVSS). I installed one in my main panel that looks like a double-pole breaker. If there is no room for another breaker a unit like this can be used: http://74.53.140.226/~sycomsur/products/SYC_120_240_T2-4-3.html
If you want to protect the house from a direct lightning strike, it can be done with a separate system of lightning rods, ground rods, and heavy conductors to connect the two. The code for lightning protection is published by the same people who publish the NEC, and i found a downloadable copy here: http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/spring07/atmo589/articles/NFPA_780_2004.pdf
And here is a helpful guide for designing a lightning protection system: http://www.designandbuildwithmetal.com/TechArticles/Articles/lightning_protection_basics.aspx
For a typical Philippine house with metal roof trusses, it should be possible to use the roof trusses as conductors in the lightning protection system. That would reduce the amount of heavy conductor required to just between the ground rods and the roof truss.
Although the lightning protection code allows using rebar in a concrete foundation as a grounding terminal in new construction, i think it would be much better in a typical Philippine home to use dedicated ground rods instead. If lightning hits my house, i’d much rather have the millions of amps going through a thick braided copper conductor on the outside of the wall instead of through the rebar inside of the wall. FYI: some experts recommend staying away from walls containing rebar during a thunderstorm (and also stay away from computers, wired phones, metal plumbing, and metal framing around windows and doors).
Cheers!
-Andrew
February 25, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Andrew,
Thanks again for the great info. I’ll have to put roof grounding on our list of things to do. There really is no such thing as finishing a house project. It just shifts into lower gear.
I have come to see that using the stranded wire was a bad idea, just as you said. It even costs more than solid wire. The main problem is good connections to screw terminals. With the Royu outlets the screw squishes the conductor between two brass plates. The wire is not under the screw, so that seems pretty good, perhaps better than the Panasonic outlets. We used Korean Anam switches. They are good quality but less costly than Panasonic, but they use a push-in connector made for solid wire. What do you think of tinning the stranded wire before inserting into the switch connector? I see tinning of stranded copper wire in various electrical appliances and gadgets.
Bob
February 26, 2011 at 10:02 am
from Andrew:
Bob,
I too have seen light fixtures come with tinned, stranded wires. But i don’t like the idea of home-made tinning. I can’t think of any reason why it would fail, i’m just trained to have a horror of home-made solutions used when store-bought ones are available.
If you can find a source for wire nuts, i think the best solution is add solid pigtails. Take a 6 or 7 inch length of solid wire and connect it to the stranded wire with a twist-on pressure connector, AKA wire nut. The other end goes to the device.
If you go this route, strip a little more insulation off the stranded wire than the solid wire. For example if you take 3/4 inch off the solid wire, take 7/8 inch off the stranded wire. Then tighten the strands by twisting with your thumb and forefinger. Pinch the two wires together parallel in one hand with the ends of the wires lined up. With the other hand push on the wire nut and twist hard. You want the bare parts to wrap around each other, but there is no point in having the insulated parts wrap around each other. When done, grab one wire in each hand and gently but firmly try to pull the wires apart. If the wires come apart, it wasn’t a good connection. Try again until it passes the pull test.
-Andrew
February 26, 2011 at 10:03 am
Andrew,
I did bring some wire nuts with me plus they are available here — but expensive. The problem is that most of my switches are three gang in one utility size box. This is typical. For a bedroom two switches are for recessed lighting and one for the ceiling fan.
I have experimented with solid pigtails but there is no way the wires, pigtails and wire nuts and the three switches will fit in the utility box. Using #12 AWG wire it’s difficult to get just the switches and wire, much less anything more.
It could have been done differently (one switch per box?) but too late for that.
I’ll experiment with tinning and see how it works. I read this online:
“Tinning electrical wires can turn stranded wires into solid wires. Soldering wire strands, often called tinning, is the way the professionals ensure that wires strands don’t fray and seperate when the terminal is tightened down on the wire. By using a soldering iron to add rosin-core solder to the wire strands, the solder fills in the viods between the wire stands and causes the loose, fine wires to become one solid wire that can be easily bent and placed underneath the terminal screws. This ensures a tight connection and virtually eliminates the possibility of loose strands touching the junction box or comming out from beneath the terminal screw.”
