En bloc garage with a light (no plug socket)

[King Herald]

It may shock a few of you to learn that where I live, in the Philippines, we run 220 volts in through two power lines, but to get 110 we connect between a power line and the ground/earth line. many houses have dual voltage, as there were a million US servicemen based he for decades.

How you safely use an earth line to get 110 volts is beyond me.......

[Smiler.]

King Herald said:

It may shock a few of you to learn that where I live, in the Philippines, we run 220 volts in through two power lines, but to get 110 we connect between a power line and the ground/earth line. many houses have dual voltage, as there were a million US servicemen based he for decades.

How you safely use an earth line to get 110 volts is beyond me.......

Ahhhhhhhh!

[ruggedscotty]

King Herald said:

It may shock a few of you to learn that where I live, in the Philippines, we run 220 volts in through two power lines, but to get 110 we connect between a power line and the ground/earth line. many houses have dual voltage, as there were a million US servicemen based he for decades.

How you safely use an earth line to get 110 volts is beyond me.......

This is normal in the US Canada - I stayed in Vancouver for a while years ago and the electrical supply to the house I was in was similar to that.

The street was supplied through a single phase high voltage which run along the power poles. every few poles had a transformer that dropped this high voltage to a lower voltage, the winding in the transformer was center tapped to provide 220v 110v supply to each house fed from the transformer. These cables run from the pole through to an external meter then into the house to the breaker panel.

The house uses 110v for all the sockets and lights, either one of the 110v line and neutral can be used. some of the larger equipment like the cooker hot tub and aircon heating can be run from 220v this being to reduce the current and thus make the wiring used a bit smaller. 10amps at 110v 1.1kw where as 10amps at 220v is 2.2kw so you can see more power for a similar size cable, one of the reasons for using split panels in the US Canada.

The center tap is also grounded or earthed. so this is how they get the earth point for their power system. The earth is in reality a neutral as the earth is connected to the neutral back at the supply source. Its not used as a neutral though, the reason being so that no voltages are present on the earth in normal operation. how ever should there be a fault, the earth provides a low resistance path back to the supply so that the protection trips as quickly as possible.

[andy43]

Just to add - it now sounds like the garage is rented so I'm assuming you got permission from landlord or letting agents for your electrician to hook the garage door up to the electrical system?
I suppose you could ask the landlord to make the existing system safe, to the latest all singing all dancing requirements, but it looks like an original sixties garage block installation so it might not be a cheap fix.
For the landlord to meet regulations as the existing meters aren't within a mile of current regs his easiest option would be to disconnect the whole lot, lights and all, and fit battery Solar lights instead. Or nothing at all. Rock and a hard place!
I've used a solar panel charger to maintain charge on a car quite successfully, just sling the panel on the garage roof and run the cable down into the garage to the battery.

[Cerbhd]

Electrified garage door aside, how can it be right that the cost of the electricity used is split between the garages? A little old lady that uses nothing, your light and battery charger and the cannabis farm at the end all paying the same? I'd get on top of that when you're on the phone to your landlord

[mjb1]

Cerbhd said:

Electrified garage door aside, how can it be right that the cost of the electricity used is split between the garages? A little old lady that uses nothing, your light and battery charger and the cannabis farm at the end all paying the same? I'd get on top of that when you're on the phone to your landlord

It's highly likely that the only existing wiring in there is a single light in each garage. Worst case scenario is someone leaves their light on 24/7 and everyone ends up paying a proportion. The OP's 'electrician' has bodged in a 13A socket or wiring that was only ever designed to take a single light. I doubt very much that the landlord/managing agent or the other tenants/owners will be happy with this (they'll be sharing the other 29/30ths of what's being used).

You might only want to take a tiny amount of electricity for your battery charger, but the problem is that the next tenant/owner might see that socket and assume it's fine to run his power tools etc off it. That's why things should be done right - you know what you're dealing with, but someone else may not realise how dangerous it is.

It's unfair for one garage to have a 13A socket and the others not, and it will probably need the whole lot rewiring to bring it up to a standard. I wouldn't tell them what's been done so far (maybe even remove it completely), go to the managing agents and tell them you'd like mains power in your garage, and gauge their response. If enough of the other owners want similar, it may be something that could be sorted out of the management fees. It's going to be expensive to rewire 30 garages properly, and it's entirely reasonable to have modern 'private' meters fitted so the costs can be attributed fairly.

On the other hand, it's highly likely that your battery charger doesn't even use the earth terminal (plastic pin?), and you could well get away without any issue. As long as you make sure no one else can ever get to use that socket (when you vacate or whatever), then it's just you at potential risk.

[Cerbhd]

I'd tell the agent or landlord that you're not happy and get an assessment from a good electrician. It sounds like it needs rewiring anyway so time to bring it up to standard