Seeking advice from an electrician

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Chriz1

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Good day to all the qualified electricians out there.

I am looking for some information on regulations.
I am in the planning phase of rewiring the flats on my property.

I have attached the plan on the wiring. But I have received mixed advice on this.
I am not an electrician. However, i will need to receive a certificate of compliance when I am done.

So, if you are a qualified electrician, please have a look at my diagram.
Please give me your feedback and if you can pin point me to the correct regulation I will be thankful.

Some notes on the diagram;
- There are no appliances in these rooms. So, no Kettles, Fridges and/or Microwaves.
- Mostly TV's, Alarm clocks, sound systems and charges. Here and there a laptop.
- All the lights are fitted with LED lights at I think 18W
- The geyser is 200L.
- According to my Energy Monitoring device, the geyser does not exceed 3KW.

Thanks for your responses.
 

Attachments

This work needs to be done by an electrician. All of it has to comply with SANS codes. So in spite of you saying there will be "no kettles or fridges in the bedrooms" the socket still needs to be wired to the prevailing standard. The rules have become stricter in recent years.
 
As above. You cannot assume anything about loads. If there is a power socket in the rooms, a device will be plugged into it hence the standards must be complied with.
As the work is all new, the latest standards apply regardless.
Get more than one quote. Get references and check them out.
 
2.5mm wiring for plug circuits. 5 plug points per circuit. 20a breaker. Put any new Plug points minimum 300mm from the floor.

Put your lights on seperate breakers in my opinion. 1.5mm wiring. 10a breakers should be fine for 220v LEDs.

You'll need an isolator switch with an indication LED for the geyser.

Decide where you want all of your wiring ahead of time and get a cheap labourer to do all of the grinding and chasing into the walls. This is time-consuming and expensive at an electrician's rate.

Ideally, the electrician should come to do just the wiring, db box and compliance certificate.

I'm not an electrician. This is just stuff that I remember from rewiring my place.
 
Chriz1 said:
Good day to all the qualified electricians out there.

I am looking for some information on regulations.
I am in the planning phase of rewiring the flats on my property.

I have attached the plan on the wiring. But I have received mixed advice on this.
I am not an electrician. However, i will need to receive a certificate of compliance when I am done.

So, if you are a qualified electrician, please have a look at my diagram.
Please give me your feedback and if you can pin point me to the correct regulation I will be thankful.

Some notes on the diagram;
- There are no appliances in these rooms. So, no Kettles, Fridges and/or Microwaves.
- Mostly TV's, Alarm clocks, sound systems and charges. Here and there a laptop.
- All the lights are fitted with LED lights at I think 18W
- The geyser is 200L.
- According to my Energy Monitoring device, the geyser does not exceed 3KW.

Thanks for your responses.
Click to expand...

It sounds like student accommodation?

If I lived in a room that's not attached to a kitchen, I will definitely at some point try and use a kettle.
Even if the room is too far from the kettle, as in some dorms, I will probably try and use a kettle.

I may also at some point used an immersion water heater in a kettle, as I may have been in a hurry. :whistling:
The plugs in our dorms definitely weren't wired for that.
 
The conduits and socket, lightswitch boxes etc, can be laid by yourself. As long as there's a draw wire inside an electrician will then be able to do the wiring and it should then meet SANS requirements and you will be given a COC at the end of it. So as pointed out, get your own guys/yourself to do the hard slog, then let the electrician draw the wires and do the connections. That way you will save on labour costs.
I have done this myself, with no issues.

Also note they are now full of BS about gate motors and electric fences... Got burnt by this when I sold my house in 2016. The previous owner installed the gate motor and the COC issued at the time had no issue with the gate motor... Fast forward 3 years and suddenly its a problem which cost me a fair sum to fix. They now want gate motors to be connected via a plug in the wall no longer do they accept it being wired directly to the DB with a breaker, as has been the case for decades (thanks probably to those morons who electrocuted themselves because they were stupid)
 
The idea to provide each room with separate breakers is a good one, but it does not mean that lights a sockets should be on one. The 5A breaker is not good enough.
Do your Tenant's a favour and include class II surge protection in the wiring. And where is the ELCB?
And lastly, try and avoid this twin earth rubbish idea plastered into the walls! It is a k@k idea!
 
Students will arrive with small fridges, kettles, electric irons, stove plates. Don't try and prevent this you are wasting your time.
You may even find you violating some basic rights that could be imposed on you by the institutions where they study.
If you ever intend metering power use then prepare for it now.
 
Geoff.D said:
The idea to provide each room with separate breakers is a good one, but it does not mean that lights a sockets should be on one. The 5A breaker is not good enough.
Do your Tenant's a favour and include class II surge protection in the wiring. And where is the ELCB?
And lastly, try and avoid this twin earth rubbish idea plastered into the walls! It is a k@k idea!
Click to expand...
kak idea indeed... wait until it fails... I can tell you horror stories.
They did that in Burgundy Estate in those "townhouses" there that they knocked up at speed to allow people to fleece tenants.
 
The ELCB will be included. Sorry did not sketched it in.
Thanks for the class II surge protection. I believe that will be included.
 
A few notes:
1. You can't protect a 4 mm2 cable with a 60 A breaker or with a 40 A breaker. Depending on whether the cable is enclosed in a wall, in trunking, or in open air or (installation method)... the max you're allowed to pass through a 4 mm2 cable is 37 A. You'll probably need 10 mm2 cable.

2. Depending on installation method, a 2.5 mm2 cable can handle 18 - 27 A. So instead of 5 A breakers, I'd suggest that you rather install 10 A breakers. It is safe, within regulation, and more future proof.

3. I'd suggest that you keep lights and plugs on separate circuits. It will save you cable on the lights' side and make your installation simpler. Unless you want to have measuring devices for each flat, in which case your combined approach make sense.

4. Your 40 A breaker in the sub-main DB needs to be a 2-pole breaker.

//Edit
5. Read the new posts and I agree - 5 A per room is way too little (most kettles take ~10 A). To be honest - your 40 A breaker is already a bit small. The problem will be peak use. If that geyser is on (assuming your 3 kW is true), then that's already about 13 A gone. That leaves you with 6.2 kW for the rooms. That will usually be enough, until that day that one person is using a kettle, another an iron, and a third a GhD, all at the same time. Not unsafe, but you'll probably have more nuincance tripping than you want. I'd suggest that you rather install 16 mm2 cable to the sub-DB, with 63 A breakers. Then it will also help to manage your load - a 2 kW element in the geyser will decrease the peak significantly. If you put the geyser on a timer which heats it up when most of the tenants are asleep or not at home, it will also help to avoid cases where your peak load outstrips supply.

All in all I'd recommend that you approach an electrician before you start the work. SANS 10142 has too many rules that are easy to miss and easy to break if you don't work with it often.
 
Last edited:
One time get make provision for a power backup, and plan for which/what will be backed up, and put those circuits in a sub-db.
 
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