ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Iraq Wiring

A few pictures from Iraq, kindly emailed to me from a Facilities Supervisor.

These are from an old airport (occupied by the US Army), where the locals and soldiers did lots of the wiring.
http://www.jcra.net/stuff/iraqairport/

Some of the workmanship speaks for itself. I guess they couldn't put a cover on that box on the tree if they wanted to, what with the cable not even entering through a hole!

I assume this was meant to be wired to British standards from the red/yellow/blue/black wires, but it seems they've used black as a phase. I wonder if the blue or the yellow is the neutral?

Last pic looks as if the dreaded plasterer has struck again!

Paul, looking at that picture, then at the meter above I have a feeling the black is the neutral and the meter has recorded the peak voltage.

I remember a couple of years back, in Jordan, coming across a similar setup, for some odd reason they seem to have the neutral in the middle of the phases in that part of the world..christ knows why!

Although it is possible you are correct.

That's what it looks like...

Looking at the cable that enters from the left I'd guess they used blue as their neutral.
Oh well, the panel with plaster doesn't look much worse than most panels here do after 2 or 3 different persons have worked on them. Those single-row din-rail panels have extremely little wiring space, so even most new installations don't look much better than that, apart from the flying "TNT" splices. Mine certainly doesn't. You'd have to put _really_ much effort into wiring such a panel neat and nicely.

In the newspapers I've seen the insides of some Iraqui houses (normally when photographing groups of insurgents or remainders of shelled houses).

The common way of lighting up a room seems to be by using a bare fluorescent strip light fixture. The kind you would normally see in a shop, bolted to the wall or ceiling.

Is that Fluke meter in the second picture reading 388.8 or 3888 ??

What a mess indeed.

I believe it's 388.8 across the red and black cables (that go to the lower and middle straps in the box)

Can such a meter withstand 4,000 volts across it? I don't think I want to find out.

I wonder what the average domestic Iraqui wall socket looks like.

It's 388.8 volts, which is about right for the phase-to-phase voltage on a 220/380 or 230/400 system.

interesting, iraq uses outlets similar to the US ones (if i am right), but DIN rail installation. gotta love the phase bar feeding the white/blue breakers...

perfect example for a "light's on, so what?" install...

[This message has been edited by :andy: (edited 05-19-2004).]

The British 13A socket is listed as the standard socket in Iraq. (Iraq used to be under British control.)