Korean Style Electrical! aka burning down the house easy style!

[Seoul_lasers]

I was in North Eastern Seoul on Tuesday evening late, visiting a few colleagues, when I was
shown an aftermath of a restaurant fire. Apparently this fire started due to a running short.

Korea is on 220/240Vac 25-30A (single phase) service with individual circuit breakers usually rated for 50A. Service (main) is rated for usually 200A.

Here is what makes Korean electrical so incredibly dangerous. Most people working on Electrical have NO certification of any kind and as such fail to grasp concepts such as circuit loading and wire gauges. It's common to find 15-20ga extension wires loaded to 25-30A worth of appliances. The breakers are set to shut off long after the wires start getting hot enough to turn into the worlds largest heating element.
With the complete lack of emphasis on trades in school along with a carefree attitude, this ultimately results in many serious fires just about every month. One this past Saturday in Busan killed 9 people, including a foreign national from Bangladesh.

Say cheese. Picture time ::
This restaurant decided to run a very long extension chord into their ceiling and overload it. BRAVO! Just about won the darwin awards!
The result was a near distater for the apartments directly above them. At around 7pm on Sunday last week, thick black smoke was seen pouring from their ceiling and seconds later the ceiling partially collapsed. Yes, the ceiling is made of plastic. The pictures are of the damage to the inside of the restaurant.

 

[RyanElectro]

I was in North Eastern Seoul on Tuesday evening late, visiting a few colleagues, when I was
shown an aftermath of a restaurant fire. Apparently this fire started due to a running short.

Korea is on 220/240Vac 25-30A (single phase) service with individual circuit breakers usually rated for 50A. Service (main) is rated for usually 200A.

Here is what makes Korean electrical so incredibly dangerous. Most people working on Electrical have NO certification of any kind and as such fail to grasp concepts such as circuit loading and wire gauges. It's common to find 15-20ga extension wires loaded to 25-30A worth of appliances. With the complete lack of emphasis on trades in school along with a carefree attitude results in many serious fires just about every month.

Say cheese. Picture time ::
This brilliant restaurant decided to run a very long extension chord into their ceiling and overload it. BRAVO guys! Just about won the darwin awards!
The result was a near distater for the apartments directly above them. At around 7pm on Sunday last week, thick black smoke was seen pouring from their ceiling and seconds later the ceiling collapsed. Yes, the ceiling is made of plastic. The pictures are of the damage to the inside of the restaurant.

Plastic ceiling... multiple stories. That's some scary stuff even without a fire and subsequent toxic fumes....

 

[AnthoT]

Wow.... They should've used the more suitable wire, I think they will end up spending much more $ to fix that ceiling than the 10 feet of wire would've.....

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Wow.... They should've used the more suitable wire, I think they will end up spending much more $ to fix that ceiling than the 10 feet of wire would've.....

Common sense is CULTURALLY based. It ISN'T a universal phenomenon.

 

[TacoHerder]

And i though putting 14g wire on a 20A breaker was bad...holy crap, people need to learn how much respect electricity deserves.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

That's nuts... unfortunately it's not really limited to korea. Some of the russian wiring I've seen made me want to leave the building quickly.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Actually forgot to mention, a few weeks ago our building maintenance officer decided to jam his screwdriver into a socket to repair it. The dumbass used metal screws to fasten the socket to a cement wall and in doing so contacted the hot wire and ground. This socket is a spliced circuit to the 50A mains. There was a huge bang, and a tremendous flash. There was a little bit of a shocked look on the guys now welder burned face, IF that wasn't bad enough the maintenance officer did this 3 more times, eventually tripping the main breaker panel. You'd have thought OUR darwin award winner would have learned the first time..... but nooo.
I guess they make'em extra thick in Korea. OMG...

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

LMAO... three times? I had a similar experience myself, but I was five at the time, and did learn from the experience :tinfoil:

 

[n2stuff]

WOW. That is some scary stuff. I have seen a lot of pennies and slugs behind screw in fuses in my time. Yes over fused wires are very dangerous. I had one customer that had a 14 gauge wire that was on a 40 amp breaker (should be 15 amp). That same wire was burned ( blistered insulation ) throughout the whole house on that circuit.

 

[jimdt7]

LMAO, plastic ceiling ??? :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

Jim

 

[Fiddy]

LoL if you did that in Australia, you would goto jail for all eternity!

We have so many Australia Standards regarding electrical installations, cable selection, state regulations for wiring, testing and verification etc.

I studied them for 4 years

 

[Things]

You even bring an undersized wire near an outlet here and they'll arrest you

 

[Meatball]

Common sense is CULTURALLY based. It ISN'T a universal phenomenon.

I certainly agree with you. When my Korean roommate first moved in, we had to show him how to use a can opener, and how not to use the wrong end of a potato peeler to peel potatoes.

I think the school system there in particular requires too much book studying, and not enough of the life skills that are needed. ALL the Koreans I know in the University system have never worked an actual job before. The first job they get will be the one they earn from a degree.

My Colombian roommate on the other hand is another story. He struggles more with English, but is able to figure out everything for himself. He opens checking accounts, gets hired after job interviews, and even owns a car!

My Korean buddy... doesn't even carry a desire to figure out or even ask about what his bank statement says.

When I make it to Korea someday, I might be one of the few young men there in school that can cook.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

I certainly agree with you. When my Korean roommate first moved in, we had to show him how to use a can opener, and how not to use the wrong end of a potato peeler to peel potatoes.

I think the school system there in particular requires too much book studying, and not enough of the life skills that are needed. ALL the Koreans I know in the University system have never worked an actual job before. The first job they get will be the one they earn from a degree.

My Colombian roommate on the other hand is another story. He struggles more with English, but is able to figure out everything for himself. He opens checking accounts, gets hired after job interviews, and even owns a car!

My Korean buddy... doesn't even carry a desire to figure out or even ask about what his bank statement says.

When I make it to Korea someday, I might be one of the few young men there in school that can cook.

In regards to cooking, thats a cultural gender-role thing. But, I will say that cooking among males is getting MUCH more common here... nice for a change. If I cook in front of Grandma, she won't like it, because traditionally the males are forbidden to enter the kitchen area.
Here I quite often cook for my father and mother in law because they're pretty cool people.
I actually like cooking.
One time they came home and asked, what's that smell? I had made Kimchi-Jeon for them.
They were pretty shocked.