Surge Protector -- Auto Detect Wire Connection? Earth?

I'm a student studying abroad for the semester. I just bought a surge protector here in Pondicherry; it is Power King brand and says "Surge Protector Auto Detect Wire Connection" on it. It is three-pronged and has six outlets with individual switches. When I plug it into the wall, a green and a red light both come on at the top. Regarding the lights, the instructions say:
Both on/earth
no connection
The device seems to indicate that it's "safe" if the green light is on and red light is off.

Any insight?? I just don't want to fry anything.

Tricia

I wouldn't worry too much about it. However perhaps you might contact the building manager/super & tell him that you are concerned that your outlet may not be 'fully' tied to ground. I would him to contact the building electrician to come with an 'outlet tester' to show/prove to you that all is indeed fine & for peace of mind.

if there is indeed no earth, what you may experience is a mild(it can hurt though) electrical discharge when you touch anything with a metal body plugged into the the device. this would even apply to the exposed metal parts of usb connectors on otherwise plastic bodied laptops.

under normal usage nothing will get fried but if there were to be a surge in the mains supply which cant escape through ground and an automatic circuit doesn't interrupt the mains supply? then something may go kaput.

Earths also protect against live current being present on that metal case in the case of something inside shorting. Or something inside something else.

Due to earth cabling being present in my house, but not actually being attached to anything, a fault in an outdoor Air-conditioning unit led a a high voltage on the case of the microwave oven in the kitchen

Whew, cutting it close Nick..

ouch.. yeah that too.

There is an earth rod buried in the garden, now. Better: the house's earth circuit is connected to it!








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Our Indian building electricians were fine. They had no formal training however & all their skills had been passed down to them via family members. I guess like many trades, an electrician's caste of sorts. Some of their tools & procedures were straight out of the Edison era. Looking back, wish I had of photographed them 'in action' ... some of what I witnessed was a tad shocking in more ways than one.

But is the garden itself earthed properly?

I heard that such earth rods are supposed to be sheathed in some cylindrical container that needs to be recharged with salt water from time to time!

I suppose having the whole Bay of Bengal nearby helps.

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So that's why the crows can't sit still!

There are earth rods and earth rods. Our is a simple steel tube ... and I ought to check it hasn't rusted away, because, one day, it will. One can put salt in the earth. there are also special mixes to bury with the rod. Ours is just simple, but it was tested. The kind of test Peak mentions: a bulb with one connection to live. It was installed by EB guys at the same time as they replaced our burnt-out supply cable. Some of these guys are actually engineers!

As to the people that wired our house: I was a fool to trust them. Never again. Even though I now have a friend who is an electrician/plumber, I'd still want to check the plans and check the work.

I wish they'd hurry up and come up with wireless for power lines.

That's an !dea. But would you really be happy with power that is 220V on an average, -- with a standard deviation of, say, 200V ?

Not that the Indian wired power supply behaves much better always!

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It is almost a caste thing. My brother in law wanted to put in a tube light. I said get a screwdriver & pliers and we'll do it. He was shocked and wouldn't hear of it. A couple of weaks later an old, moth eaten geezer stumbles in to do it, with screwdriver & pliers. My brother in law has a graduate degree in EE and has a pile of published papers. I seem to be the low caste person in the family. If I want window screens put up I do it. But, I have the only boy in this branch of the family so they tough it out..

See with wired power supplies it aint easy to borrow like say a 100 volts or so from the neighbor... might be able to do so with the wireless

Here in Goa the official earth is a galvanised steel plate about a foot square at the bottom of a (min.) 40cm hole pre-primed with a mixture of salt and charcoal (charcoal dealers here advertise 'for barbecues and earthing!), and this is connected to the supply and house earths by solid copper wire. We have 3-phase so needed two plates (don't ask).
The guy who supervised my installation is a senior manager in the electricity dept. so I asked:
Q. Doesn't the salt (plus copper/zinc electrolysis) destroy the galvanising? A. Well there are procedures for re-checking..........
Q. And anyway doesn't all the salt dissolve in the monsoons? A. Well they are well established procedur .. wandered off.

In Portugal you have a long (like 2 metres plus) galvanised spike driven into the ground as an earth (no salt).
In the UK you just connect house earth to supply earth (except - I hope - in parts of the ManWeb area where they deliver 3-wire three phase to farms etc.)

AndyD 8-)#