I’m not sure I agree that tinning turns stranded wire into solid, but the part about making it easier to make secure physical connections is true.
Thanks again for your input!
Bob
February 12, 2011 at 10:56 am
Hi Bob and Carol,
I managed to find a free download of the Philippine Electrical Code in PDF format. The name of the file includes “2008″ and “Draft”. Even if this document is not the one currently in effect, it’s probably not much different from the one that is in effect. Here is the link:
http://rapidshare.com/#!download|755l33|263242134|Philippine_Electrical_Code__Draft__2008.pdf|6248
I just found it and have not had much time to read it, but it does not appear to have a table of ampacities just for service entrance cables as the NEC does. If so, then the #2 wires you used might be the legal minimum for a 100-amp service. Those who snickered at your “oversized” wires just aren’t used to seeing people follow the code.
Also, using rebar for a grounding system electrode is allowed in the PEC. The text is almost identical to the NEC:
“2.5.3.3(a)(3) Concrete-Encased Electrode. An electrode encased by at least 50 mm of concrete, located within and near the bottom of a concrete foundation or footing that is in direct contact with the earth, consisting of at least 6 000 mm of one or more bare or zinc galvanized or other electrically conductive coated steel reinforcing bars or rods of not less than 13 mm in diameter, or consisting of at least 6 000 mm of bare copper conductor not smaller than 22 mm2. Reinforcing bars shall be permitted to be bonded together by the usual steel tie wires or other effective means.”
Bare rebar like you used is specifically allowed.
You didn’t say how big your grounding wire was, but i found a table that says it only needs to be 3.2 mm sq for your 30 mm sq service entrance conductors. I think that is around #12 AWG which seems mighty small to me. In the US the wire would have to be at least #8 AWG. In the code this wire is called a GEC or “grounding electrode conductor”. You said you used a #10 AWG wire to bond the ground bus to the neutral bus inside the main panel. Since that is bigger than the minimum size needed for the GEC, it should be fine. If i were wiring the panel i would run the GEC in one continuous, unspliced piece from the rebar clamp through the neutral bus or ground bus and then terminate it on the other zero-potential bus inside the main panel.
—–
Hi Bob,
Congratulations on your new house! I haven’t finished reading the blog yet, but it sounds like you’ve carefully considered all the options and made a lot of smart design decisions. I’m hoping to build a house near Manila in five or ten years and am eager to learn from the experience of others. It’s definitely a challenging situation for people familiar with different methods, materials, and standards of home construction.
The rebar we use here LOOKS the same as the rebar used in the Philippines. I suspect it is the same, but i’ll have to research that. I’m pretty confident that you have a good ground electrode system. You could have it tested if you were curious. It’s not a simple test, though. You couldn’t do it yourself with a voltmeter. You might be able to get the utility to do it for a fee. Here is more info about ground testing:
http://ecmweb.com/grounding/electric_ground_testing_techniques/
In the US the neutral bus and the ground bus are bonded together in the main panel. In all downstream subpanels the neutral bus is isolated from the ground bus. You used a #10 wire to bond these together in your main panel. That is probably adequate. I’ll have to check but i think the NEC would require a bigger wire here in the US.
When there is a wider prong on a plug, it is supposed to be connected to the neutral and the other prong goes to hot. When both prongs are the same it shouldn’t matter because the device is supposedly “double-insulated”. I can only guess why your stereo cares which way it is plugged in. I’ll bet if you opened it up you’d find the neutral wire goes to the internal chassis ground (if there is one).
#2 for service entrance cable might have been overkill, but #6 would definitely be underkill. Like you i prefer to err on the side of caution and safety. I would not worry about your service entrance conductor overheating, although the conduit is small, the conductors are over-sized and should not get very warm.
Crimps make good connections. If you taped them very well, it should be good for decades. But twisted and taped connections will fail over time. They are explicitly forbidden in the NEC. I have seen with my own eyes wires twisted together years earlier that no longer have electrical contact due to surface corrosion. Before the connection fails it becomes a high-resistance connection which can easily lead to fires. Yikes!
