Monday, January 30, 2012

Extension cable terminations

The following picture shows how the extension cable of a socket outlet extension is terminated to the extension socket units.

Picture 1 – Termination of a house extension cable

(Click in the image to enlarge it)


House appliance: Standard socket outlet extension (This is the type of common socket extension products that you usually see at local supermarkets. It is just a common electrical product.)

Other description:

A house extension cable that you usually see actually has three insulated cables inside it: the LIVE cable, the NEUTRAL cable and the GROUND cable.

Each of the three cables has their own color-coded insulation: Brown for LIVE; Blue for NEUTRAL and Green with yellow stripes for GROUND.

When you work on the connections of these cables, you have to make sure not to connect them in a wrong way.

If you connect in a wrong way, the electrical appliance that takes power from this extension sockets may still work.

For example, you mistakenly swap the connections of the blue and the brown cables.

However, the ON/OFF switches are located at the LIVE connection. Therefore, there is still a voltage going to the appliance connected to the socket.

There are 3 cables coming from the extension cord. So you have three connection points and therefore 3 connection screws.

The connection screw may seem simple enough, but not using it properly has been the cause of many house fires all over the world. See Picture 2 below for a closer view.

Picture 2 – Extension socket wiring connections

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

This is one of the biggest problems with house electrical wiring: the electrical parts look simple enough that everybody thinks they can handle it.

Yes, it is easy. But you must know enough about how the electrical components work to be able to handle it SAFELY.


If you do your own wiring, and you happen to replace an extension cord like one in the picture, make sure the connection of the copper conductor to the termination screw is strong and tight.

If the connection is not tight, then connection surfaces between the copper conductor and the screw present a high resistance to the current flow when the electrical appliance is turned on.

This high resistance will cause a high-energy loss at the connection, which is dissipated in the form of heat.

Over time, if the appliance is in operation long enough, the extension socket unit may overheat and become a source of fire.

A combustible material nearby such as a window curtain, old newspapers, even carpets and rugs may catch fire.

That is how a house electrical fire can get started. It is one of the most common causes also.

Picture 3 – Rear view of the extension socket unit

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

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Friday, January 27, 2012

High mast flood lighting

High mast flood lights, anyone?

Picture 1 - High mast type of area flood lights

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Location: Toll plaza of a major highway

Other description:

(Coming soon.)

Author's note:

Regular visitors to this blog might have been surprise when they see how this post look like.

Well, for good or bad, this will be how my future articles will look like mostly.

Nowadays I seem to have less and less spare time that I can use to write and post articles.

That saddened me because I have spent so much time building up this blog ( and other blogs also).

After some thought, I came to the conclusion that I need to change the formats of my post and articles.

There will be no more long posts and articles. Only short snippets that I can write within fifteen minutes or less, plus one or two pictures or diagrams.

That will be the way of the future. Then this blog can live longer.

I know there are many visitors who keeps coming for the pictures that I send up here. So I hope this new format of my future posts is a good news for them.

Ciao.

Jimmy Lee Wan Seng
(Information Trader)

Copyright http://electricalinstallationblog.blogspot.com/ / High mast flood lighting