# Home electrical wiring



## didot (Mar 15, 2015)

Hi guys 1st of all im a new comer here and i would like to ask for an advise regarding home electrical wiring. Im not an expert but i want to learn im a computer engineer.

I just recently moved to an old apartment near to my workplace and the problem with it is that it has a lot of wires hangs on the wall. It looks dirty and not safe for my kids so i want to rewire the entire house with minimal work.

I want to buy a panel board to put all my circuit breakers but i have no idea how many circuit breakers and types i should buy so im listing all my appliances below so you could give me an idea. By the way i already have a 3.5mm solid wire (some told me that stranded is much better but i already bought it) i wanted to put a circuit breaker each section like have a branch for all of it.

Can you guys give some advise? also what should i know first before playing with electricity.

*Master’s Bedroom*
1 x 3 Gang Reciprocal
1x 2 gang switch
2 x 8 watts LED
750 watts Desktop computer
1 Ceiling Fan
1 exhaust fan (32W)
1 x 10 Watts closet light
*Kids Room*
1 x 3 Gang Reciprocal
2 x 2 gang switch
1 x 2HP inverter window type aircon
4 x 8 watts LED
1 x 10 Watts closet light
1 Ceiling Fan
1 exhaust fan (32W)
1 x 42” LED TV
1 x home theater
1 x Lamp
1 x 10 Watts closet light
*Living Room*
2 x 3 Gang Reciprocal
2 gang switch
4 x 8 watts LED
1 x 25W LED
1 Wall Fan
1 exhaust fan (32W)
1 x 42” LED TV
1 x home theater
*Kitchen*
1 x 9cu ft inverter refrigerator
1 x electric kettle
1 x waffle maker
1 x pancake maker
1 x blender
1 x electric grill
1 x pie maker
1 x Juicer
1 x microwave
1 x oven toaster
2 x 8W 
3 x 4W under cabinet light
2 x 3 gang reciprocal
1 x 3 gang switch
*Laundry*
1 x 2 gang reciprocal
1 x fully automatic washing machine
1 x 8W bulb
*CR*
1 exhaust fan (32W)
1 x 4W bulb
1 x 1 gang switch

thanks a lot


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## Cebu Citizen (Dec 13, 2013)

didot said:


> Hi guys, 1st of all I'm a new comer here and I would like to ask for advise regarding home electrical wiring. I'm not an expert but I want to learn.
> 
> FIRST of all...WELCOME to the Forum. We are glad to have you here.
> 
> ...


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Hire a professional and get it done right, don't do this yourself, after all... this is the Philippines and labor costs are very low and wiring the house doesn't take long and they could also have idea's of how to better protect your electronic items.


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## didot (Mar 15, 2015)

Cebu Citizen said:


> didot said:
> 
> 
> > Hi guys, 1st of all I'm a new comer here and I would like to ask for advise regarding home electrical wiring. I'm not an expert but I want to learn.
> ...


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## cvgtpc1 (Jul 28, 2012)

Are you renting? Not sure I'd tackle this unless the landlord was pitching in or giving me break on rent to do this.

Like mcalleyboy said I'd hire somebody. I completely re-wired a three bedroom house that only had two outlets and a 2 fuse box. They had extension cords daisy chained all over.

Added a breaker box, about 20 outlets, overhead lighting, switches, and a circuit for the AC. Parts and labor came to around $400 I think. This included chipping out the concrete to install conduit in the walls and then patching all that back up. 

Will say it is a vast improvement and was worth it. Small town so relatives knew a guy that works for the electric utility that moonlights on the side. Made us fairly confident he knew what he was doing and he did a great job.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Installation*



cvgtpc1 said:


> Are you renting? Not sure I'd tackle this unless the landlord was pitching in or giving me break on rent to do this.
> 
> Like mcalleyboy said I'd hire somebody. I completely re-wired a three bedroom house that only had two outlets and a 2 fuse box. They had extension cords daisy chained all over.
> 
> ...


The price of the wire box and the *"correct gauge wire for demands "*and the chipping holes for the outlets and wires, thats where the costs are. I'd do the masonry work because that does take some time and it becomes expensive. Had our first Electrician begin chipping the path of the wires, it took him all day and still wasn't finished with one outlet and he wanted a 1000 peso's, my wife gave him 300 and told him not come back.

Another issue to look at is power outages, you'd want to set up a circuit breaker just for emergency and power outage use, one that you could plug your generator in and so you won't have to string extension cords all over the house. If you have a jet matic there again another circuit breaker so you kill the power when performing maintenance.