Wire nuts are great for solid wire. I don’t have much experience with them on #12 stranded wire. I’ll have to research that.
You might want to wait a year and then examine the stranded wiring connection to one of your heavily-used receptacles. If the periodic heating and cooling has not caused the connection to loosen up and start to burn, then it will probably be good for decades.
The last time i was in the Philippines was three years ago. I was able to get a copy of the National Building Code of the Philippines in a bookstore in Manila (i think it was a branch of the National chain). But the Philippine Electrical Code eluded me and i looked all over.
I’m looking forward to reading the rest of your blog and finding out what you like about the new house and would you would have done differently (if anything). Cheers!
December 28, 2011 at 10:41 pm
PEC copies can nowhere be purchased from any bookstore. The Integrated Institute of Electrical Engineers of the Philippines (IIEE) exclusively prints and sells copies of it at a discounted price (50% more or less) for members only. Find any IIEE office and try buying one if they will. By the way, the latest edition is 2009.
Registered Electrical Engineer here and I can be of help.
Jahn, REE
December 29, 2011 at 3:32 pm
It’s too bad that the code is not available more widely. We had and electrical engineer do our electrical plans, but it would be good for the owner to be able double check with the code itself. Also, a very large percentage of electrical work, at least in the provinces, is done without benefit of any engineer or possibly without a real electrician. It would be good if an inquiring property owner could have easy access to the code. Regards! Bob
December 31, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Bob,
Below is the IIEE web address and contact numbers. You may call them up about the purchase then they will tell how much including shipping and ask you to deposit it with their bank account (BDO). You have to scan the receipt and email it to them for confirmation of the purchase. The item/s will be shipped on the same day thru LBC if scanned receipt is received before 2PM. You will receive the item/s the next day or the day after depending on your location.
http://www.iiee.org.ph/home/index.php/home/contact-us
I hope this one may help you get a copy of the code.
Happy New Year!
Jahn
January 5, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Again, great information. Thanks so much. I wish we had this before building, not after. Thanks again.
February 11, 2011 at 8:14 am
You wrote: “We discovered that our electricians would sometimes cut off strands from the 12 AWG wires so they would fit more easily into switch terminals.”
Bad electricians, no donut for you! Did you really use stranded wire for all the 15-amp and 20-amp circuits? I wonder if that is common in the Philippines? It’s a little bit easier to pull stranded wire through conduit compared to solid wire, but using solid wire makes it much easier to make connections from wire to wire and wire to screw terminal.
In the US the most common receptacles and switches are designed for solid wires only (which doesn’t stop some people from using stranded wire). I wonder if the wiring devices you have in the Philippines are more stranded-friendly than wiring devices here in the US.
August 23, 2012 at 5:33 pm
We are advised that using the stranded is better than solid copper wires. I had solid copper wires installed in one of our houses in metro Manila and after 12 years, the copper got brittle and we had problems pulling them out.
February 11, 2011 at 7:40 am
“To run the main feed into the attic we used 3/4? galvanized pipe.”
I hope you used electrical conduit and not galvanized water pipe. Galvanized water pipe should not be substituted for electrical conduit because the galvanization causes the inside to be rough enough to damage the insulation of conductors pulled through it.
Also, 3/4 inch is too small to meet NEC requirements. According to table 1 in annex C, the conduit should be at least 1 inch for two or three #2 conductors. In the US the smallest service entrance conduit commonly used is 1-1/4 inch.
February 11, 2011 at 7:24 am
“It’s interesting that our entrance cable (weather head to panel box) is #2 AWG copper (as specified by our electrical engineer) while the cable from the pole to the house is much lower capacity #6 AWG aluminum.”
According to the NEC table 310.15(B)(6), #2 AWG copper can be used for a 125 amp service. For a 100 amp service you could have gone with the smaller #4 AWG copper wire. Your engineer may have mistakenly relied on table 310.16 for general-purpose use that requires bigger wires for a given amp rating.
