# Third World Country Electrical



## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

Pizzaul said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I am currently deployed to Timor Leste (country by Indonesia) with the US Navy Seabees. Most of what I have done so far involves putting in new work or troubleshooting more modern components, or power distro.
> 
> ...


WOW!:laughing:

That's some good stuff man...


Thank you for your service and welcome to the forum..:thumbup:


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

Yes, thanks for your service. And don't get electricmacuted inna 3rd world ***hole.


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## Supfoolitschris (Jan 29, 2013)

That last pic has me amazed? It kinda looks like a combination lock?


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## varmit (Apr 19, 2009)

The panel picture is a VERY old European design. These panels use what is commonly called "bottle fuses" and they are still available. The fuse is an insert that is held in place by a round shaped porcelain holder that screws into the fuse holder base.

The black switch, with the numbers, is a "drum switch". These are commonly used for manually reversing three phase motors and other multipole manual switching. They are still available also.

It appears that you have a few challenges. Good luck!

What sort of material supply method do you have to repair this mess?


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## stuiec (Sep 25, 2010)

That made me feel physically nervous just looking at it :laughing:


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## varmit (Apr 19, 2009)

As far as color codes, there are no world wide standards, nor or there any world wide standard voltages. Black is often the "neutral" conductor in parts of the world. Australia, I believe is one of these places.


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## Pizzaul (Sep 20, 2012)

Wow thanks everybody!



> What sort of material supply method do you have to repair this mess?


We have quite a bit of excess materials from previous projects mostly due to the last couple of commands out here not having a good inventory system. For maintenance/repair projects of a small scope like this one we try to use excess materials only. If we have to order things it has a very long and involved process for funding approval.

Luckily for me the building that has this garbage in it is the first place I've seen that actually has a disconnect at the service entrance (and a meter to boot). 

Like I said I'll probably end up just installing a panel with a few breakers once I figure out what all's going on in there. From what I saw they had no equipment that would take three phases on site, even laundry they hand wash/dry. 

Thanks again for the warm welcome, I'm a long time lurker on the forums but this is the first time I've truly been stumped and needed to post :laughing:. I'm sure I'll have more stuff to bring here by the end of deployment, as I said this type of thing is pretty much normal out here.


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## Pizzaul (Sep 20, 2012)

varmit said:


> As far as color codes, there are no world wide standards, nor or there any world wide standard voltages. Black is often the "neutral" conductor in parts of the world. Australia, I believe is one of these places.


Right, Aussie general standard is what I posted above with red, white, blue, and a black neutral. Timor's proximity to Australia and New Zealand leads them to adopt a lot of their construction/safety standards.

Out here something will break and a local will fix it with whatever's available; they scrounge some random romex or cut a cord off of something and so you just have random colors spliced together all over the place. Makes tracing a  sometimes, but it's fun and good practice.


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## Electrician#1trade (Mar 19, 2013)

Call greybar and let's add some of our madness to their mix. Give their electricians some standard for their metric. JK good luck stay safe, wear your gear.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

Ya have mixed bag of European and Aussie stuff in there.

The fuse you described as we call them Daizeied fuse They are simauir to the North Americian fuse however becarefull it is too easy to put in a oversized fuse and the fuse size as I did see the photo it should limited to 32 amp or smaller size.

Typically most place will have either single phase 240 volts line to neutral or triphase supply which it will be 415 volts line to line or 240 volts line to netural.

Typical Aussie/ New Zenland colour format useally Red , White et Bleu while black is used netural but now I think I am pretty sure they did change the colour format but you will have to check with your local electrician if you can find one and see what the colour standard they used in that area.

With Single phase supply it is not too uncommon to see a jumper run across the fuse holder.

With triphase supply it will land each it own fuse however you will also have a main fuse block next to the customer unit aka electrique meter so expect that.

If you have more question ask one us whom know the system we will guide ya thru.