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## colemanlee (Nov 17, 2014)

When I first got here I hired and electrician, but then had receptacles falling out of the wall and two of them burn up...SO, now if it needs to be wired, I do it...no I was not and electrician by trade in the states but if I needed to install something easy like a circuit breaker, receptacle or switch I did it myself...here I find the two wire system to be easier..the place I rent now is older and has no ground...so its simple...our new place will have a direct earth ground so its still not hard.....yes you can find good people here but it does not seem easy...If I do it myself, I know the quality of the work...better yet I know how it was done so if I need to trouble shoot its a lot easier.....


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

Uncle has been an electrician over 30 years. Everything he hooked up for us was crap. I had to redo all of it! I have had all the "professionals" here I need. 

Anything I need I will do myself. But I was an HVAC/R contractor for almost 30 years so I can get around ok... One thing to consider is that there are virtually NO standards here. If you can work to US standards you will be way ahead of the game.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Family and In-laws doing the maintance*



Tukaram said:


> Uncle has been an electrician over 30 years. Everything he hooked up for us was crap. I had to redo all of it! I have had all the "professionals" here I need.
> 
> Anything I need I will do myself. But I was an HVAC/R contractor for almost 30 years so I can get around ok... One thing to consider is that there are virtually NO standards here. If you can work to US standards you will be way ahead of the game.


I hear you there, had similar issue's with the wiring installation in our house also with the in-laws. I don't mess with electricity though, my Grand Father an electrician in ND, never got to meet him because he got electrocuted, so if there's one job I won't touch it's electrical, the other reason is that I've never worked an electrical type job but I did work in and around Helicopters for 20 years.


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## Robert David (Jan 28, 2016)

Oh..Please don’t play with electricity..!! Kindly hire a professional wiring specialist . That would be better . I got my wiring done through ‘The Shock Doctors’ ,here in Ontario. Anyways good luck


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Robert David said:


> Oh..Please don’t play with electricity..!! Kindly hire a professional wiring specialist . That would be better . I got my wiring done through ‘The Shock Doctors’ ,here in Ontario. Anyways good luck


The average expat in the Philippines is way ahead of the local elecricians and probably most of the proffressionals. The biggest death rate here during floods is not drowning but electrocution.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Gary D said:


> The average expat in the Philippines is way ahead of the local elecricians and probably most of the proffressionals.


Think you are right on that. Some of the slip-shod work I have seen here makes me gringe in disbelief that they actually do that and get by with it. Most of us who have done some home maintenance on our own houses have a good idea of how things need to be done. 

Fred


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## George6020 (Apr 18, 2014)

We had a local electrician wire our house, most of what they did was clean and acceptable....but I noticed on their last day, they took some shortcuts.............forgetting to connect, 3 receptacles, slightly crooked receptacles, not patching cement, not cleaning their mess. 
I prefer wire/conduit inside the walls, but if someone only wants to make small upgrades, 2-piece molding can look nice too...........easy to install, easy access.
By the way, current travels on the surface of the conductor..........the ONLY reason solid conductors are used is economical..........stranded is flexible and easier to use, stranded carries more current and dissipates heat much better. Securing stranded with screws is much safer/stronger than pushing the solid in the hole...and hoping it locks.


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## Donwarner87 (Jan 18, 2016)

I would do it myself for a few reasons. First of all its a good reason to buy more tools and you can never get enough tools (a guy thing). Second it gives you a new skill that you may not have had before. Third it's your home and you will want it done properly for you and your families safety (look at the existing wiring) if your doing it yourself, you already know that the current wiring is crap. Go on line and purchase a wiring guide, you will be better off than hiring someone to do it. Don't buy the material from City Hardware or any big hardware store, you can get a better deal from a small time hardware shop, just ask around to find a good deal. I'm no expert, but I have way better of doing my own home repairs, if there is a problem down the road, you will know how to fix it, because you installed it.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

I sent my brother in law a small consumer unit, that's what we call them in the UK, its a box with a mains switch and a couple of circuit breakers, a circuit breaker for the sockets and another for the light. Now isn't that a whole new concept for the Philippines, multi circuits. Anyway a text to my wife today, " how do we connect it" shall I wait until Gary comes, Gary's not coming with me this year can't you ask an electrician. You can see where we are going with this one. Asked the local electrician and he doesn't understand it, this thing only has the line in and two out. The local electricity company was installing an auxillary meter on the pump so we asked him and he didn't know either.


