ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Taormina, Sicily Electrical Systems and Codes?

Italians are renowned for taking pride in circumventing rules and regulations. I wonder what happens if you introduce yourself as an electrical inspector?

Oh, one more thing: I think Italy uses the TT system, meaning that earth and neutral aren't bonded: The earth of each building is connected to a earth electrode only.

C-H

You may be right! I probably should say that I am from Boston's North End, and that I am an electrician.

Comparing our systems would be an easier way for me to find out more about the rules.

I believe there are many from other foreign lands who are also renowned for taking pride in circumventing the rules and regulations.

[This message has been edited by Joe Tedesco (edited 03-17-2003).]

"I believe there are many from other foreign lands who are also renowned for taking pride in circumventing the rules and regulations."

Defintely! Try finding someone (except senior citizens and disabled people) in Sweden who pays attention to the "Walk/Don't Walk" signals... I'm afraid this attitude extends to electricity. People are proud of their homebuilt extension leads which bypasses the ground.

Joe, that's providing there are rules to begin with.

For example, Colombia which is a widely industrialized country didn't get an electrical code until little more than 20 years ago even though the country has been electrified as long as the USA has!!

Colombia adopted a Spanish translation of the US NEC in 1980. After 10 years of review, it was ratified as the Codigo Electrico Colombiano (Colombian Electrical Code or CEC) in November 25, 1998 by ICONTEC, the Colombian Technical Standards Institute (Instituto Colombiano de Normas Tecnicas), which is basically the same as USA's ANSI.

Even so, it's not widely followed and enforcement is lax. Property insurance underwriters could care less.

Some electricians actually ground new outlets by simply fishing a grounded conductor from the outlet to a grounding rod buried in the yard instead of taking it back to the panel.

Add to that the cost of a copy of the CEC and the difficulty of getting it. It costs the staggering sum of Col$115,000 (approx. US$39.11) and is pretty much only available at ICONTEC offices (branches in each major city). The cost of most things is about half of what you pay here in the USA...however wages are also lowered accordingly.

A copy of the US NEC costs around $65 but at least it's much easier to find (available from almost any electrical supplier).
http://www.icontec.org.co

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 03-17-2003).]

The TT earthing/grounding system with a main RCD (GFI) does indeed seem to be very popular in Continental Europe for residential installations. There's an outline of the system in the U.K. power diagrams in the technical reference area, as it's used in many rural areas here as well.


I'm reminded of a scene from the BBC show "Yes Minister" (an excellent and quite satirical comedy about the political workings of our Whitehall bureaucracy).

The minister asks whether the people of Europe might not resent a rash of new regulations on some trivial matter. The reply from the civil servant is
"Oh, not at all, Minister. The Germans will love them, the Italians and the Spanish will be too chaotic to enforce them, and the French will just ignore them. It's only the British who will resent them."

Hey, Joe's back from Sicily.

He has put his photo album on the net.

Not your usual tourist pictures!

(The wiring looks better than I had expect. Shame on me for being prejudiced)

Hm, this is not very pretty.

The picture doesn't show well in small format, so you'll have to follow the link for the big picture

Wires everywhere

It looks like the earth (there is protective earth!!!) goes to the 4-pole breaker. Dares one guess that there is a common earth and neutral to the breaker and that the earth and neutral split after the breaker?

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 05-13-2003).]