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 Urgent:Electrician secretly downsized neutral wire

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Selene Yeo
post Jan 20 2024, 02:57 PM

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QUOTE(ivan89 @ Jan 20 2024, 01:49 AM)
Good day fellow forumers!

I've hired a contractor to do renovation for my parents' 2 storeys old house.
I've asked them to totally knock down everything inside the master bedroom toilet.
And I've asked them to change new wiring for the (instant) water heater shower unit too.

So, just now I went to check the progress and I found that the contractor used 2.5mm for the live wire,
but only 1.5mm for the neutral and ground wires. And they tiled it up already. Is it dangerous?
Should I ask them to knock down the new tiles and redo the neutral/ground wires with 2.5mm ones?

My parents' house is on 3 phase power. And there is a sub DB upstairs powering 3 bedrooms.
The said downsized wires are upstairs in the master bedroom toilet.

Thank you experienced sifus for your inputs!!
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That contractor is really endangering your parents' life by fixing underspec power cable. Water heaters with power rating below 5.711kW have to use 4mm2 cables, based on Suruhanjaya Tenaga's guidelines.

user posted image

And the rest just follow lj0000's good advice.


QUOTE(lj0000 @ Jan 20 2024, 11:25 AM)
usually no need to brake tiles. just pull the wires through the pvc hose
should use 4mm2 cables. (my mistake. should not be 2.5)

https://www.st.gov.my/en/contents/publicati...r%20Systems.pdf

you may read the guide cover to cover.
some points
- use double pole 20A water heater switch
- as much as possible, the LN wires should not have joints.
- earth cable should not have joints.
- do not use 3pin plug to connect water heater
- leave a loop of wire before entering water heater (so water wont go inside)
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Selene Yeo
post Jan 21 2024, 02:13 AM

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Joined: Feb 2021


QUOTE(AbbyCom @ Jan 20 2024, 06:06 PM)
Damn, my electrician put 3 pin plug for the water heater when we did whole house reno.
Yeah usage of 3-pin socket + plug connection to power up water heater is a BIG NO for water heater, according to Suruhanjaya Tenaga guideline.


U can either

a. get the contractor to remove the 3-pin socket and its junction box and connect the electrical cable directly to the water heater, which u might need to hack some walls to hide the cable and to fill / cover the hole left from the removal of the junction box, or

b. a cheaper and faster option is just to replace the 3-pin socket with a water heater connector (shown below) while reusing the 3-pin socket's junction box, so no hacking or filling holes required. U can easily purchase the water heater connector online - Shopee / Lazada


user posted image

 

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