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## Tukaram (Dec 18, 2014)

We have a main breaker, a light breaker, and an outlet breaker. If I build a bigger house I will put in dedicated circuits for the fridge, and aircon at least. But I was surprised we got 3 breakers... after I pitched a fit for it ha ha


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

colemanlee said:


> When I first got here I hired and electrician, but then had receptacles falling out of the wall and two of them burn up...SO, now if it needs to be wired, I do it...no I was not and electrician by trade in the states but if I needed to install something easy like a circuit breaker, receptacle or switch I did it myself...here I find the two wire system to be easier..the place I rent now is older and has no ground...so its simple...our new place will have a direct earth ground so its still not hard.....yes you can find good people here but it does not seem easy...If I do it myself, I know the quality of the work...better yet I know how it was done so if I need to trouble shoot its a lot easier.....


I also had a similar experience when I first arrived here. Back when we were building our house we hired a guy who supposedly was the best electrician in our area, but when he was finished his work was complete crapola. 

Too make a long story short, I purchased some type B receptacles, and told him I wanted the receptacles connected to a good earth ground, and I wanted the slot on the left to be neutral, and the one on the right to be line. 

Well, he installed the type B receptacles, alright, but he didn't install a grounding rod like I asked, and he didn't pay any attention to which side of the receptacle he connected the hot line wire too. Sometimes the slot on the left was hot, and sometimes it was the other way around. (I think I posted an earlier post about this.) Also, when I asked him why he didn't connect a ground like I asked him to, he simply said, "Sir, here in the Philippines the third prong is only a decoration and it isn't used for anything."

After that, I decided to tackle it myself, but I was surprised when I took the cover off the circuit breaker panel and discovered that both the line and neutral wires are connected to the circuit breaker. This is quite different from what I was used to seeing back home in the US, and it kinda threw me for a loop.

(In the US we have two hot mains @ 110v and one neutral coming into our panels, and the only time that both hot mains get connected to the same breaker is when the circuit is powering a 220v dryer or oven range. Most of the time our household breakers only have one wire attached to them - So based on my experience in America, I spent the first few days here in the Philippines mistakenly assuming that both wires inside my panel box were hot 110v, and that is how they got 220v over here, but I was wrong!!! Unfortunately none of the locals that I talked to seemed to know what I was talking about when I asked about this.)

After a few days I picked up a polarity tester at one of the hardware stores, and that's when I figured out that one side of the breaker is always hot, and the other side is neutral. (Although the neutral side sometimes occasionally shows some trace voltage over here as well.) 

Once I figured out what was going on, I was able to rearrange the wires on all my receptacles so that the hot wire was on the correct side. Later I drilled a hole through the back of one of my single-gang boxes, and ran a 12 Ga wire to a metal rod I hammered into the ground, so not at least three of my receptacles are properly grounded. (I've noticed that desktop PCs seem to have a lot of issues over here, if the receptacle they are plugged into isn't properly grounded, and the polarity on the plug isn't right.)

I guess that you should be able to do your own work, so long as you really pay attention to which side is line and which side is neutral (something the locals don't care about) and make sure you make common sense splice that won't fall apart. (The locals love using electrical tape - and they never use solder or wire nuts!) 

Also, in my opinion, Panasonic brand receptacles and switches seem to be the best over here, and some of the other brands are just complete garbage (you really have to be careful with what you buy). 

Take your time and go slow, and understand what you're doing and should be fine.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Here in the UK we always switch both live and neutral, because as you say you can a bit of voltage on the neutral, the amplitude of which will depend on the current being drawn and how far you are from the transformer. That's why we have a seperate clean ground connection.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

Gary D said:


> Here in the UK we always switch both live and neutral, because as you say you can a bit of voltage on the neutral, the amplitude of which will depend on the current being drawn and how far you are from the transformer. That's why we have a seperate clean ground connection.


That's right, I think that you were the person who explained all of this to me two or three years ago (back when I was having trouble finding a real grounding rod). The lesson I learned from that was, never take anything for granted when working household wiring over here, because things are never as they seem. At least if you happen to come from a country where they normally use 110v anyway.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

We are renting an apartment while awaiting the completion of our house. During this last Christmas season she had strung up some of the newer light strings. Noticed that even when they were switched off there was enough trace voltage to make each bulb have a faint glow in the dark couldn't see it during the daytime only at night with all the lights turned off and dark in the place.

Will be doing some very serious scrutiny of the wiring of the new house.

Fred


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