Utilities everywhere use small wires when connecting overhead services. They can do it because the wires are in open air and not near anything combustible, so it doesn’t matter if the current warms them up a little from time to time.
February 11, 2011 at 5:54 am
Mabuhay! I’ve read half your blog and so far i love it. I’m planning to build a house in the Philippines someday, and i’m sure the info here will be very useful.
If i understood your description correctly, you may have a perfectly adequate grounding system for your electrical service. You wrote:
“Rather than using a grounding rod pounded into the soil, we attached a copper clamp to the rebar in one of the house’s main columns. This rebar leads about 1.5 meters underground to a mass of rebar in the base of the footer. A heavy copper cable runs from the clamp to the panel box. ”
Where i live in California, using the rebar in a concrete foundation as a ground instead of a driven ground rod is allowed by the National Electric Code (NEC) and is also quite common. My house built in 1984 uses rebar instead of a ground rod. A new house i’m helping build right now is the same way. Both were approved by the local building inspector.
The NEC requires what it calls a “grounding electrode system” installed where the electric service enters the building. That system is composed of one or more “electrodes” and a wire that connects the electrode or electrodes to the main panel. A driven ground rod is one permissible type of electrode. Rebar can also be permissible if installed correctly. Here is what the 2008 NEC says about it:
“NEC 250.52(3) An electrode encased by at least 2 inches of concrete, located horizontally near the bottom or vertically, and within that portion of a concrete foundation or footing that is in direct contact with the earth, consisting of at least 20 feet of one or more bar or zinc galvanized or other electrically conductive coated steel reinforcing bars or rods of not less than 1/2 inch diameter.”
I don’t have a copy of the Philippine Electrical Code, but i believe it is similar to and maybe even derived from the NEC used in the US.
The customary practice here is to arrange for 6 to 8 inches of rebar stick out of the concrete at a convenient location near the main panel. Then use a purpose-made ground clamp to connect a wire to the rebar and run the wire to the main panel.
February 11, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Hi “pogidaga”
Thanks so much for your comments and compliments about our blog and electrical system. You really seem like you know what you’re talking about. Hopefully you comments will benefit other readers.
Thanks especially for the information about using rebar as a system ground. I note that the code you quote calls for galvanized or coated rebar. Such rebar is not used in residential construction here, as far as I know.
As you know, our utility distribution grid uses the “single wire system”. My panel box has a neutral bus which is connected to the utility company ground wire. Our house is next to the utility company’s employee subdivision and not far from a main substation. The utility poles and lines are new and really well done. Each concrete utility pole is well grounded so our utility-provided ground is probably as good as it gets for this type of system in the Philippines. Then I have a ground bus in the panel box which is connected to the footer rebar with a copper clamp. We used grounded outlets throughout so the neutral side of the plug (if the plugs have polarity — many don’t) goes to the utility company ground and the ground side goes to my own rebar ground. I mulled over whether the neutral bus and the ground bus should be connected in the panel box. I did end up joining them with a 5.5mm (10AWG) jumper. My stereo receiver which has a no polarity plug complained until I reversed the plug. Any comments?
Regarding the entrance cable, I have not been able to get a hold of a copy of the Philippine Electrical Code, despite trying to do so. But I do have a copy of a guidebook for electricians published by Columbia Wire and Cable, one of the big Philippine manufacturers. It gives two charts for allowable ampacities, one for free air and one for raceway or burial. I used 30mm (2.0) THHN/THWN rated for 90C. According to the guidebook, this wire in conduit will handle 120 amps so you are 100% correct. But, evidently the code calls for calculating wire size using 80% of rated capacity. That’s how I came up with 100. Anyway,much of this was new to me and I wanted to err on the side of bigger/better. The electricians and electrical inspectors were amused by the use of the 2.0AWG which they thought was wildly over done. They said I should have used 6 AWG. 6 AWG is rated for 70 amps! Maybe they are right. We just don’t have much load. Our two air con units are 7.82 amps together, our water pump is 500 watts. All lighting is compact fluorescent. No dryer, no electric stove, no hot water heater.
