Journeyman Electrician

All those would be electrical DIYers should be warned that the colour code of wiring here in Canada is totally different from the UK. Also appliances are not fused at the plug hence if the appliance develops an electrical fault you could receive a big shock :curse: rather than a tingle.

The vast majority of dwellings here have 120/208v 60 Hz supplies the hot (Live) conductors are Black and Red with the neutral or identified conductor being White lastly the earth or ground is Green or Bare.

Do not bring any UK 230v 50Hz equipment as it will not work unless you have indepth electrical knowledge and can step up the voltage and the equipment is frequency tolerant.

If you are purchasing an older property ensure that the home inspection company check the electrics as some of the installation methods are antiquated and it can be seriously expensive to rewire a house. Some older electrical panels have slow acting fuse links which will allow a high current to flow before they will disconnect the power, this high current will flow from the fault location through you to ground, during this process you will receive a considerable electric shock and the wiring will be overloaded any high impedance joint could possible overheat and start a fire. Given that timber frame houses are the norm here I would recommend replacement of any fuse panel as a must to provide you with peace of mind.

Be Aware Be Safe

Steve_P

It's amazing how far a little common sense will get you when working with electricity.

Your point is well taken but it's not like we burn numerous homes a day.

It's different than what you are used to but not necessarily dangerous.

burton bunch

Just had a thought maybe the OP could contribute to the WIKI pages for Canada about electrics in homes etc - the do's and dont's.

Could be very useful to newbies on the sight when they are considering buying a home etc. ie an independent kinda reference guide instead of having to appear dense when asking realtors etc simple questions.

Gaynor

Steve_P

It might be simpler if people are going to attempt their own electrical wiring to purchase a copy of the "Electrical Code Simplified" available at almost any home improvement store.

Cheers
Steve

burton bunch

Didn't know that you could buy that Steve thanks will check out Home Depot or Totem

Gay

MB-Realtor

For those looking to buy a House, Electrics is a primary concern. I have encountered many houses with "Knob & Tube" wiring from the 40's, and Screw in Glass Fuses. Now these may be perfectly sound and pass a house inspection, BUT when you come to insure the house you will either be refused cover or have to pay more. More insurers seem to be refusing cover.

Also a lot of older homes only have an 80amp supply, (modern homes have 100 or even 200 amp supplies) and this is not enough for a modern household. It can also be a warning flag for older wiring.

Anouther often overlooked problem is Galvernised Water Pipes, these tend to develop slow leaks over time, and can cause severe damage when not noticed. Again this will pose a problem when getting house insurance.

These problems tend to show up in older ((1950's and before) Houses.

iaink

Older wiring whereever you are is an obvious concern, but to imply canadians are constantly being electrocuted by their dodgy wiring is a bit of a stretch. Its just not backed up by any statistics I can find. You can make an argument that 110V is inherently safer than 240V, but its equally spurious.

Yes, there are things you should look out for when buying here, but its not something to loose any sleep over.

Souvenir

Aluminium wiring is best avoided. It mostly occurs in 1960s houses. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with it, AFAIK, but it is hard to work with, particularly if you have a mixture of Al and Cu.

We do most of our own wiring, so far without mishap. The electrician who came in to do something we couldn't zapped himself.

Regarding voltage, and I'm no expert, I've been told that it's not the volts that kill you but the amps. I've also been told that 110 is more dangerous because you stick to it (230V pushes you away, apparently).

Steve_P

Aluminum wiring was used as late as 1972 and even later in some locales, our home has it and as you say it can be difficult to work with.

We have lived in the home for twenty years and have had no issues with the wiring overheating or shorting out. On the other hand I've had many issues with the DIY wiring done by the previous owner, very scary stuff. :curse:

When mixing copper and aluminum I was told by an electrician that you must use the purple marrette connectors.

Cheers
Steve

PeterF

Yes it's Canada not the UK.


The sockets are supplied from smaller fuses/breakers, typically 15A in my place, instead of the 20-25A in the UK.

You should be looking towards RCD's for electric shock protection in any case.

Where have you been? red/black were the colours in the UK before Brown/Blue. We also used to have the earth bare and bought sleeves for the ends to put on ourselves, actually still is true. What has changed in the UK is the earth must now be the same size conductor as the other two, used to be smaller.

Lamps already covered in other threads are no problem as long as you change the plug and ensure its an edison screw fitting so you can buy local buls. Most other things (TV excepted) would work if you wanted to have power converters scattered around your home, personally i don't.

You can have nightmare's in the UK buying 'older' properties, I agree no matter what country you are in you should have the electrics looked at.

If the wiring was old and I couldn't afford to re-wire I would at least change out the fuse box to a modern circuit breaker type with RCD protection.




You trying to frighten everyone

MarkG

Yeah, I've heard some scary stories from people over here buying older houses (e.g. from the 40s or earlier) and finding interesting burn marks around the antique power cables. Generally they've ended up completely replacing the old wiring with more modern materials.

iaink

FWIW the problem with Al wiring is its creep properties..over time connectors that were once tight become loose as the material yields under stress, resulting in sparking etc. If its doing that behind your drywall its hard to go around tightening them periodicallly as you are supposed to if you havent just ripped it out and replaced it

Home insurance is hard to come by with Al wiring as obviously there is no guarantee you are going to tighten it as you should. The other issue is galvanic corrosion due to disimilar metals if you use regular brass fittings with Al wire.

Al wiring is definitely best avoided in my opinion for those reasons

PeterF

Actually seeing people talking about those glass fuses the canadians do seem behind the times where electrical equipment are concerned.

Everything I look at seems to remind me of the UK in the 70's, then now and again something modern comes into my sight.

I'm helping design industrial control systems at the moment and constantly having to bite my tongue to stop me saying things. If any of these systems were designed by a British engineer in the UK, he'd be sacked for incompetence, safety systems seem to leave a lot to be desired.

My wife's also has a complaint, why do they always design kitchens where a deep fridge has a space made in the fitted cupboards, with a little cupboard above that she can't reach!

PeterF

They also use these little connectors, where you twist two wires together and then screw them into this little plastic covered cone.

Can't remember what they are called.

Totally illegal in the UK.

iaink

Its the Volts that jolts, and the Mils that kills....Mils being milliamps


Cast your mind back to school physics....P = IV. What that means is that for any given power requirement in Watts, you need twice as many amps for half as many volts, so Canadian homes run at higher current draws than UK ones. Thats part of the reason heavy draw items like stoves and dryers and central air and well pumps all have dedicated 220V supplies...otherwise the wiring guage for the necessary ampage would be ridiculously heavy, and a real pain to work with.


In theory protecting the whole ring main curcuit is just as safe a protecting at a device level, as long as you have the correct fuses installed, but having the correct fuse is just basic safety anyway...Im sure there are lots of 2A devices in the UK with 15A fuses installed as thats what was handy.

We have an older screw in type fuse panel, rather than replace it we just retrofitted screw in resettable fuses. No one has died yet.