Peter_in_Hungary

I have checked with an electrician and it is still OK to bury cables in the plaster. It has to be the right sort of cable - double insulated - The cable sold for the purpose of embedding in the plaster is flat (to make it easier to bury) So no need to rip out an replace !!

For new installation you can choose either conduit or direct embedding.

GBA77

Thanks very much for that Peter. If I have any more hassle may I get hold of you and maybe get access to that electrician? I am also going to have a new MCB or RCB or whatever is needed fitted as well. We dont intend selling the place so would like everything spot on so as to have as little drama later as possible.

The wiring is a flat grey plastic covering with 2 insulated wires and if I recall correctly, a earth strip - but i could be mistaken on that.

We opted just for the 32 amp electrical connection. The 75 was too expensive.

I am coming across in 2 weeks and although looking forward to the holiday the 27/30 hour drive there and then back is not great. Add to that the blasted traffic problems at Dover - hope that's sorted soon.

GBA

Peter_in_Hungary

Flat grey (sometimes white) 3 core solid conductor cable is fine for burying directly in the plaster. The cable will have a blue, black and green/yellow wires covered by the outer insulation. It is the double insulation that regs require for direct burying in the plaster.

MCB and RCD are different things
MCB is a mini circuit breaker = resetable fuse
RCD is a Residual Current Device and is a safety device that measures the current flow in the line and neutral and when a difference is detected will cut off the power. They are designed to prevent electrocution.
You will probably have both, RCD just after the meter and MCBs protecting the individual circuits.

Are you having a night meter fitted (Hungarys version of E7) to heat the hot water?

32A is the standard fit up here, over that it is about 5000HUF per amp for the extra. But you get 32A on the night meter as well so you can have 32A day and 32A night rate without extra charge. The 32A limit before 'orrible expense is why not many people use electric hobs here.

GBA77

Thanks Peter.

I will check out the wiring in greater detail when I get back there.

Hot Water: I have spent many an hour thinking about this. Realistically we will only be at the house 3 or 4 times a year for about 2 weeks at a time. With this in mind I have gone for a 12l and hour LPG tank-less water heater. Time will tell if this is a good or not so good decision. A re think may be necessary when washing machines and dishwashers are fitted but they heat themselves anyway.

The cooker is dual fuel - LPG for the hob and electric ovens. With this in mind and for future use it will probably be better to fit a night meter now.

Thanks for all the info.

GBA

stargate1234

Not a good idea to bury cables or pipes in a wall. For electric cable always use conduit and then if you have a mishap and accidently drill through it or nail through it putting up a picture you can replace the damaged wire quickly without too much bother.

fidobsa

Might be worth fitting outside type sockets with covers in the bathroom. As for the RCD, I think we have had this discussion before. When I was living mostly in Hungary and just going for the odd few days to the Croatia house I kept finding the RCD had tripped while I was away. I could not understand why it should trip as at that time hardly anything in the house was earthed, just the water heater, some of the bedroom sockets and the summer kitchen + garage sockets. I eliminated the water heater by leaving it unplugged but for a long time I never used the freezer in case the RCD tripped while I was away. When they cut off the electricity at my Hungary place I started living mainly in Croatia so I did start using the small under-counter freezer. Apart from when I've been doing the rewiring work and sometimes touched the neutral and earth wires together I've never had the RCD trip while I've been at the house....up until a few days ago. We had a very violent thunder storm at night, the sort where it momentarily lights the area up like daylight. The RCD tripped not once but 3 times, a few minutes apart. I could see my neighbour was having the same problem as their lights were also going off until they reset the RCD. I suppose the lightning was putting so much energy into the ground that the RCDs were detecting it as a leakage current.

wolfi

Fidobsa, thanks - "interesting experiences" with the RCD tripping from lightning!

We never had that kind of problem, but once the RCD tripped because there was some current flowing in our little wine cellar, where there should have been none. Probably the installation was not correct for a "wet room" wher you need special stuff.

Seems to me that Hungarians don't worry too much about that - we also were very surprised finding some regular sockets outside, without lids etc ...

We of course have the advantage that our házmester looks after the house when we're not there - wouldn't want to leave a freezer full of stuff when nobody watches the house ...

A bit OT:

I've written probably already about the experiences of a friend who left his House for a few weeks in winter - with the central gas heating running, because the weather forecast said minus 25 degrees.

When I brought the wife back, the house was cold, water in the toilets was frozen and had destroyed the ceramic - even the water meter had frozen ...
I think even some radiators had leaks - three weeks at minus 20 can do a lot of damage!

The son who was supposed to go to the house for checks regularly had been partying all month in his girlfriend's apartment and didn't realise that the gas heater was malfunctioning.

Peter_in_Hungary

That is the idea of running in wall electrics on defined routes, here it is straight up or down from sockets/switches and 30 cm (I think) from the ceiling. The UK has similar defined routes. This should avoid the electrified picture hook !

With regard to nuisance tripping RCDs some places have a circuit not RCD protected for the express purpose of running things like freezers and heating boilers if thy will be away for extended periods

For bathroom sockets, switches, lights etc. there are defined areas within a bathroom and each area has the type of electrical fitting that is allowed there. Your electrician should know this, if you are DIY then look it up and use the right IP coded fitting for the area.

fidobsa

How would that be wired? In UK you would normally have a 100 amp dual pole mainswitch and the MCB for such a circuit could go directly to the output terminals of that whilst the main neutral busbar/s and the other MCBs go via one or more RCDs. Such switches do not seem to exist in Hungary so would the MCB + neutral go to the input terminals of the RCD?

blackwaterman

I'm not an electrician, so this may be a bit outdated, but in UK you could get 2 types of RCD's. One was a "voltage-operated" type relying on a good quality earth connection. The other is (still) "current operated" which depends ony on the difference between the live & neutral currents for operation. You can guess which is the more expensive, because the former were found quite susceptible to nuisance tripping due to lightning etc more so than the latter.
Regarding freezing-up, my place is a flat in Tiszaujvaros and I found it a bit odd that residents expected all occupants to maintain a reasonable standard of heating in winter, whether they were resident or not. Their logic appeared to be that they would incur greater expense if neighbouring flats weren't heated at all, while the absent flatowner benefited from their payments enough to (largely) prevent major freeze-ups.
I did the decent thing, arranging for a very modest setting all winter which seems to have kept everybody happy.