You are also right about the conduit size. I did use 3/4″ galvanized water pipe to support the weather head, but only a short length, maybe three or four feet. The rest of the way it’s in 30mm plastic conduit. I don’t think chafing will be a problem and the oversize entrance cable should not overheat?
I’m really guilty on the stranded wire front. All of our wire is stranded. And, you’re correct that many of the available outlets and switches are made for solid wire and the device is stamped that they are for solid wire only. Many have no screw terminals at all, just the push in connectors. There were two brands which seemed to accommodate stranded wires, Panasonic (expensive but good) and Royu (cheaper) so that’s what we used. We used 12 AWG wire, we have lightly loaded circuits and most boxes and conduit are embedded on concrete, so hopefully the stranded wire will be fine.
It’s interesting to note that wire nuts are not used here. Old fashioned wire to wire splices wrapped in tape is the custom. I used Buchanan copper crimp connectors and a crimper. The splice was then wrapped in tape.
Thanks again for your contributions.
Bob and Carol Hammerslag
November 23, 2010 at 11:49 am
Hi Bob,
It is difficult to work out whats best for all circumstances. With a big enough generator no problems arise, start the thing going and then switch over. Most of us would probably have a small unit say 3Kw and it would only be used for fridge, tv and lights. Having it wired for when the mains fails gives some thought. We may not be around to choose the breakers to switch off and those to leave on. Putting the gen on a heavy load will burn out the alternator.
Possibly an idea would be to have the “emergency” circuits (lights, fridge,tv) on a separate breaker and wired via a changeover switch to the gen set.
No problems would arise when the switch was operated by an untrained person.
Peter
ps I cringed when first seeing the local Filipino electrician twisting the cables to make joins but actually they do hold up well……love the orange toothpaste caps for joining ends together. Screwed terminations WILL work loose.
November 22, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Hi Bob
Great to see some tiling in place at last, it’s the beginning of the end, so to speak!
Just a couple of remarks on (Philippine) wiring.
Firstly, it seems odd to me that you have to install a weather head where the wires enter the house, and then have the actual supply connections just twisted together and covered with insulating tape.
The second is a question: is it safe/desirable to directly wire a modern generator into your house electrics, given that the “neutral” side is connected to a grounding pole?
Many thanks
John
October 13, 2010 at 10:12 pm
As stated in a previous post I’m still learning about residential construction in the Philippines. Can you please explain (1)why the electrical conduit is buried under the slab rather than vertically in the hollow-core from wall outlets and wall switches to your spacious attic; (2) why you weakened the hollow-core by cutting vertical or horizontal channels instead of installing inside the hollow-core; and (3) why the wall outlet boxes are installed horizontally instead of vertically as in the US? Are the wall outlet boxes installed horizontally because of a safety issue – since the outlet boxes are not typically installed with a ground wire? Thank you.
October 14, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Theodore,
To some degree we just followed Philippine building traditions in the way we did many things.
Here’s a few thoughts. The hollow cores in hollow block are always filled with rebar and concrete so there really is no cavity. Properly filling the hollow block with concrete and rebar is essential to the strength of the wall as the block themselves are very weak. Yes, channels are cut into the block to accommodate conduit, but then when the wall is finished (plastered with concrete), the conduit is covered over with a material which is certainly stronger than the hollow block which was chipped away. The real problem comes when someone forgets to embed conduit into the posts and beams when they are poured. When this happens, the post or beam can be partially cut to accommodate the conduit. Remember though that the entire wall is plastered so any cuts in structural members are shallow as the conduit is mostly hidden in the cement plaster finishing.
I’m assuming that outlet wiring is routed through the floors because the path to the panel box is shorter and more direct than if the wires were routed through the attic. I actually like the system. The conduit system, unless shortcut are taken, is such that new wires can be pulled in case of problems. The wires in the conduit in the center of a concrete slab should be pretty well protected from being chewed on by any critter.
Honestly, I don’t know why my outlets are horizontal rather than vertical. We just think they look better that way. All our outlets are grounded.
Hope this helps.