Merci,
Marc


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

The australian color codes are currenttly
the european standard

new 
blue = neutral
brown = active
green = earth


old 
australian standard
black = neutral
red = active
green = earth


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## kbsparky (Sep 20, 2007)

dmxtothemax said:


> The australian color codes are currenttly
> the european standard
> 
> new
> ...


Hung a chandelier yesterday with a black, blue, brown, and green/yellow stripe. They had twisted the black together with the brown, and the green with the blue. 

I had sense enough to remove the green from the neutral and connect it to the bare ground wire. But what to do with the black wire?


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## Pizzaul (Sep 20, 2012)

dmxtothemax said:


> The australian color codes are currenttly
> the european standard
> 
> new
> ...


Ah, thank you for the correction. The aussies out here I talked to told me the old one, most likely because that's how it is around here. Good to know!


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

It must make it confssing for the americans that come out here !
cause there used to black being hot,
whilst to us (aussie's) its the neutral.


To make it even more confussing,
I have even seen at least one building wired
to the american standard using black and white wires.
This is gunna cause some confussion to lay men.
count on it !


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## GoldStarElectrical (Oct 1, 2013)

Wow, thanks for your service. Please stay safe!


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

Don't forget to come back and tell us how it goes.
A challenge to be beaten !


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## That_Dude (Feb 13, 2012)

Being a Seabee, you should have some C4 available somewhere. That will solve most of it, then replace. :whistling2: Just an opinion from a 12R US Army. :thumbup:


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

That panel is clearly a mixture of American (the fuse block)
and the wiring looks australian, because of the colors.
Perhaps the wiring was replaced at a later stage from
the original instal.
Possibly by Australian soldiers or aid workers.
Perhaps its best to just replace the fuse block with more
modern circuit breakers ?
I am not sure what electrical code they follow in that place
could be indonesion or australian or a mixture of both.
I dont know what the availability is for those types of fuses,
I haven.t seen many in Australia, but they could be more available
in the indonesion market.


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## SparkyDino (Sep 23, 2013)

I saw wiring like that when I lived in Texas


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

That color wires ?
Or that messy ?
I thought they were suppossed to do it bigger and better in Texas ?


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## SparkyDino (Sep 23, 2013)

It was bigger, a bigger mess :laughing:


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

By the way, the device you thought was a manual transfer switch is a "drum switch", more often used in machine tools as a manual reversing switch with a center off position. Probably came off of a scrapped tool, but in a medical clinic, I'd say they repurposed it as a manual transfer switch for a backup genset. All they would need to do is find a set of contacts that closed in the correct positions, pretty easy to do with a single phase setup. I would not re-use that one though, it's not likely rated for more than 20A and even then, it looks too rough to be safe.


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## retiredsparktech (Mar 8, 2011)

dmxtothemax said:


> That panel is clearly a mixture of American (the fuse block)
> and the wiring looks australian, because of the colors.
> Perhaps the wiring was replaced at a later stage from
> the original instal.
> ...


 The fuse blocks don't look anything like our plug fuse blocks. They're a lot deeper for the diazide type fuse.
You can see American fuse blocks in the Frankenstein thread. 
They were the Edison screw base.


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

So I wonder where else in the world they use those types of fuses ?
Possibly Indonesia !


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## dmxtothemax (Jun 15, 2010)

retiredsparktech said:


> The fuse blocks don't look anything like our plug fuse blocks. They're a lot deeper for the diazide type fuse.
> You can see American fuse blocks in the Frankenstein thread.
> They were the Edison screw base.


Could they have used E27 lamp bases as fuse holders ?
East timour was very poor, so repurposing could be the reason,
sometimes you just have to use what you can get !


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

dmxtothemax said:


> It must make it confssing for the americans that come out here !
> cause there used to black being hot,
> whilst to us (aussie's) its the neutral.
> 
> ...



thats why the first thing that touches any conductor is a voltmeter
if a setup seems unfamiliar.
Ive seen a lot of circuits bodged together with any conductor they found.
and hots were not marked at all.

all the more reason for properly labeling conductors.
regardless of convention US \Aussie, or other properly labeled conductors removes confusion and chances of nasty surprises


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