Electrical wiring in India

**Terry** · 03-03-2013, 01:38 PM

I spent ten days in India this year.
I thought I would post a few pictures from there so that the electricians here can see how it's done in India.
Please don't try this at home!

Delhi, India

Terry and Sue doing our electrical inspecting

Yeeha!

**jadnashua** · 03-03-2013, 03:20 PM

When I lived in Jordan, it became very evident when it was damp or raining outside since you could hear all of the arcing from the horrible connections. I ended up with a motorized variac for my computer, and that would be racing from one end to the other or its range trying to keep the voltage within range (UPS's weren't readily available, and then you'd have to listen to the alarm almost constantly!).

I'm sure it's better now, but when I lived in Germany, I had one clock that used the line frequency to count time. On Friday afternoon, if you set it, by Monday it would be off a few minutes, and then slowly over the week, return to the 'correct' time as the day crew brought things back. At least things didn't arc, and the voltage stayed consistent, but you couldn't count on the frequency!

**jwelectric** · 03-03-2013, 09:08 PM

Just remember this is our IT haven for computers, all questions are answered there

hj · 03-04-2013, 09:53 AM

I wonder if they have to worry about calling it "Romex" there? Raj Computer may be the "tech help" we get when we call those brands listed.

**CanOfWorms** · 03-04-2013, 11:18 AM

This doesn't surprise me one bit.
I have an associate in Bangalore and the computer equipment she uses is often very outdated most of the software pirated.
For a while she was using a rented laptop which was about 10 years old it cost about $50 a month. She was renting it from a place like the one pictured above.
The power is intermittent and subject to surges. The internet is either small neighborhood wi-fi that people pay to play or a true connection is very expensive. It is often the case that they or their family members have intestinal issues, causing work delays, from the water which often gets contaminated during the monsoon season to the point that even people used to higher bacteria levels get sick.
Nevertheless, surge suppressors are in high demand. Her daughter got Typhus and took months to recover.
She recently told me that the major power company went under due to embezzlement of funds and that doubled everyone’s electric bill for a few months until the deficiency was corrected.

**BobL43** · 03-04-2013, 04:28 PM

I don't get it; what's wrong here?

**Dana** · 03-05-2013, 12:28 PM

More than half the power going onto the grid in India never gets metered- it's stolen, and not being able to control the load at ALL is a real problem for trying to keep the grid stable. It's pretty common for urban folks to simply toss a bare wire over an uninsulated phase of the powerline outside their window to hook into some power. If/when that phase goes down they just reel it in and throw it over a different phase wire. If they miss, and short out the phases... BAM!! Try a new piece of wire, and a different phase, after the fire goes out.

It's a testament to the cost-effectiveness & efficiency of ductless mini-split air conditioning to have such a collection of wall-mounted compressor units on the outsides of buildings in a none-too-rich developing country:

That looks like 7 window-AC units to 22 mini-splits!

Kyah aap Hindi bolte hain? (or however you latin-script it...)

Mayhaps I've watched a few too many sappy late night-Bollywood movies on NetFlix with the missus this winter- it's all starting to sound Indo-yurp-ean to me. :-) I never figured it would actually start making sense, but it kinda does. (It works and even sounds a lot more like European languages than you might think at first blush.) The repetitive lyrics pound the vocabulary into my head- 8 verses into it I turned and said with a reasonable accent & comprehension, "Tu he' mere, jannu!" ("You're mine, dearest!", or something very close to that.) It's just enough Hindi to dig myself into deep deep trouble... but not enough to dig myself back out. (Don't know squat about Bengali, Tamil, or Nepali, but Punjabi & Urdu seem to be pretty much the same as Hindi, with maybe an accent & dialect twist.)

Hindustani culture is pretty intense- I'd like to visit sometime.