Bob
http://
October 2, 2012 at 5:44 pm
Wall boxes in the UK are also installed horizontally. Why vertical in US?
September 13, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Hello
You know that the Phillippines is notorious for brown outs, Have you ever consider in buying a backup generator for your house?
October 14, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Hi David,
Yes, we have a small concrete bodega outside where the generator and water pump will be located. We added the necessary 5.5mm (10AWG) wiring from the generator location to the panel box and a 100 amp DPDT knife switch. We’ll just have a small generator to power the refrigerator, some lights and fans.
Bob
Tigbauan, Iloilo
Philippines
http://
March 19, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Yes, see http:///wiring-in-a-240v-backup-generator-in-a-swer-area/ and http:///weima-3200-generator-genset/
June 2, 2010 at 7:20 pm
John,
I checked and it seems that the longer slot is the neutral, the shorter the load or “hot” wire.
http://
June 1, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Hi Bob, just a quick question for the electricians: if you look at a philippine socket, one of the “slots” is slightly longer than the other. Is this the live or the grounded please?
May 27, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I’m going to check with the electrical engineer who did our electrical plan. He did allow that single pole breakers are best for the single load and ground system used by Philippine electrical coops — even though no one really uses them in this area! Our electrical supplier suggested linking the two buss bars in our panel box. Once I talk to the engineer, I’ll post the results.
April 4, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Bob, I learned my electrical trade in Olongapo/Subic area, we used US electrical code and was an OSHEA 107 Certified. I read that you “bonded” your Neutral to the rebar of the house. I’m assuming that the rebar is encapsulated with concrete. Concrete and rebar are not good conductors. May I suggest that you use a good old Gounding rod, a minimum of 6 feet. Getting shock when touching appliances are caused by improper grounding or reversedly connected “hot” and Neutral wires, or just plain broken or poor insulation on appliances.
April 2, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Well you are still constructing Bob, just dig a small hole and anchor a copper wire at the bottom by pushing it down with a stick, or braze a #12 or #10 copper wire to the end of a piece of scrap iron or steel pipe, run the wire inside the pipe and drive the pipe in 5 or 8 feet. The form fact of the copper isn’t important, just that it is copper. The reason I don’t trust something like tying into the rebar or such is simple chemistry .. concrete and trace minerals from water have all the chemical components of a diode or a transistor, and resistance in the wrong place and you may unintentionally build yourself an unintentional amplifier.
Years ago, when I worked in Cheyenne Mountain (which is all carved from granite of course), the ‘master ground’ was a steel water line that ran all the way down the hill and tied to the Fort Carson, Colorado base water system. Of course, steel pipe don’t last forever and one year there was a leak, so the highly efficient water system guys found the leak, cut out the damaged section and repaired with a modern commercial PVC ‘quick repair’ water main ‘fixer kit’. Wow. Talk about computer systems that went haywire.
The ‘fix action’ there was to excavate a 10 foot square section of the parking lot outside the tunnel and bury a copper grid,and run a copper cable inside to the main electrical service room to replace the old ‘tie to the water main’ connection.
You will not have to go that far ;-
When power is applied to the house, measure with a sensitive voltmeter from any neutral connection to the grounding rod .. the closer to absolutely zero volts the better you are.
Be well,
Dave
April 1, 2010 at 7:19 pm
A ton of valuable info here, Bob, especially as Mita and I head into a house rebuilding project soon.
In a technical sense, although I have done a lot of wiring in various roles, I could not make a pimple on a real electrician’s butt.
But one thing I know a _LOT_ about, having gone to many remote Air Force sites to fix things is earthing/grounding issues.
You are correct that your house should have a good ground(earth) system. But tying a wire to the rebar grid will not insure this. A copper earthing rod driven into always damp ground is your only sure way.
Rebar is not a proper electrode. Rust and welded joints build up resistance as well … your planned earth ground may build up measurable voltage using the scheme you describe .. little chance of it being lethal, but a great chance of it causing issues especially with electronics plugged in … a copper grounding rod is the best choice, based an a lot of bitter experience fixing ‘electrical problems’ that were all simply earthing issues.
My two cents anyway.