What can I expect to find when visiting Taormina, Sicily?

Should I bring my cameras, and should I take pictures of the scenery or of the electrical wiring?

What types of Electrical Systems and Codes are used there?

I think Sicily follows the Italian CEI standards (Comitato Italiano Elettrotecnico, hope the spelling is correct).
No idea about the wiring quality, but based on what I've seen in other Italian cities and based on the fact that Sicily is a rather poor area I guess you'll find quite some fun wiring.
In Rome I saw emergency lighting, smoke detection and 230V wires in one single conduit, indoor extension cords hanging on store fronts, 16A rated grounded 4 outlet power strip with only 2 wire ungrounded 18 AWG zip cord, ungrounded 3 way taps that accept grounded plugs,...
New wiring is mostly done in pvc conduit, flex or rigid. Boxes are PVC and look basically like US ones. However, many imported appliances don't have an Italian plug, they use Schuko plugs. There are combo receptacles with 1 Italian and 1 Schuko receptacle, most power strips also take Schuko plugs and Schuko adaptors are available in every supermarket.

Your spelling was correct and I was able to translate from Italian to the following: CEI - Italian Electrical Engineering Committee

Sunday 16 March 2003

Italian Norm
CEI 31-35

Date Publication Edition
01/2001 Second
Classification Issue State
31-35 5925 In vigor

TITLE

Constructions electrical workers for potentially explosive atmospheres for the gas presence
Guide to the application of Norm CEI EN 60079-10 (CEI 31-30)
Classification of the dangerous places

SUMMARY

The present Guide supplies indications for the correct application of Norm CEI EN 60079-10 (CEI 31-30) by means of one appraisal of the characteristics of a containing atmosphere dangerous areas.

In adding to the traditional version to issues, has been published the ediz. 2001 of the VOLUME "Norms CEI for Systems electrical workers in the places with danger of esplosione"che the norms that, beyond to present the Guide and its complement CEI 31-35/A, deal of the classification, planning and execution of the systems in issue re-unite under an only cover all which the riedizione of the quarter ediz. of CEI 64-2, CEI EN 60079-10 (CEI 31-30), and moreover CEI EN 60079-14 (CEI 31-33), CEI EN 60079-17 (CEI 31-34), CEI EN 50281-1-2 (CEI 31-36), the abrogation of Norm CEI 64-2/A - that it has made followed the publication of Guides CEI 31-35 and CEI 31-35/A (ediz. 2001) - and Guide CEI Moreover in the volume they have been brought back laws, you decree and communitarian directives, for which the contained norms play an important role.

Yes, of course you should! I have a feeling that you're in for a shock... I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures!


The Italian electrical code will most likely be based on the same as the other European codes, i.e. IEC 60364 and HD 384, both of which are pretty much documents only for code writers. To this you can add a number of standards, just like the one you have quoted above. For example: CEI EN 60079 means that the Italian standard is an adoption of a European Norm 60079. (This approach with a lot of standards outside the code differs from the US NEC.)

The electrical systems used are 230/400V (but they will probably call it 220/380V) and I think the old 230V (220V) 3-phase system is still in use in some areas.

You can see the Italian plug
here

I had a look at the homepage of Taormina and it looks like the scenery deserves pictures taken too.

Tedesco means German in Italian. I wonder how long will it take before the Italians figure out Joe is in fact American?

Thanks for the advice and C-H:

When I was a kid, my friends called me: "Joe German"

I will look into some software that I can use to learn the basic language, althouh I can speak a little using gestures and other words I learned from my Grandma and Grandpa.

Any suggestions?

How do I say:

"I am an electrical inspector, can I take a picture of your electrical wiring?"

"I am an electrical inspector, can I take a picture of your electrical wiring?"

Most people try to learn to order a meal or a beer in a foreign language...

Hmm.. I could manage to ask that in French, but I'm afraid I've never learned any Italian beyond please and thank you.

I've never visited Italy either, but from my own experiences in Europe and those of others, it seems as though southern Europe pays much less attention to the standard of wiring than in the north. (Vague generalization, I know, but some of the wiring in Spain has to be seen to be believed!)

Did Italy ever use 127/220V distribution as in parts of Spain and France? If so, then there might just be somewhere where 220V outlets are run from two phases of the old-style supply instead of the more usual 220/380 wye system.

Beer and Food are easy to order, just point to the beer and page on the menu.

I was able to translate the sentence above to:

"sono un ispettore elettrotecnico, posso io prendo un'immagine dei vostri collegamenti elettrici?"

paul:

now you metion that france have old 127/220 volts system ?? yes of course they still have it in few place but going be gone pretty fast..and my point about itlitan system i have no idea about them. they have complete diffrent set of regualations compare to usa and france electrcal codes

merci marc

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).]