Re: Electrical wiring
 

Grenadian houses have both 220 and 110 volt wiring, 220 use rings everywhere for sockets and star lighting but if in doubt they add more rings. My 1 storey 3 bed house has 12! The outdoors of course adds at least 2.

Re: Electrical wiring
 

I rest my case.

Re: Electrical wiring
 

Not really, the 220 is uk standard, the 110 im not sure but the dist box looks like they are rings too, but of course with overblown cabling. Never use it myself, why have 110 when you have 220...

Re: Electrical wiring
 

I just rewired a Canadian caravan.
It now has 12v, 110v, 220V, and 380V.
It could be worse; I did a boat that also had 24V!

Ok, the boat did not have 110 though...

Re: Electrical wiring
 

Why 380? Does that mean you are having to observe phase separation - in a caravan?

Re: Electrical wiring
 

Yes, it's 3-phase. 10A for the water heater, 10V for the AC, 10A for the electric kettle can all run at once without trouble.
I have a 3-phase service as I have several machines that need it, but to keep the standing charge down it's only 20A for the house, shop, and caravan.
Balancing the load staves off nuisance trips.

Regarding the original topic, legally you need to have all the work done by a licensed [in Portugal] electrician, but some electricians will let you do part, like pulling the wires through and so on. The tubing [conduit] needs to be planned before your renovation [and might be part of the planning permission paperwork], and the tubing + wall boxes put in during the masonry work.
Labor [even skilled qualified labor] isn't usually expensive in the rural areas so don't worry too much.

Re: Electrical wiring
 

Interesting, so in a caravan how do you prevent people being able to touch 2 devices connected to 2 phases - with two arms for example ?

We always had to physically separate kit on different phases by more than a persons stretched out arms.

Re: Electrical wiring
 

Why should that be a problem? Everything's double insulated and grounded. Just for good measure there's a GFI [several actually].

Re: Electrical wiring
 

As people in this thread have said elsewhere - tis the rules - of course getting a hit between 2 phases is lethal, though a friend in the uk used to be a ginuwine lineman, [like the wichita one] and handled million volt lines wearing a faraday cage suit and he's still here.]

Re: Electrical wiring
 

The rules in Portugal?
Never heard of it.

Re: Electrical wiring
 

I don't about rings vs radial but I never seen plugs and sockets melting till I came to Portugal.
As for wiring, as long as you stick to the rule, Brown to green, green to black and blue to <snip>!

Re: Electrical wiring
 

Very interesting thread here and with a brilliant link to legrand.com. My wiring is poor and am considering a refit. I have 60cm walls and concrete and ceramic tiled floors to two floor. So as not to cut into the walls more than necessary I've considered burying the cables in conduit into the ground floor under and within the concrete floor. And in the case of the first floor, taking, again in conduit, cables up from the ground floor, at ceiling level, to the first floor. Does anyone know the legal requirement as to cable feeds and placement? Also, in the case of spurs, are the limits on numbers?